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Railroad!!

by gmat_perfect » Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:38 am
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing
(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and which differed
(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing
(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed
(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing

OA: E
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:13 am
which is not required make it wordy left with D and E.

differed is past tense which is incorrect as it is scientific truth
left E
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by Verbal Guru » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:37 am
A & B are out because of which 'was'. 'Local times' cannot be 'was' but 'were'.

C is out because if you say 'which were determined' then to make the construction parallel you would have to say 'and which differed' and not 'differing'

D & E are both modifying 'local times'. D is incorrect because 'determined' and 'differed' are not parallel though it may appear so at face value. If you say local times 'differed' in the past you mean they don't differ right now but they still differ right.

The correct answer is E because it uses the participle forms 'determined' and 'differing' in the correct parallel construction.

Check out Question 42 in OG 12 if you are still confused.

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by gmat1011 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:52 am
But those "local times" have now been abolished - they don't exist any more so the present participle (differing) and past participle (determined) parallelism seems to make less sense to me here compared to Q 42 of 12th OG - where the giant fungus still exists and thus is still "extending" unlike the abolished local times

Can any kind expert please weigh in if they see this? Thanks!
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by Verbal Guru » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:27 pm
gmat1011 wrote:But those "local times" have now been abolished - they don't exist any more so the present participle (differing) and past participle (determined) parallelism seems to make less sense to me here compared to Q 42 of 12th OG - where the giant fungus still exists and thus is still "extending" unlike the abolished local times

Can any kind expert please weigh in if they see this? Thanks!

I am sorry maybe I should have been a little clearer with my explanation.

So your question is why should we go with 'differing' and not with 'differed' right?

When deciding which form of a verb to use (-ing or -ed), the rule is to check whether the noun that the verb refers to is acting as the object or the subject of the sentence (which is the same thing as Active voice vs Passive poice.)

- When you use '-ing' your are saying that something is DOING the action i.e. SUBJECT or Active Voice

- When you use '-ed' you are saying that the action is being RECEIVED by something i.e. OBJECT or Passive voice.

In our question the noun is the phrase 'local times' which is the SUBJECT of 'differed' (times differed) but the OBJECT of 'determined' (times are determined by 'something'. This 'something' is the SUBJECT and 'time' in this case is the OBJECT)


So when 'local times' is used as an OBJECT you use the '-ed' form (determined) and when 'local times' is used as a SUBJECT you use the '-ing' form (differing). The answer is obviously E.

If you look at Q 42 in OG 12 the same logic applies - the fungus was spawned BY something (OBJECT) but the fungus is extending on its own(SUBJECT).

The general tendency on the part of students is to make '-ed' and '-ed' parallel (which works for easy or mid-level questions) but on difficult questions such as this one you need to take other factors (Subject & Object, etc.) into consideration.

Hope thos explanation clears your doubts.

Cheers!
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