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Most brutal SC #19

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by mleviko » Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:11 am
Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,300 years ago and extending for more than 33 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

OA is A
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parallel structure

by gabriela13 » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:34 am
I will go with B

the fungus...that is ....and extends
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by kovaalan » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:09 am
i WILL GO WITH[b] A[/b]. I THINK THIS DEALS WITH PARALLELISM. USE THE PARTICIPLE FORM EXTENDING FOR SPAWNED.....
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by richardwang6430 » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:50 pm
I will go with B
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Re: Most brutal SC #19

by lunarpower » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:09 am
mleviko wrote:Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,300 years ago and extending for more than 33 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

OA is A
well, the official answer is a, so let's rationalize it, shall we? i think this is an official question, so it's much wiser to learn their rules, and to play by them, than to debate them.

i agree with the posters who claim that (b) exhibits at least some semblance of grammatical parallelism: 'is' and 'extends' are both in the present tense, and, provided that you allow verbs of equivalence ('is') to be parallel to action verbs ('extends'), are parallel.

HOWEVER, (a) also exhibits parallelism: spawned and extending are both PARTICIPLES. this is not the only time i've seen an official question placing a present participle in parallel with a past participle, so file this rule away in your brain for future use: it's ok for present participles to be parallel to past participles.

here are 2 possible reasons why (a) is considered better than (b):

1) if you wanted (b), because of the huge distance between the two 'parallel' verbs, you'd want to introduce the relative pronoun again: ...and THAT extends...

2) if more than one parallelism is possible, AND both possible parallelisms make sense in terms of meaning (not just grammar), then go for the parallelism that's smaller and therefore more concise and readable.

i think both of these reasons are valid, but, in any case, the important point is that we should take this problem as an exemplar of the gmat's usage of participles.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by perfectstranger » Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:55 pm
'' also exhibits parallelism: spawned and extending are both PARTICIPLES''

Could anyone explain please that how they are participles? This question has confused my mind :(
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by tohellandback » Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:47 pm
A because
spawned and extending are modifying the tentacles
B) tentacles is plural. extends is wrong
c) not parallel
D)it ??
E) not parallel
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by nikhilgirdhar » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:20 pm
tohellandback wrote:A because
spawned and extending are modifying the tentacles
B) tentacles is plural. extends is wrong
c) not parallel
D)it ??
E) not parallel
I think extending modiefies "a giant fungus"...and I absolutel agree with lunarpower
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by thetrystero » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:06 am
Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,300 years ago and extending for more than 33 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending
B

a giant fungus that
(1) is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,300 years ago
(2) extends for more than 33 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.
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by lunarpower » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:36 pm
perfectstranger wrote:'' also exhibits parallelism: spawned and extending are both PARTICIPLES''

Could anyone explain please that how they are participles? This question has confused my mind :(
the first, "spawned", is a past participle, much like "taken", "thrown", "done", and the like.
when these participles are used as modifiers, the word being modified is the OBJECT of the action.
ex: the person hit by the ball...
here, "hit" is a past participle. the person is the object of that action (got hit, didn't do the hitting).

the second, "extending", is a present participle. all such participles end with "-ing".
when these participles are used as modifiers, the word being modified is the SUBJECT of the action.
ex: the person hitting the ball...
here, "hit" is a present participle. the person is the subject of that action (did the hitting, didn't get hit).

you can't have both as past participles, or both as present participles, because either of those situations would create a ridiculous meaning.
"spawned" must be a past participle, because the fungus WAS spawned thousands of years ago. furthermore, the fungus is the object, not the subject, of "spawned".
"extending" must be a present participle, because the fungus still extends. furthermore, the fungus is the subject, not the object.

hope this clears things up.
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by ansumania » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:53 pm
lunarpower wrote:
perfectstranger wrote:'' also exhibits parallelism: spawned and extending are both PARTICIPLES''

Could anyone explain please that how they are participles? This question has confused my mind :(
the first, "spawned", is a past participle, much like "taken", "thrown", "done", and the like.
when these participles are used as modifiers, the word being modified is the OBJECT of the action.
ex: the person hit by the ball...
here, "hit" is a past participle. the person is the object of that action (got hit, didn't do the hitting).

the second, "extending", is a present participle. all such participles end with "-ing".
when these participles are used as modifiers, the word being modified is the SUBJECT of the action.
ex: the person hitting the ball...
here, "hit" is a present participle. the person is the subject of that action (did the hitting, didn't get hit).

you can't have both as past participles, or both as present participles, because either of those situations would create a ridiculous meaning.
"spawned" must be a past participle, because the fungus WAS spawned thousands of years ago. furthermore, the fungus is the object, not the subject, of "spawned".
"extending" must be a present participle, because the fungus still extends. furthermore, the fungus is the subject, not the object.

hope this clears things up.
Ron,

you pointed out that if we are using 'present participle' as modifier , it can only refer to subject and not object.


pl. follow the link below.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ing-modifier ... 43-75.html

In the question concerning classical guitar, Stacey has pointed out 'classical guitar' to be the subject of the sentence (pl. see stacey's reasning for the same question) . Will you pl. respond whether classical guitar is the subject or object?
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by lunarpower » Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:37 pm
ansumania wrote:Ron,

you pointed out that if we are using 'present participle' as modifier , it can only refer to subject and not object.
not for all present participles -- just for present participles that follow commas.
(note that i am careful to describe, on essentially every post where i discuss this phenomenon, that that's the rule for COMMA + -ING modifiers.)

the president participles in this problem don't follow commas, so this rule does not apply here.
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by bynddrvn » Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:19 am
SC#19? In the OG 12th edition this is question #42.

Thank you lunarpower - this question is very tricky.
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by ansumania » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:20 am
lunarpower wrote:
ansumania wrote:Ron,

you pointed out that if we are using 'present participle' as modifier , it can only refer to subject and not object.
not for all present participles -- just for present participles that follow commas.
(note that i am careful to describe, on essentially every post where i discuss this phenomenon, that that's the rule for COMMA + -ING modifiers.)

the president participles in this problem don't follow commas, so this rule does not apply here.
Ron,

I thought Stacey treated the ', having been ' as the ', ing' modifier while explaining this....

This is an extract from her reply

"The preceding clause uses a pronoun as the subject ("it was revived by Segovia") and that pronoun refers to "classical guitar." So the modifier technically modifies "classical guitar revived by Segovia": that is, the classical guitar revived by Segovia was won over by the instrument's sound. The guitar... not Segovia. No good."

pl. provide your thoughts. Now I am a bit confused.
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by tomada » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:47 pm
I chose 'A', but probably for the wrong reason. I drew a parallel between "living" - as in, "living organism" - and "extending".

"Giant fungus" refers to "organism", so I asked myself "What is the organism (giant fungus) doing?" I answered myself (quietly, of course, since I was in Starbucks) "It's living and it's extending (for some distance)."

In an alternate hypothetical scenario, I wondered what the answer would be if the statement had been phrased thus:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest organism which lives on Earth

If this were the case, would "extends" or, perhaps, "which extends" be appropriate?
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