1000SC no:249

The disease does 2 things at the same time-- afflicting some and sparing others

Afflicts some while sparing others. Option E??

p.s. am guessing the underlined part is "though it spares"

ferium wrote:Doctors still know little about how the Listeria bacterium is spread and why the disease it causes, listeriosis, afflicts some people in a contaminated area though it spares many others.

(A) though it spares
(B) where it spares
(C) despite sparing
(D) when sparing
(E) while sparing

i could not solve it.
need help
Thanks

E looks to be correct.

+1 for E

Doctors still know little about how the Listeria bacterium is spread and why the disease it causes, listeriosis, afflicts some people in a contaminated area though it spares many others.

(A) though it spares
(B) where it spares --------> awkward
(C) despite sparing --------> despite is wrong because it should be used when a contradiction is required for example: despite doing this he did this
(D) when sparing -----------> awkward
(E) while sparing

(A) though it spares
(B) where it spares
(C) despite sparing
(D) when sparing
(E) while sparing
The potential answers that might seem tempting are A , C ,E
Grammatically all seem ok . Now the correct answers hinges on Meaning . though and despite should have been used if the author intended to convey that sparing some people would have led to sparing the rest too . This doesnt make sense. I know this sounds abstract and will take some figuring out to understand what i am trying to say .
What we need is an option ie E that gives us an idea of both the events taking place side by side

Doctors still know little about how the Listeria bacterium is spread and why the disease it causes, listeriosis, afflicts some people in a contaminated area though it spares many others.

(A) though it spares Doesn't it point to listeriosis?
(B) where it spares : where is properly placed, it points to listeriosis but makes the meaning awkward.
(C) despite sparing : Despite is used against nouns. (Recently read in some post)
(D) when sparing : when is awkward describing time. we don't have any event specific to some time.
(E) while sparing : while (simulatneously) sparing .. gives the best meaning to sentence.

Between A and E.

I thought, though it spares matches with it points and chose A

The reason I dropped E was because of sparing. I believe since we are talking about simple present here, it is inappropriate to use sparing (present continous).

Can anyone please help me understand this?

Snip

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:Doctors still know little about how the Listeria bacterium is spread and why the disease it causes, listeriosis, afflicts some people in a contaminated area though it spares many others.

(A) though it spares Doesn't it point to listeriosis?
(B) where it spares : where is properly placed, it points to listeriosis but makes the meaning awkward.
(C) despite sparing : Despite is used against nouns. (Recently read in some post)
(D) when sparing : when is awkward describing time. we don't have any event specific to some time.
(E) while sparing : while (simulatneously) sparing .. gives the best meaning to sentence.

Between A and E.

I thought, though it spares matches with it points and chose A

The reason I dropped E was because of sparing. I believe since we are talking about simple present here, it is inappropriate to use sparing (present continous).

Can anyone please help me understand this?

Sparing is a noun here (gerund) not a verb representing present continuous tense...for -ing form to be a verb we must use is, are, was etc before it...

Thanks ..

How can we know whether sparing is acting as a noun or verb?

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:Thanks ..

How can we know whether sparing is acting as a noun or verb?

for any -ing form to be a verb we must use is, are, was etc before it...otherwise they act as either a noun or an adjective..

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