Sentence Correction

Hi Mission 2012,

This SC represents a fairly standard example of a "modification" question. The opening phrase (followed by a comma) describes the noun that should come immediately after the comma. In this SC, the opening phrase differs with each answer, so you have to be sure that whatever phrase you choose describes the noun that comes next.

A - opening phrase doesn't match the noun
B - "the fact that" is redundant
C - opening phrase matches noun
D - opening phrase matches noun
E - opening phrase doesn't match the noun

So, we're down to C and D. The words "despite" and "although" are both "contrast" keywords and either would fit this sentence, so we have to look at the latter parts of the answers to find the winner. C uses some redundant and non-parallel language ("is neither....nor is it...), so I'd knock that one out.

Final Answer: D (proper modifier, proper two part phrase - neither...nor)

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Mission2012 wrote:Despite its covering the entire planet. Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

A. Despite its covering the entire planet，Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is
B.Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but is
C.Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but rather
D.Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather
E.Although covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, but

Important: When a sentence begins with a with noun modifier (as it does in the original sentence), stop at the comma and ask the question that the modifier raises

So, once we read, Despite its covering the entire planet, we should stop and ask . . .

"What covers the entire planet?"

If the sentence is properly constructed, the part that immediately follows the comma will answer that question in a logical manner.

Reading on we get...
A) Earth...
Earth covers the entire planet?
Makes no sense. Eliminate A

B) Earth's crust
Earth's crust covers the entire planet.
Makes sense. Keep B

C) Earth's crust
Makes sense. Keep C

D) Earth's crust
Makes sense. Keep D

E) Earth...
Makes no sense. Eliminate E

We're left with B, C and D. So, we'll look for other issues.

(B) Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but is
Here we have the NEITHER/NOR correlative
So, the parts that immediately follow NEITHER and NOR must be parallel
Here we have ... Earth's crust is NEITHER seamless NOR is it stationary
seamless = adjective
is it stationary = verb-pronoun-adjective
Not parallel.
Eliminate B

(C) Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is NEITHER seamless NOR is it stationary
This construction suffers from the same issue that we found in answer choice B
Eliminate C

By the process of elimination, D must be the correct answer.

ASIDE: Let's take a look at D for kicks.
(D) Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is NEITHER seamless NOR stationary
PERFECT - seamless and stationary are both adjectives.
Parallelism is maintained.

Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent