Holstein Cows

Abhijit K wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed,
and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of
milk each per year.
A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows
are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow
produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are
producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

A) This choice is a little tempting. The underlined section starts with a modifier, providing and milking, and then goes on to an independent clause, which could be better but is ok.

B) This does not work. If providing is a modifying farmer, then milked is too. Yikes. Also, the singular cow does not match the plural pronoun them.

C) This starts off better than the original does, in that provided is parallel to cool, but then milking them is not parallel to cool and provided.

D) This starts off well, provided with and milked are parallel to cool, but then the singular cow does not match the plural pronoun them.

E) This starts off as D does, and then the plural cows matches the pronoun them. It's also concise, and it's better structured than A.

Choose E.

For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

in B and D, them (plural) does not agree with the Holstein cow (singular). Eliminate B and D.

In C, provided and milking are not parallel. A conjunction such as and must connect PARALLEL FORMS. Eliminate C.

As for A:
COMMA + VERBing serves to indicate an action happening AT THE SAME TIME as the verb in the preceding clause.
The implication is that the VERBing action and the preceding verb both occur as part of a SINGLE EVENT.
Typically, the VERBing action is a RESULT of the preceding action.
In A, providing them with feed and milking them regularly do NOT result from the preceding action (to keep them cool).
Thus, A does not convey the intended meaning.

The correct answer is E.

In E, the farmer takes care to keep the cows COOL, PROVIDED and MILKED.
Here, provided and milked serve as RESULTATIVE ADJECTIVES that are parallel with cool, the first resultative adjective in the list.

A resultative adjective follows the noun that it modifies and serves to indicate the RESULT of a preceding action.
John painted the room BLACK.
Here, the room is BLACK as a RESULT of the preceding action (John PAINTED).

In E, the three resultative adjectives describe the cows.
For the farmer who TAKES CARE, what are the results?
The cows are kept COOL, PROVIDED WITH FEED, and MILKED REGULARLY.