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By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were

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By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were

by BTGmoderatorRO » Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:57 am
By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.

(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b

Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
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by ErikaPrepScholar » Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:57 pm
First, we want to address issues of parallelism and sentence structure. In A, B, and C, we have

"By recording ... and then digitizing and analyzing ..., a team of scientists ..."

"recording", "digitizing", and "analyzing" are all things that the team did, and they are all parallel. However, in D and E, we have

"By recording ... and then the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed ... a team of scientists ..."

Now the second part of our modifier isn't parallel with the first. So we can rule out D and E.

A and C we can rule out for a different instance of parallelism - when we see "not ... but", we know we are comparing two things, and the things we compare must be parallel.

A. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."

B. "... a team of scientists found that the noise was NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."

C. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT to be BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."

Only B mirrors the past tense "consistent" with the past tense "was".
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Apr 01, 2018 6:04 am
BTGmoderatorRO wrote:By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.

(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b

Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
A, C and E: By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, a team of scientists found the noise.
The phrase in red distorts the intended meaning.
When the crinkled wrappers were STRETCHED OUT, the noise was not found; it was CREATED.
Eliminate A, C and E.

D: By recording the noise...and then the sound emissions were digitized
Here, the blue portion is a MODIFIER, while the red portion is a CLAUSE.
The result is a lack of parallelism.
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is B.
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by Akrita@Jamboree » Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:42 am
BTGmoderatorRO wrote:By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.

(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b

Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
I am happy to help. This is a question testing Parallelism. Here, we want to put two sets in parallel - "By recording....and digitizing and analyzing" AND "not...but consisted.."

Since, after but, we have a verb - 'consisted' - we need a verb ( was..') after not. This leaves us with B and D. In D, 'were digitized and analyzed' is not parallel to 'recording'. This leaves us with B.

(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
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