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Comma + ING --- Experts can you please have a look.

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Comma + ING --- Experts can you please have a look.

by ggmat007 » Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:39 am
Unlike crested wheatgrass, an alien species from Siberia that forms only shallow roots and produces tall aboveground shoots, native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very tall.
(A) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very
(B) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, which allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but without growing to be that
(C) the root system of native North American grasses is extensive, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be very
(D) the root system of native North American grasses is more extensive, allowing for the greater enrichment of the soil, but these grasses do not grow to be very
(E) the extensiveness of the root system of native North American grasses allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be that

The answer to above question is A, Looking at the BUT parallelism, I got the correct answer but I still have a doubt, which I want to clarify.

My understanding about an -ING MODIFIER PRECEDED BY A COMMA: it's an adverbial modifier that modifies the entire preceding clause and it is attributed to the subject of the previous clause.

Here "allowing" in Option A is pointing to North American grasses but it is extensive root system which allows for greater enrichment of the soil.

I have no intention to question a correct choice. I only want to improve my understanding.

Experts/Anyone - Please walk me through.

Thanks
Last edited by ggmat007 on Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Ankur87 » Sat Mar 30, 2013 12:27 am
ggmat007 wrote:Unlike crested wheatgrass, an alien species from Siberia that forms only shallow roots and produces tall aboveground shoots, native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very tall.
(A) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very
(B) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, which allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but without growing to be that
(C) the root system of native North American grasses is extensive, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be very
(D) the root system of native North American grasses is more extensive, allowing for the greater enrichment of the soil, but these grasses do not grow to be very
(E) the extensiveness of the root system of native North American grasses allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be that

The answer to above question is A, Looking at the BUT parallelism, I got the correct answer but I still have a doubt, which I want to clarify.

My understanding about an -ING MODIFIER PRECEDED BY A COMMA: it's an adverbial modifier that modifies the entire preceding clause and it is attributed to the subject of the previous clause.

Here "allowing" in Option A is pointing to North American grasses but it is extensive root system which allows for greater enrichment of the soil.

I have no intention to question a correct choice. I only want to improve my understanding.

Experts/Anyone - Please walk me through.

Thanks
which modifies only extensive root system but here we need to take the whole clause as extensive root system cant stand alone, so we need to take the whole clause - native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, and "allowing" is not pointing to north american glasses but to the whole clause.
Experts - please correct me if I am wrong.
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by ggmat007 » Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:43 am
hey Ankur many thanks for your response buddy.

We can clearly see that subject of the previous clause is NA Grasses. I do agree with you that "allowing" refers to the entire previous clause but comma + ing modifiers also refers to the subject of the previous clause which I don't see is happening here..

Experts can you please throw some light please.
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by Nachiket » Sat Mar 30, 2013 5:09 am
Another way to look at this problem is the cause and effect relationship...The "development of extensive root system" ( Cause) results in "greater enrichment of the soil" (effect). In such scenarios, it is always preferred to use comma +ing modifiers. Therefore choice A is correct.

PS : On GMAT SC, we should always be using the POE ( process of elimination) approach and arrive at the best answer among the choices given and not look for the best possible solution of the faulty SC problem.

In this question, one can easily eliminate C,D,E due to incorrect comparison issue. Choice B incorrectly uses "which" that modifies only the preceding noun i.e. the root system which is an incorrect usage in this sentence altering the meaning of the sentence.

Therefore, choose A. :-)
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by ggmat007 » Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:23 am
Nachiket thanks a lot for your response. I kept the same point in my mind (POE) and that's how I arrived at the right answer but I still had that one small doubt which I wanted to clarify.

But again.. your response helped me. Thanks
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by mohit_1607 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:30 pm
ggmat007 wrote:Unlike crested wheatgrass, an alien species from Siberia that forms only shallow roots and produces tall aboveground shoots, native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very tall.
(A) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very
(B) native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, which allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but without growing to be that
(C) the root system of native North American grasses is extensive, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be very
(D) the root system of native North American grasses is more extensive, allowing for the greater enrichment of the soil, but these grasses do not grow to be very
(E) the extensiveness of the root system of native North American grasses allows for their greater enrichment of the soil, but they do not grow to be that

The answer to above question is A, Looking at the BUT parallelism, I got the correct answer but I still have a doubt, which I want to clarify.

My understanding about an -ING MODIFIER PRECEDED BY A COMMA: it's an adverbial modifier that modifies the entire preceding clause and it is attributed to the subject of the previous clause.

Here "allowing" in Option A is pointing to North American grasses but it is extensive root system which allows for greater enrichment of the soil.

I have no intention to question a correct choice. I only want to improve my understanding.

Experts/Anyone - Please walk me through.

Thanks
Please visit the below mentioned link to get a better understanding of Verb-ing Modifiers:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/usage-of-verb ... 35220.html

Please take a note of the part mentioned in "A POINT TO REMEMBER" section.

Eg: Sachin Tendulkar played an exceptionally outstanding innings, making the team win gloriously.
The sentence means that Sachin played a superbly good innings. And the result of this action led to the victory of the team in a glorious manner. So, the verb-ing modifier "making" preceded by a comma is presenting the result of the preceding clause.

Similarly, In the sentence
native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil
Native North American grasses develop a root system, the result of which is greater enrichment of soil.
Hope this explanation helps!!
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by ggmat007 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:52 am
Hello Mohit,

I completely agree with your explanation but my doubt is still unclear.

comma + ing is used to show cause and effect relationship and at the same time the comma + ing modifier, modifies the previous clause and refers to the subject of the previous clause

making refers to the subject - Sachin Tendulkar but does allowing refers to the subject North American grasses - my answer is no --- not sure if I am thinking too much. I have got means to arrive at the right answer but this one doubt is bothering me and some what making me not feel comfortable with my understanding.

Is it like - in case of cause and effect relationship, it is not necessary that the ing modifier has to refer to the subject of the previous clause - I really doubt that..

Thanks again for looking into it and providing your insights :)
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by mohit_1607 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:38 am
ggmat007 wrote:Hello Mohit,

I completely agree with your explanation but my doubt is still unclear.

comma + ing is used to show cause and effect relationship and at the same time the comma + ing modifier, modifies the previous clause and refers to the subject of the previous clause

making refers to the subject - Sachin Tendulkar but does allowing refers to the subject North American grasses - my answer is no --- not sure if I am thinking too much. I have got means to arrive at the right answer but this one doubt is bothering me and some what making me not feel comfortable with my understanding.

Is it like - in case of cause and effect relationship, it is not necessary that the ing modifier has to refer to the subject of the previous clause - I really doubt that..

Thanks again for looking into it and providing your insights :)
Hi ggmat007,

You are right that making refers to Sachin Tendulkar but I don't think that it is Sachin who is making his team glorious. It is the efforts of Sachin Tendulkar that are making the team to win gloriously.Probably one way of looking at things is: The innings played by Sachin Tendulkar made the team to win gloriously.

Similarly for the given statement, it is not Native North American grasses that are allowing for greater enrichment of the soil but the extensive root system developed by Native North American grasses that is allowing for greater enrichmnet of the soil.

I hope this explanation is useful to you.
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