OG13-Q70 The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a look at this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct answer! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq.

(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but
(B) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously with but also
(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but
(D) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence of centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arising simultaneously but also
(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but

After a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jumped out:

1. that were cut / having been cut / cut
2. have yielded vs. yields
3. how each option ends (hint: it's a parallelism issue)

The best one for us to start with is actually #2 on our list: have yielded vs. yields. This is the best place to start because regardless of which one we choose, we'll eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly. Since these are both verbs, we should check to make sure they agree with the subject:

The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq.

Since the subject of the sentence is plural, we need to make sure the verbs we use are also plural. Let's see how each option breaks down:

(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but
(B) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously with but also
(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but
(D) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence of centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arising simultaneously but also
(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but

We can eliminate options B and D because they use the singular "yields" with the plural subject "trenches," which doesn't agree.

Now that we're down to 3 options, let's go back and take a look at #1 and #3 on our list. We need to make sure that we're being as clear and concise as possible here, so let's rule out any options that are overly wordy, unclear, or don't use parallel structure:

(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but

This is INCORRECT because it's overly wordy. There is no difference between saying "that were cut" and "cut" in this sentence, so why add unnecessary extras? We also have an idiom problem with the phrase "evidence for." In English, we say "evidence of," "evidence that," or "evidence which," but we do NOT say "evidence for."

(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but

Again, this is INCORRECT because the phrase "having been cut" is overly wordy and awkward. You can just say "cut" and it conveys essentially the same thing. There's also a parallelism issue here, too! Here's the problem - both items need to work with the phrase "southern Mesopotamia" directly after them:

were arising simultaneously but independently of southern Mesopotamia --> NOT PARALLEL
were arising simultaneously with but independently of southern Mesopotamia --> PARALLEL

(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but

This is CORRECT! It's clear, concise, follow idiom rules, and uses parallel structure.


There you have it - option E is the correct choice!


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