Beat the GMAT: Forum Q.

A scrub jay can remember when it cached a particular piece of food in a particular place, researchers have discovered, and tend not to bother to recover a perishable treat if stored long enough to have rotted.

A. Same
B. they tend not to bother recovering a perishable treat
C. tending not to bother to recover a perishable treat it
D. tends not to bother recovering a perishable treat
E. tends not bothering to recover a perishable treat it

Between D and E, how do we decide whether to use the gerund or infinitive form of the bother ?
Is there a thumb rule or strategy with regards usage of the gerund and infinitive in general ?

Thanks.

There is no consistent rule considering gerund v. infinitive. Instead, the determination is normally made by taking the grammatical context into question. Remember, a gerund is a noun, so it will be used when the reference is to a person, place or thing. Conversely, verbs are used with the reference is to an action.

In terms of -ing verb forms v. infinitive, the determining factor is normally parallel construction. Be certain to carefully read/analyze the non-underlined part of the sentence; most frequently, this is where clues to the proper construction will be located.

In the sentence at hand, a scrub jay can remember one thing, and tends not to bother with another. Additionally, the pronoun it in choice E lacks an antecedent.

The correct answer is D

Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
:D

No problem!

If it was one thing to choose, would you choose 'to bother' or would you choose 'to recover'

THe meaning is that he/it is not bothered......blah blah..
So I pick to bother for D

THis is assuming there was another option like E, but without it..:)

yes, in this case, you'd want "to bother" rather than "bothering"

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Can someone please tell why there is no antecedent to "it" in E. Isn't "it" refering to "scrub jay" ?

Can you please help me to undertand how to choose between tend / tends?

jay....tends...

since jay is singular we need singular verb...

Question,

How to take the meaning of this sentence?

Does the scientists discovered both the behaviour of scrub jay?

Is this the right way of forming a sentence?

The scrub jay does two things: can remember... and tends not to bother...

The placement of "scientists have discovered" in the middle is interesting. To me, it indicates that scientists have discovered only that scrub jays can remember. If the researchers discovered both, I think you'd find the phrase at the beginning, like this:

Researchers have discovered that a scrub jay can remember when it cached a particular piece of food in a particular place and tends not to bother recovering a perishable treat if stored long enough to have rotted.

But we don't really have to worry too much about the intended meaning, as we might if that part of the sentence were underlined and/or moved around.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Emily,
A scrub jay can remember when it cached a particular piece of food in a particular place, researchers have discovered, and tends not to bother recovering a perishable treat.

1) to me it seems "researchers have discovered" seems to modify the place.
Should it be, a fact that the researchers have discovered. I understand its in the non underlined section but would like to learn the grammar if possible
2) is this correct "and tends not to bother to recover a perishable treat"
whats the role of "recovering" here as in with respect to tense?

thanks,
Raj

no, this is a special type of modifier that actually doesn't really have ANY effect on the surrounding sentence. it imposes no restrictions whatsoever, whether on tense, singular/plural, or anything else.

the same is true when similar types of things come at the beginning of sentences:
researchers have found that...
studies have shown that...
my friend said that...
etc.

the difference is this:
when the modifier comes in the middle of the sentence, you don't need to use the word "that" anymore (note that this modifier just says "researchers have discovered").

if i were you, i would just memorize this sort of modifier separately from other modifiers.
i would do so especially because, unlike almost all other modifiers, this one can go basically anywhere at all in the sentence (as long as you are not interrupting constructions that are supposed to be in one piece).



-ING forms aren't verbs, and so don't have a tense of their own. they just adopt the tense of the surrounding clause.

in this case, provided this problem is from a reputable official source, you can take this as proof that "to bother VERBing" is a legitimate idiomatic structure.

in fact, this may be another case in which there are two legitimate structures, but the test goes for the one that gets rid of undesirable repetition.
note that your suggested alternative contains "to" twice in the space of three words: "to bother to recover". that's considered "ugly" -- see here:

post35013.html#p35013

post35020.html#p35020

What is this sentence even talking about? What is a scrub jay?