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Earthquake

by jain2016 » Sun Feb 21, 2016 5:36 am
Geologists believe that the warning signs for a major earthquake may include sudden fluctuations in local seismic activity, titling and other deformations of the Earth's crust, changing the measured strain across a fault zone and varying the electrical properties of underground rocks.

A) changing the measured strain across a fault zone and varying

B) changing the measurements of the strain across a fault zone, and varying

C) changing the strain as measured across a fault zone, and variations of

D) changes in the measured strain across a fault zone, and variations in

E) changes in the measurements of the strain across a fault zone, and variation among

OAD

Hi Experts ,

Please explain.


Many thanks in advance.

SJ
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by jain2016 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 10:02 am
Hi Mitch, Marty, Fabio, Brent, David, Rich.....etc. looking forward to hear from you.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ
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by KarenVH » Mon Feb 22, 2016 10:19 am
The first thing to notice is that this is a parallelism question. They throw in the word "tilting", which could mislead you into thinking that "changing...varying" would be parallel, but another phrase in the sequence -- "fluctuations and other deformations" -- makes it clear that we need a noun to maintain parallelism. Therefore, A, B and C are out. This is a good example of why you need to gather all the clues you can to determine what is parallel to what, rather than grab one clue and run with it.

D is better than E in terms of meaning -- the issue at hand is changes in the strain, not changes in the measurement, for one thing. Second, "variations in" is better than "variation among", because the geologists are looking for variations in (i.e. of) the electrical properties, which is expressed perfectly by the standard phrase "variations in." "Variation among" is not as clear here because it's singular (as if they're looking for a single abstract property of variation) and because "variations among" is usually used to describe populations or groups within which one is looking for variations -- as in "variations among bacteria" -- rather than the actual properties that one is examining for variations.
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by jain2016 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:33 pm
Hi Karen ,

Thanks for your reply.

Just one question, if we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier, then what TILTING refers to?

Also please advise that why we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier?

Also correct me if am wrong.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ
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by jain2016 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:37 pm
Hi Karen ,

Thanks for your reply.

Just one question, if we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier, then what TILTING refers to?

Also please advise that why we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier?

Also correct me if am wrong.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 24, 2016 7:01 am
Just one question, if we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier, then what TILTING refers to?

Also please advise that why we don't have to see TILTING as a modifier?

Also correct me if am wrong.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ
Context will always determine if you're dealing with a noun or an adjective. For example: Swimming is fun. Here, "swimming' is the subject of the sentence and functions as a noun. But now consider Swimming in the ocean, Dave became nervous that he was surrounded by sharks. In this case, "swimming" is functioning as an adjective that modifies "Dave," who is the subject of the main clause.

A few more examples: When she's on vacation, Amy enjoys badminton, swimming, and tennis. In this case, "Swimming" appears in a list of nouns. It's logical to conclude that "swimming" is functioning as a noun. But if we saw In the rapids, Amy began to struggle, swimming against the tide, "swimming" follows a full clause and seems to modify the subject of the previous clause "Amy." In this case "swimming" functions as adjective. Context is everything.
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