Restoring fishing grounds

[goelmohit2002]

Hi All,

In the below question, the OA is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]. Although the only best option that looks is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]. But can someone please help me understand how it is a correct ?

As per my understanding towing and sinking are not parallel activities. Sinking follows towing and not vice versa. But with the correct answer these two activities are becoming parallel.

To restore fishing grounds damaged by pollution, marine engineers can create an artificial reef by towing old barges to an offshore location and sinking to the sandy bottom.

a. and sinking
b. and sinking them
c. and sinking it
d) where it sinks
d. having sunk them

Thanks
Mohit

[ssilver0210]

The key here is to understand that you are looking for a plural pronoun to replace the plural noun "barges." That eliminates A, C, D.

E provides an improper verb tense, so B is the correct response.

[goelmohit2002]

Thanks.

But as per per my understanding of the above sentence, towing and sinking are not parallel activities. Sinking follows towing and not vice versa. But with the correct answer these two activities are becoming parallel.

Please tell what I am missing here.

[krishnakumarhod]

I dont know grammer rules for this one but this is the way i understand it

To restore fishing grounds damaged by pollution, marine engineers can create an artificial reef by towing old barges to an offshore location and sinking to the sandy bottom.

a. and sinking //Towing something then sinking what
b. and sinking them
c. and sinking it //barges is plural so it 'singular' cant be used
d) where it sinks //here it seems that the barges sink themselves
d. having sunk them //this looks like as though the sinking happened b4 the barges were towed

hope this helps

[goelmohit2002]

yes, the best among the lot looks to be "B".

But my question is say between "B" and C".

B) IMO has parallelism issue. -> Please correct if I am wrong here.
C) has pronoun agreement issue -> "it-> barges"

So, we have to say choose between "B" and "C". Kindly tell why are we preferring to keep the parallelism issue sentence (i.e. "B") as best answer rather then say pronoun agreement issue( i.e. "C").

Why the priority of parallelism issue "lower" then pronoun agreement issue?

Thanks
Mohit

[pakaskwa]

Hi Mohit,
IMO, parallelism is a gramatical idea, not a physical idea. It's about the placement and tense of the verbs (or nouns), not about their logical/actual sequence or meaning.

On OG page 634, the definition of parallelism is:
"...the different elements in the sentence balance each other"

Here's the example they used:
I took a bath, went to sleep, and woke up refreshed.

Clearly, one has to sleep first before he can wake up, but grammartically, "sleep" and "wake up" are perfectly parallel. I.E, "towing" and "sinking" are parallel regardless which action is first.

[goelmohit2002]

I am also confused on this.

Please refer to example that Manhattan gives on page#79 of Manhattan SC guide. There Manhattan clearly says that "Only the sentences that are logically parallel must be structurally parallel".

They have given one example too:

1. Correct: Ken traveled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods and learning about new cultures.
2. Incorrect: Ken traveled around the world, visited historic sites, ate native foods and learned about new cultures.

The reason Manhattan gives is that verb tenses visiting, eating, and learning are parallel but main verb "travelled" is not parallel to these verb tenses. And sentence#2 above distorts the meaning of the sentence by giving "equal" emphasis to all activities instead of making the last three activities subordinate to the main activity.

Probably I am missing something or mixing two different ideas in "towing" --> "sinking" case.

Please help.

Thanks
Mohit

[pakaskwa]

Hi Mohit,
The example you mentioned is not about parallelism. They are participial phrases, modifying Ken. They are two different grammartical concepts and should not be mixed.

Example
Tom sat there for two hours, thinking about what he should do next.
Or
Thinking about what he should do next, Tom sat there for two hours.

Compare with your example:
Ken traveled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods and learning about new cultures.
Or
Visiting historic sites, eating native foods and learning about new cultures, Ken travelled around the world.

Here's another example,
Running down the street, Ken tripped and fell.
tripped and fell are parallel, but running down the street is a participial phrase modifying Ken. It serves different grammatical function in the sentence.

[pakaskwa]

Another suggestion:

In case there are discrepancies between OG and other materials such as Princeton Review, Kaplan, or Manhattan, it's better to follow OG. After all, they make the rules.

For the issues we discussed above, they are not discrepancies. They are differenct topics. One is parallelism, the other is participial phrase.

[goelmohit2002]

Thanks pakaskwa. Things becoming quite clear now.

If let's say we have to choose between the following two options only("D" is a bit modified by me in the below)...in the original question, then which one is better and why ?

To restore fishing grounds damaged by pollution, marine engineers can create an artificial reef by towing old barges to an offshore location and sinking to the sandy bottom.

b. and sinking them
d. where barges sink

I have not put "they" in "B" in order not to create the pronoun reference ambiguity with they -> engineers/barges.

Thanks
Mohit

[goelmohit2002]

Experts Kindly help !!!

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

Experts Kindly help !!!

I'm really not sure what further help you need - pakaskwa has done a great job so far in explaining why (b) is correct.

Perhaps "and then sinking them" would be superior to (b), but it's not among the choices. (b) fulfils all the rules of grammar and style.

"where they sink" changes the meaning of the sentence - it ascribes the power of self-sinking to the barges. In the original, it's the engineers who "do" the sinking, so that's the meaning we want to maintain in the correct choice.

[goelmohit2002]

Thanks Stuart . I was of the opinion that barges sink automatically.

Thanks for clearing the doubt.