Sentence Correction

Among farmers, most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water stems from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts.


(A) stems from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements that

(B) stems from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds that are also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements, and they

(C) stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements, and

(D) stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds that are also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements and that

(E) stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements, and they

Plural Subject(Problems) needs a Plural Verb(Stem)- Eliminate A & B

E - They - not sure if it is referring to compounds or sources(rainwater, soil)
D - That is repeatedly used - redundancy
C - Correct

IMO D

First, i like this question and thanks for sharing

Op B and Op E---> easily eliminate because of ambiguous pronoun "THEY"

Op A ---> tricky one

The word "THAT" after "liquid mineral supplements" suggests that, its the liquid mineral supplements that are necessary for proper plant growth....well logically seems okay but the intended meaning which the author wanna assert is its micronutrients-compounds that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts. see, its tough to eliminate but the use of word "BUT" in the non underlined portion indicates a need for contrast...so drop this choice.

Op C:-- Again a tricky..

This sentence, if u dissect...as AND is a parallelism indicator, u actually get

most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water stems... AND most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water are....u got the flaw...

Op D---> correct answer

Here u get THAT and THAT parallelism...if u dissect u get

micronutrients-compounds that are....AND micronutrients-compounds that are....both sides parallel

Hence D

A,B out.
E- they - out
Bet C and D, C uses and as parallel indicator while D uses that.
when i read C the last non underlined part doesnt make much snese. it shud actaully refer to the nutrients (nutrients are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts.)

where as D uses that wisely and makes it all clear.

D.

You can easily throw out ABC because of the presence of the singular verb "stems"

Yes OA: D
But I did not get the meaning of D...
how can this sentence make sense "most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds that are also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements and that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts."

Should'nt the "and" be omitted to make sense?

RadiumBall wrote:Yes OA: D
But I did not get the meaning of D...
how can this sentence make sense "most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds that are also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements and that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts."

Should'nt the "and" be omitted to make sense?

The clause following and now refers to "compounds",maintaining parallelism.Even if you were to remove "and: the sentence would be coorect,only it would it change the original meaning,I suppose.

AND is necessary in Op D...

In total 3 different events are attached to micronutrients-compounds...the last two events are in contrast so BUT is used before last element

the structure is

X THAT ARE AND THAT ARE....
OR
micronutrients-compounds THAT ARE..AND micronutrients-compounds THAT ARE

If u eliminate AND in OP D, Like in Op A does then,

The word "THAT" after "liquid mineral supplements" suggests that, its the liquid mineral supplements that are necessary for proper plant growth....well logically seems okay but the intended meaning which the author wanna assert is its micronutrients-compounds that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts. see, its tough to eliminate but the use of word "BUT" in the non underlined portion indicates a need for contrast...

Hi atul,

if we look at option C then ",and are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts." C is also wrong because the bold part is not an IC...........am i right?????

aspirant2011 wrote:Hi atul,

if we look at option C then ",and are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts." C is also wrong because the bold part is not an IC...........am i right?????

Well buddy, i know what u r pointing to, i saw this rule in Knewton Video

COMMA + FANBOYS should connect only two IC's

But then in some question i didn't find this rule applicable or may be its possible i interpret that wrong, but in both the cases when i raised this point no one answered so i tried to apply other approached also...that's why, even watching that same thing which u indicated, i stop myself from stating that point.

@RadumBall - Don't you have the Original explanation?

Also can an expert answer this question?

RadiumBall wrote:Yes OA: D
But I did not get the meaning of D...
how can this sentence make sense "most of the reported problems encountered with irrigation water stem from an excess of certain micronutrients-compounds that are also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements and that are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts."

Should'nt the "and" be omitted to make sense?

aspirant2011 wrote:Hi atul,

if we look at option C then ",and are necessary for proper plant growth but are toxic in immoderate amounts." C is also wrong because the bold part is not an IC...........am i right?????

C is wrong because

compounds also found in rainwater, soil, and liquid mineral supplements

doesnt have a verb and the and at the end of the underlined portion is followed by verb "are" which ruins the parallelism

Let me try to re-write option C:
Problems are due to micro-nutrients and are required for plant growth.

We dont need problems on our farm.. We need rain water for proper plant growth.
Let us ignore the amount of micro nutrients in rain water vs irrigation water.

+ 1 For D.

Excellent explaination Atul.