As the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.

A.
B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
C. The honeybee's stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes
D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing
E. The honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes

Please help me analyze this argument.

Thanks.
Prince

IMO E is the correct answer

Prince,

As there are few clear "splits" among the answer choice, I will walk you though my process of elimination for each individual answer choice.

A. As the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.
-In this choice, staying where it is inserted is a modifier that provides additional information about the stinger. Thus, the information following the modifier, prefaced with "this results," does not correctly refer to anything in the sentence (if anything, it describes the stinger itself, rather than the fact that the stinger stays where it is inserted)

B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
-Since each clause is introduced by "connecting" punctuation ("as" and "with") this sentence contains no subject.

C. The honeybee's stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes
-Similar to choice A, this choice uses the modifier heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted to describe the stinger. By removing this modifier (The honeybee's stinger results in the fact that ...), it becomes obvious that the sentence incorrectly states that the stinger itself, rather than the properties of the stinger, results in something. Moreover, the phrase "the fact that" is awkward and unnecessary.

D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing
- This choice incorrectly equates the verbs stays and results. However, the sentence intends to indicate that the result is due to fact that the stinger stays where it is inserted.

E. The honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
-CORRECT. This choice clearly states that the stinger (subject) stays (verb), resulting in particularly poor circumstances for the honeybee!

-dan

Hi Guys,

Great explanation Dan... but I still couldn't understand the problem with choice D properly...
isn't that the intended meaning...that the stinger stays and therefore results in XYZ...

Also is it correct to have this structure : "stinging causing" ..

Thanks,
Sputnik

you can't have 'results in NOUN GERUND'.
technically, you can't ever follow a noun with a gerund; you actually have to use the possessive form of the noun with the gerund (so this would have to be something unappetizing like 'the act of stinging's causing...'). that's just plain terrible* - according to me, the gmat, and just about everyone else - and so you likely won't ever encounter NOUN + GERUND in a correct answer, ever.

the other problem in (d) is that 'and' sets up a parallel structure, implying that the stinger 'results in' blah blah blah. that's not correct, though; it's the fact that the stinger stays where it is inserted that causes all the trouble. the use of an adverbial modifier - as in choice (e) as well as the incorrect choice (b) - conveys this meaning correctly.