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Is OG explanation for opt E incorrect?

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Is OG explanation for opt E incorrect?

by crackgmat007 » Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:07 pm
Five fledgling sea eagles left their nests in wester scotland this summer, bringing to 34 the number of wild birds sucesfully raised since transplants from norway began in 1975.

a. bringing
b. and brings
c. and it brings
d. and it brought
e. and brought

Although I got the answer correct, I wanted to make sure I know the rules clear. I checked OG explanation for option E and saw that it is grammatically correct but not a logical one. Is option E grammattical?

Excerpt from OG
'Five eagles' can be a grammatical subject of the verb 'brought', but not a logical one.

IMO, comma followed by a connecting word joins two independent clauses. Here if we replace option E, the second independent clause lacks a subject or a referrant.

Initially, I thought it may be a list of items and hence grammatical...Five Fledgling sea eagles left...brought...But comma before 'and' creates two independent clauses.

May be I am missing something. Pls explain.

Five Fledgling sea eagles left their nests in western Scotland this summer, and brought.....
Last edited by crackgmat007 on Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:32 pm
Received a PM asking me to respond.
comma followed by a connecting word joins two independent clauses
I don't actually see a comma at all in the problem you posted, though. Was there supposed to be a comma after the word "summer"? I'll assume so (and, in future, please proof any problems you post before hitting that submit button - little typos can make a big difference on SC!).

So, there are multiple circumstances in which it would be appropriate to use "comma and" but answer E does not contain any of them.

Five eagles left their nests, and brought to 24 the number of birds...

No good. You can have "comma and" if you've got two independent clauses (which we don't have), or a list of 3+ things (which we don't have), or even a modifier stuck in the middle of the sentence (which we also don't have).

An example of the modifier thing might be:

Five eagles left their nests, tucked away in a secluded area, and brought...

So, yes, we have a "comma and" but that's because we need two commas to enclose the "tucked away" modifier. The word after the second comma just happens to be "and."

Anyway, back to this sentence. If we take E as is, we've got:

Five eagles left their nests, and (five eagles) brought to 34 the number of birds...

Just look at the second part:
Five eagles brought to 34 the number of birds successfully raised.

Did the five eagles themselves actively bring about the result? No. The fact that the eagles left their nests, that action, is what brought to 34 the number... That's why OG said E is illogical. The birds themselves didn't bring anything about.
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by vineetbatra » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:21 pm
Stacey,

The OG says that C has incorrect tense, can you please explain this.

Thanks,

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by crackgmat007 » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:35 pm
IMO, in C, pronoun 'it' lacks referrant. If 'it' were to refer to subject of first clause, there is number agreement error (singular vs plural subject). Further, the resulting meaning is distorted as stated in Stacey's post (below is the exceprt).
Did the five eagles themselves actively bring about the result? No. The fact that the eagles left their nests, that action, is what brought to 34 the number... That's why OG said E is illogical. The birds themselves didn't bring anything about.
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:38 am
Good response, crackgmat007.

The tense issue in C:
C uses "brings," which is present tense. But the earlier verb is past tense ("left"). We can't just change tenses whenever we want - there has to be a reason to switch tenses.

I went to the store and buy some milk.

Doesn't make sense, right? "went" is past and "buy" is present - but there's no reason given in the sentence to switch to present. I'd have to say "I went to the store adn bought some milk."

Or, I could say: I went to the store, but the store was out of milk, so I will have to go to a different store tomorrow. Now, I changed tenses with "will" - but there's an acceptable reason to do so.
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by vineetbatra » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:51 am
Thanks Stacey and Crackgmat007.

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by tanviet » Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:09 am
Dear Stacey

"and+comma" can not be used to connect a separate action. only "and" is used to do so

Pls, read, question 104 OG11 for this matter. the explanation of D declare my point.

I wish you give us more on "and +comma)
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