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Railroads and the abolition of local times!

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Railroads and the abolition of local times!

by RumpelThickSkin » Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:35 am
70. 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

[spoiler] OA : E [/spoiler]

Source : Some document called Brutal SC I just found on BTG!
Last edited by RumpelThickSkin on Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by hardik.jadeja » Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:47 am
Here is the explanation I found on one of the forums..

This is a toughie - it looks like you've realized that the key to the problem is parallelism, but you've been tricked by the rather weird form of parallelism exhibited here.

The only difference between choices D and E is differed/differing, and, as you've no doubt realized, the key issue is making the choice that's most parallel to 'determined' (from the first half of the modifier).

Here's the key: 'Determined' isn't a verb here. It's a PARTICIPLE: a verb form that functions as an adjective.
The local times were WEIRD (adjective).
The local times were DETERMINED (participle acting as adjective) by ...

So you need to pick the second half that's also 'participle acting as adjective'. Try them both:
D) The local times were DIFFERED: uh oh, that doesn't work.
E) The local times were DIFFERING from city to city. That works. It's a 'present participle' rather than a 'past participle', but it's the only one of the two that's a participle at all.

hope that helps.
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by RumpelThickSkin » Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:03 am
Hardik,

Thanks a lot! How can all the options followed by which be eliminated in this question. I have a serious problem understanding rules with pronouns.

Would appreciate your thoughts on this. Many thanks in advance RTS
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by hardik.jadeja » Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:13 am
RumpelThickSkin wrote:Hardik,

Thanks a lot! How can all the options followed by which be eliminated in this question. I have a serious problem understanding rules with pronouns.

Would appreciate your thoughts on this. Many thanks in advance RTS
On GMAT, "which" always modifies the noun it follows. In options A, B and C, 'which' is modifying 'local times'. 'local times' is a plural noun and options A and B are using singular verb, so options A and B can be ruled out. Option C lacks parallelism, so even C can be ruled out.

Hope that helps.
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by andrey_tsi » Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:24 am
RumpelThickSkin wrote:70. 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

[spoiler] OA : E [/spoiler]

Source : Some document called Brutal SC I just found on BTG!
Rumpel, can you give me link to this doc (Brutal SC)?
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by RumpelThickSkin » Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:20 am
Andrey

https://www.beatthegmat.com/brutal-scs-t5135.html

Got the link from https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/resources
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by RumpelThickSkin » Thu Jun 10, 2010 9:25 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:
RumpelThickSkin wrote:Hardik,

Thanks a lot! How can all the options followed by which be eliminated in this question. I have a serious problem understanding rules with pronouns.

Would appreciate your thoughts on this. Many thanks in advance RTS
On GMAT, "which" always modifies the noun it follows. In options A, B and C, 'which' is modifying 'local times'. 'local times' is a plural noun and options A and B are using singular verb, so options A and B can be ruled out. Option C lacks parallelism, so even C can be ruled out.

Hope that helps.
Hardik,

Sorry to keep bothering you. But what I can understand from your intial post that differing should be parrallel with determined. Both are acting as a participle for local times. So C must parrallel.

I still don't understand why C is wrong. But thanks for the inital explanation.
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by hardik.jadeja » Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:24 pm
RumpelThickSkin wrote: Hardik,

Sorry to keep bothering you. But what I can understand from your intial post that differing should be parrallel with determined. Both are acting as a participle for local times. So C must parrallel.

I still don't understand why C is wrong. But thanks for the inital explanation.
C is not right because "were determined" is not parallel with "differing".

Ron's explanation from MGMAT forum:
we're describing a state that simply existed back then, so, if you use 'were determined', we've got to use the simple past tense again: we'd say 'differed' in this case.

the construction 'were verbing' is limited to situations in which something else happened during the verb-ing.
example: while the man was chatting with his girlfriend, his cell phone broke the calm with its strident ringtone.
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by lunarpower » Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:23 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:
RumpelThickSkin wrote: Hardik,

Sorry to keep bothering you. But what I can understand from your intial post that differing should be parrallel with determined. Both are acting as a participle for local times. So C must parrallel.

I still don't understand why C is wrong. But thanks for the inital explanation.
C is not right because "were determined" is not parallel with "differing".

Ron's explanation from MGMAT forum:
we're describing a state that simply existed back then, so, if you use 'were determined', we've got to use the simple past tense again: we'd say 'differed' in this case.

the construction 'were verbing' is limited to situations in which something else happened during the verb-ing.
example: while the man was chatting with his girlfriend, his cell phone broke the calm with its strident ringtone.
heh, nice. you guys are better at finding my own explanations than i am!

just in case you guys want more of this sort of thing, here are two more problems that have the same type of parallelism (between two different participles, one of which is a past participle and the other of which is a present participle):

#1
problem:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/fir ... -t353.html
my explanation of the parallelism:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post8076.html#p8076 (note that this is a post that's on the same thread)

#2
problem:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/most-brutal-sc-19-t9879.html
my explanation:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/most-brutal- ... html#40407 (again, from the same thread, but i'm trying to make this as convenient as possible)
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by tanviet » Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:56 am
RON

In this question, C is not the OA because C is less consice than E is ?
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by lunarpower » Wed Jun 16, 2010 4:22 am
duongthang wrote:RON

In this question, C is not the OA because C is less consice than E is ?
concision may help point you to the correct answer, but no answer will ever be incorrect ONLY because it is "less concise".

i.e., if you see an answer choice that is clearly wordy, then it probably contains some other type of error as well.
since you have to answer these questions in a very short time, you may want to go ahead and eliminate answers that seem ridiculously wordy. however, if you are practicing, you should then always go back and find actual ERRORS in these choices; again, lack of concision will never be the only error.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by akhpad » Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:34 am
I confused over D and E in context of meaning as it is set-off by comma.

If E is correct, "differing from city to city" looks like adverbial modifier as it is set-off by comma. Does such modifier come in the middle?

But I believe that "differing from city to city" is modifying to local time. In that case, it shouldn't set-off by comma as it adjectival modifier.

Both participles past and present can be parallel only if both are act as adjective.

Can someone shed some light on it?
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by tanviet » Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:25 pm
lunarpower wrote:
duongthang wrote:RON

In this question, C is not the OA because C is less consice than E is ?
concision may help point you to the correct answer, but no answer will ever be incorrect ONLY because it is "less concise".

i.e., if you see an answer choice that is clearly wordy, then it probably contains some other type of error as well.
since you have to answer these questions in a very short time, you may want to go ahead and eliminate answers that seem ridiculously wordy. however, if you are practicing, you should then always go back and find actual ERRORS in these choices; again, lack of concision will never be the only error.
it is great, Ron, LESS CONSICE NEVER IS ONLY ERROR

why C is wrong?

"was... determined and differing" is quiter parallel. " determined" is parallel with " differting".
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