Sentence Correction

I think we should ask Stacey why A is wrong. This is from GMATPrep. We should study carefully

duongthang wrote:I think we should ask Stacey why A is wrong. This is from GMATPrep. We should study carefully

I second this - I cannot come up with clear reason to eliminate A.

Stacey - can you help us out with this? Thanks in advance!

Since the start of space age, more and more littering has occured in orbits near Earth, often because of the intentional discarding of lens caps, packing material , fuel tanks and payload covers.
a) more and more littering has occured in orbits near Earth, often because of
b) orbits near Earth have become more and more littered , often from
c) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from
d) there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of
e) there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with

What I did:

1. GMAT does not like "there is/there are" type sentences.
=> This rules out D and E.
2. Since + Time + Present perfect tense.
=> This rules out C and E.
3. What is the meaning of litter?
toss or dump garbage in an unauthorized place; scatter objects in disorder; give birth to young (of animals); line with straw or hay

Littering = action of dumping garbage.

=> Option A makes the sentence ambiguous. So, We are left in B.

Answer is B.

Hey Sonu,

You make a good point. Essentially, "Since" triggers a timeframe of something that began in the past and ran to the current moment. This is the present perfect timeframe. This is why you typically see has/have. Present perfect is constructed with the helper verb "to have" in the present + the past participle of the main verb. for instance: Since this morning, I have been sick.

The answer to this question is C. This is QID 2324

-Patrick

FINAL SOLUTION AT ONE PLACE:

Since the start of the space age, more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because the intentional discarding of lens caps, packing material, fuel tanks, and payload covers.
(A) more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because
(B) orbits near Earth have become more and more littered, often from
(C) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from
(D) there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of
(E) there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with


The original question from GMAT-Prep contains 'because', not 'because of'. Check the attached image.
Explanation:

A. 'Because' is always followed by a clause; 'Because of' is followed by a noun.

Imagine the two statements:

Because he was ill, he could not come.

Because of his illness, he could not come.

Here, 'he was ill' is a clause and 'his illness' is a noun.

In option A, whatever is written after 'because' (the intentional discarding of lens caps, packing material, fuel tanks, and payload covers) is a noun. So option A cannot be correct.

B. Correct

C. 'Since' implies present perfect tense or present perfect continuous tense; we cannot write 'became' as a simple past tense verb.

D. The word 'littering' is a singular noun; we cannot use the word 'have', which is a plural verb.

E. 'Since' implies present perfect tense or present perfect continuous tense; we cannot write 'had been' as a past perfect tense verb.

Further discussion:

Even if Choice A had 'because of' it wouldn't have conveyed the right meaning. If I say that littering occurred 'because of' the intentional discarding of those items, that implies that the intentional discarding WASN'T the actual littering. Instead, it means that the intentional discarding set into motion a chain of events that LED to the littering.

For instance:

'The U.S. entered World War II because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.' -- Correct: the bombing was an event that then LED to the U.S. decision to enter the war, but did not constitute the war itself.

'The U.S. destroyed Hiroshima because of dropping a nuclear bomb.' -- Incorrect: this sentence wrongly implies that the dropping of the bomb LED to some future event in which the U.S. destroyed Hiroshima, rather than that the dropping of the bomb WAS the actual event that destroyed Hiroshima.

In #C there's no NOUN that serves as the focus of the modifier 'resulting from...' (an adjective-type modifier). It's intended to modify the general idea that the orbits have become littered, but there's no NOUN that signifies the littering.

"X because of Y" means that action Y was the cause of action X, but IS NOT THE SAME THING as action X.

For instance,

More littering has occurred because of the lax enforcement of laws against littering --> this makes sense.

More littering has occurred because people have been throwing bottles along the side of the road --> doesn't make sense (these are two descriptions of the SAME action - they are not cause and effect).

"resulting from" can only be used to describe nouns. It can't be used as an adverbial modifier.

The original post has been discussed well by RON in the following thread:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sin ... t1639.html

The final solution above is nothing but a replica of the discussions in the above post. Please stop plagiarizing someone's else solution and posting as your own. A link to the above thread would have simply done.