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A serious doubt on a simple concept!!!!

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A serious doubt on a simple concept!!!!

by [email protected] » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:14 am
Diabetes ranks as the nation's third leading cause of the death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

Diabetes ranks as the nation's third leading cause of the death, surpassing only by heart disease and cancer.


There is a serious doubt that I have in the above two sentences and I still feel that the 1st sentence is wrong and the second one is correct.

The first sentence is modifying death which is incorrect. Since 'ed' modifiers, modifies the preceding noun, death is the preceding noun...

Could any of the experts please explain this doubt...
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:55 am
[email protected] wrote:Diabetes ranks as the nation's third leading cause of the death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

Diabetes ranks as the nation's third leading cause of the death, surpassing only by heart disease and cancer.


There is a serious doubt that I have in the above two sentences and I still feel that the 1st sentence is wrong and the second one is correct.

The first sentence is modifying death which is incorrect. Since 'ed' modifiers, modifies the preceding noun, death is the preceding noun...

Could any of the experts please explain this doubt...
Please note that the correct idiom here is cause of death, not cause of THE death.

In the OA, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer modifies the immediately preceding noun phrase third leading cause of death. What is surpassed only by heart disease and cancer? The nation's third leading cause of death -- namely, DIABETES.
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by sam2304 » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:27 am
-ING modifiers modifies the entire clause if preceded by a comma
-ING modifiers modifies the preceding noun or noun phrase if there is no comma

-ED modifiers always modify the preceding noun or noun phrase

'death' is not the noun here in the first sentence. As explained by Mitch, it is nation's third leading cause of death - this is a noun phrase. Don't consider prepositional phrases as modifiers or pronoun antecedents. Hope this helps !!
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