Sentence Correction

Meteor showers and individual streaks of light that flash across the sky every night are generated when when tiny flecks of celestial detritus, often no larger than grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding through the atmosphere

a. same
b. grains of sand or pebbles, burn up while speeding
c. grains of sand or pebbles, which burn up while speeding
d. a grain of sand or pebble, which burns up as it speeds
e. a grain of sand or pebble, burns up when it speeds

OA is b

Clarification on how you would combine 'grains of sand or pebbles' in order to make this parallel would be very helpful. Thanks!

Correcting the underline:

Meteor showers and individual streaks of light that flash across the sky every night are generated when tiny flecks of celestial detritus, often no larger than grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding through the atmosphere

"grains of sand or of pebbles" would mean grains of sand or grains of pebbles. Thats wierd right "grains of pebbles". There cant be grains of pebbles.

What the author intends is that the tiny flecks are no larger than grains of sand or no larger than pebbles. Hence, "no larger than grains of sand or pebbles" is the correct expression here.

Hi JTizzle,

There are two factors that makes "B" the best choice.

(a) The verb "burn" should be plural as the subject is tiny flecks of celestial detritus

(b) tiny flecks of celestial detritus are compared to grains of sand OR grains of pebbles.

Meteor showers and individual streaks of light that flash across the sky every night are generated when tiny flecks of celestial detritus, often no larger than grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding through the atmosphere.

I believe its B

A. grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding
B. grains of sand or pebbles, burn up while speeding
C. grains of sand or pebbles, which burn up while speeding
D. a grain of sand or pebble, which burns up as it speeds
E. a grain of sand or a pebble, burns up when it speeds

the split is to find the plural "burn" and the comparison of size to "grains of sand or pebbles"

Meteor showers and individual streaks of light that flash across the sky every night are generated when tiny flecks of celestial detritus, often no larger than grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding through the atmosphere

a. grains of sand or of pebbles, burn up speeding
b. grains of sand or pebbles, burn up while speeding
c. grains of sand or pebbles, which burn up while speeding
d. a grain of sand or pebble, which burns up as it speeds
e. a grain of sand or pebble, burns up when it speeds

IMO: B

a. grains of sand or of pebbles
b. grains of sand or pebbles, burn up while speeding
c. grains of sand or pebbles, which burn up while speeding
d. a grain of sand or pebble, which burns up as it speeds
e. a grain of sand or pebble, burns up when it speeds

Here subject is tiny flecks of ..... so plural burn --> this cancels D and E
In C -> Which refers to pebbles so it gone
The Error in A is- grains of pebbles

So B is the correct choice.

JTizzle wrote:Clarification on how you would combine 'grains of sand or pebbles' in order to make this parallel would be very helpful. Thanks!

Grains of sand or pebbles is parallel: You have Noun + Prep phrase; conjunction; Noun.

While having the same grammatical structure before and after the conjunction makes a sentence parallel, you need not modify every noun to make a sentence parallel. Grains of sand as opposed to grains of bread: pebbles is specific enough.

Let the meaning of the sentence guide you on this problem type; Stay clear of too many absolute rules!

mcdesty wrote:

JTizzle wrote:Clarification on how you would combine 'grains of sand or pebbles' in order to make this parallel would be very helpful. Thanks!

Grains of sand or pebbles is parallel: You have Noun + Prep phrase; conjunction; Noun.

While having the same grammatical structure before and after the conjunction makes a sentence parallel, you need not modify every noun to make a sentence parallel. Grains of sand as opposed to grains of bread: pebbles is specific enough.

Let the meaning of the sentence guide you on this problem type; Stay clear of too many absolute rules!

Here Meaning is the key.
Can we say : grain of pebbles ??

we can not..!

grains are actually tiny sand particles and pebbles is somewhat a smaller version of stones.
I also made the same mistake on first go then after reading carefully i came up with solution