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by Anial » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:26 pm
Hi Guys,
Can you please help me to find out the difference between the two sentences below?.
1.A cannon shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large .

2.A cannon that shoots dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful in demonstrating what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large

1.Doesn't shooting dead chicken at airplanes in sentence 1. acts as a participle phrase modifying a canon .
and that shoots dead chickens at airplanes in sentence 2 act as a relative clause which refers back to the canon(modifying a canon)?

2.How do I choose which form of the above sentence to use?
Last edited by Anial on Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by vijay_venky » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:05 pm
I think there is a little difference in the subject on which each of the above sentence lies stress on.

While the first sentence lies stress on the shooting, the second lies a stress on the canon itself.
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by hrishi19884 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:12 pm
I think, the 1st sentence is incorrect form in GMAT grammar.

What is "cannon shooting dead chickens"refers to?

The first sentence means that the CANNON is still SHOOTING and the action is still going on(never ending action)

but the later part of the sentence says "proved" that means cannon has already done the job and it has proved helpful.

I don't think we will come across 1st sentence in GMAT as the answer.

2nd sentence is the perfect one!
Hrishi

"As you sow, so shall you reap"
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by Anial » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:18 pm
Thanks venky ,
But you know I feel like shooting .... in the first sentence is just a participle modifier.It just modifies the subjects canon. And it is the same case with the second one but uses relative clause to modify canon. So in both the cases main subject is Canon.

Can you elaborate further why you feel shooting is stressed in the first sentence?


Please correct me if I am wrong.
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by Anial » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:27 pm
Hi hrishi,

https://gmatclub.com/forum/sc-modifier-89929.html

In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20%, to....


Why is above sentence with participle phrase correct?
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by hrishi19884 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:47 pm
Anial wrote:

In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20%[/b], to....

Why is above sentence with participle phrase correct?
"Jumped" is past perfect(action has already occurred) ....so even if you use the "ing" form here...its clearly resembles that the action has already occurred in 1997

Also, there action here occurred at the same time "marked its sixth full year ...." and "citizens declaring..." so "marked" is correctly followed by "ing " form.

But, in our original sentence, it is "has proved" (that means the action has just occurred and it still can occur again successfully) .

I think " A cannon shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate..." is a better form. No need of "has" here.
Hrishi

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by Rajat Khandelwal » Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:48 am
good one....
i would go for Option B....because..

in A , the action of the main verb occurred in the past. We have used present perfect to show experience or memory....

Shooting.....is present participle which is used to indicate the action occurring at the same time as that of the main verb...Ongoing action....

Had it been this....

Shooting dead chickens at airplanes, a cannon proved helpful to demonstrate what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large.

It would have been right.
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by Rajat Khandelwal » Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:51 am
Hrishi..u r absolutely true....

Cheers..
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by gmat_perfect » Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:34 am
1.A cannon shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large .

2.A cannon that shoots dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful in demonstrating what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large

Grammar:

1. Modifier issue:

Relative pronoun "THAT" VS "WHICH"

If we want to define something, we need to use "that clause". Here, we want to define "the CANNON". Which CANNON?
The CANNON that shoots. So, the use of "the CANNON that shoots" is perfect.

On the other hand, "A cannon shooting" means the cannon is still shooting.
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