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Active underwater faults are observed carefully, tectonophys

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Active underwater faults are observed carefully, tectonophys

by aditya8062 » Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:19 pm
Active underwater faults are observed carefully, tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust.

A. carefully, tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust

B. carefully, whereas tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the Earth's crust's movements

C. carefully; the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation are monitored by tectonophysicists so that they can predict the movements of the Earth's crust

D. carefully; tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust

E. by tectonophysicists who carefully monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict when the movement of the Earth's crust occurs

my doubt: i am not finding any solid reason to eliminate C . i feel that "they" can very well refer to "tectonophysicists" .

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by Uva@90 » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:42 am
aditya8062 wrote:Active underwater faults are observed carefully, tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust.

A. carefully, tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust

B. carefully, whereas tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the Earth's crust's movements

C. carefully; the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation are monitored by tectonophysicists so that they can predict the movements of the Earth's crust

D. carefully; tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict the movements of the Earth's crust

E. by tectonophysicists who carefully monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation to predict when the movement of the Earth's crust occurs

my doubt: i am not finding any solid reason to eliminate C . i feel that "they" can very well refer to "tectonophysicists" .

thanks
Hi Aditya,

In Option C, 'THEY' can refer to both 'physical processes' and 'tectonophysicists'. Hence C wont be the correct option.

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Uva
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by [email protected] » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:25 pm
Hi aditya8062,

Another problem with answer C is that it's written in "passive voice." As a general rule, you should write, speak and answer SCs in "active voice." There are some rare exceptions of course, but if given the choice between....

C: "the physical processes that underlie tectonic formations are monitored BY technophysicists..."

and

D: "tectonophysicists monitor the physical processes that underlie tectonic formation..."

...then you should choose D (assuming that there are no other errors, of course).

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by aditya8062 » Mon Sep 01, 2014 10:19 pm
hi rich
well i really do not think that GMAC prefers active voice over passive voice. even RON has stated that voice preference is really not a reason to eliminate an answer choice .in fact he has given a very nice data from OG where passive voice options had more correct answers than does active voice construction

ALSO pronoun ambiguity does not seems a very big reason to eliminate an answer choice. there are number of OG problems where GMAC has tolerated pronoun ambiguity .also if we see logically then "they" can only refer to "tectonophysicists"
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by iongmat » Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:43 pm
Hi Aditya, Rich is also an expert and has been doing a great job at helping us.

I believe what he intends to say is that everything else remaining the same, active voice should be preferred.

OG at multiple times confirms that unless there is a specific "reason" (primarily when the "agent performing the action" is not important), passive voice should not be used.

For example, in OE for option D for question 16 in OG-13: there is no reason to use passive voice.
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by aditya8062 » Tue Sep 02, 2014 12:21 am
Hi Aditya, Rich is also an expert and has been doing a great job at helping us.
kindly do not make unwarranted inferences from my statements . i was just citing some fact

I believe what he intends to say is that everything else remaining the same, active voice should be preferred.
this is exactly what i am saying is a bone of contention . in fact u will be surprised to know that when the issue of voice is ever a contention in OG questions then passive voice is correct more number of times!! --->refer to "nice data" ,which i have refereed in my previous post

For example, in OE for option D for question 16 in OG-13: there is no reason to use passive voice.
huh, it is better if we do not talk about solution of OG . they are self contradictory not once but many times .
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by iongmat » Tue Sep 02, 2014 1:51 am
Hello Aditya, I don't think it might be a good idea to trash the official explanations altogether. In fact, if there is something that is mentioned "repeatedly" in the explanations, I would think it is very likely correct.

Also, if you could give a link that that "nice data" post (in case you have it), it might benefit a lot of people like me.
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