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As U.S. nuclear attack submarines prowl their familiar haunt

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As U.S. nuclear attack submarines prowl their familiar haunt

by simplyjat » Fri May 02, 2008 3:08 am
As U.S. nuclear attack submarines prowl their familiar haunts deep within the oceans of the world these days, they increasingly are engaged in missions far different from the tasks for which they were built and for which their crews were trained over the last forty years.

(A) they increasingly are engaged in missions far different from the tasks for which they were built
(B) the missions they increasingly engage in are far different than the tasks they were built for
(C) they engage increasingly in missions that differ significantly from the tasks they were built for
(D) the missions they engage in are increasingly different than the tasks for which they were built
(E) they increasingly engage in missions far different than the tasks for which they were built

OA A
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by VP_Jim » Fri May 02, 2008 6:15 pm
Hi Simplyjat,

This question requires knowledge of proper idioms and the use of parallel construction in the sentence. The correct idiom, in this case, is the phrase, "X is different from Y," and not "different than," as some of the choices show. Thus, answers B, D, and E can be eliminated. Next, the original sentence states, "and for which their crews were trained," so the underlined portion needs to have parallel structure in order to be correct. As you can see, only answer A does this, by using the phrase, "for which they were built" to refer to "tasks."

Hope this helps!
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by drgmatIL » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:01 am
increasingly is not adverb of manner and need to be after the verb?
why increasingly is come before "are" and not after it

thanx
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by clawhammer » Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:30 am
I agree 100% with simplyjat.

Of the following:

they increasingly are engaged in ...
they are increasingly engaged in ...

The first one is VERY awkward. Are we okay to use this type of use? Shouldn't it be like the 2nd one?

If you compare the awkwardness of "Different from" vs "Different than" with the awkwardness of the above construction, how would I choose an option???
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by ankurmit » Sat Sep 18, 2010 7:02 am
clawhammer wrote:I agree 100% with simplyjat.

Of the following:

they increasingly are engaged in ...
they are increasingly engaged in ...

The first one is VERY awkward. Are we okay to use this type of use? Shouldn't it be like the 2nd one?

If you compare the awkwardness of "Different from" vs "Different than" with the awkwardness of the above construction, how would I choose an option???
I also agrre with Clawhammer.

A has awkward sentence formation.
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by niksworth » Sat Sep 18, 2010 10:20 am
clawhammer wrote:I agree 100% with simplyjat.

Of the following:

they increasingly are engaged in ...
they are increasingly engaged in ...

The first one is VERY awkward. Are we okay to use this type of use? Shouldn't it be like the 2nd one?

If you compare the awkwardness of "Different from" vs "Different than" with the awkwardness of the above construction, how would I choose an option???
1. they increasingly are engaged in ... (adverb before verb)
2. they are increasingly engaged in ... (adverb in between auxiliary and main verb - something called a split verb)

Split verbs are similar to split infinitives. However, split verbs have far greater acceptance in grammar circles than split infinitives. One should never rule out a sentence just because the verb has been split by an adverb. So both of the above constructions are grammatical.

However, the author of sentence in question prefers a non split verb to a split verb. That is his prerogative.

Different from is always better than different than. Idiomatically, different from never meets an objection, and is thus preferable.

As an aside - Split verb caused a comedy of errors during President Obama's swearing in ceremony. Google it out to have a good laugh.
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by ankurmit » Sun Sep 19, 2010 7:10 am
Thanks Niksworth for making me understand.
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