Fusion-power

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Fusion-power

by amysky_0205 » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:52 pm
Were it not for the fusion-powered heat and radiation that rush from its core, instead its own weight would cause a star to collapse.

A. instead its own weight would cause a star to collapse
B. instead a star would have collapsed under its own weight
C. a star would have to be collapsing under its own weight
D. a star would collapse under its own weight
E. its own weight would have caused a star's collapse

OA: D

Is instead wrong here?
and i would like to know what's wrong with other options~
thank u so much!
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by sana.noor » Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:06 am
the original sentence says that "Were it not for the fusion-powered heat and radiation that rush from its core" whose core? a star core. So reject A, B abd E....the first sentence is describing a star. After comma, the independent clause is required with the main subject "a star". Now in C "would have to be collapsing" is totally wrong. only D is the option that is grammatically right and clear in meaning.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:38 am
sana.noor is correct that we need an independent clause beginning with "a star" after the dependent clause containing "its core."

To your question about "instead"... this is an issue of verb tense ordering. The construction "were it not" is a subjunctive construction that must be paired with a conditional:

Were it not for X, Y would happen.

Or: Y would happen were it not for X.

Because that verb tense already implies that something would happen if not for something else, the "instead" is redundant.

See my other post about "were it not" here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/an-internati ... tml#554156
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EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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