Sentence Correction

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language variations which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by geographic isolation.

(A) which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(B) that originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(C) originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(D) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(E) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuating

OA: D

This is a tough question - Participial ||'sm is tested here - probably Mr. Hunt can enlighten us.

richachampion wrote:The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language variations which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by geographic isolation.

(A) which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(B) that originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(C) originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(D) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
(E) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuating

A: variations which
On the GMAT, NOUN + which is always wrong.
Eliminate A.

A conjunction such as and must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS.
B: language variations that originated...and perpetuated by geographic isolation
Here, originated is a VERB, while perpetuated is a MODIFIER.
What did language variations DO?
They ORIGINATED.
What KIND of language variations?
language variations PERPETUATED by geographic isolation.
Since and may not serve to connect a verb to a modifier, eliminate B.

C implies the following:
language variations [that were] originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages
Here, the conveyed meaning is that SOMEONE initiated the language variations.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is that regional dialects are language variations that DEVELOP ON THEIR OWN, with diverse ethnic and cultural heritages serving as the SOURCE of these variations.
For the sentence to convey this meaning, the required idiom originating from, as in the OA:
language variations originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages
Here, the usage of originating from conveys that diverse ethnic and cultural heritages are the source of the language variations.
Eliminate C.

To perpetuate X means to cause X to continue.
E: language variations...perpetuating by geographic isolation
Here, the usage of perpetuating implies that language variations are causing something to continue.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is that geographic isolation is causing the language variations to continue.
For the sentence to convey this meaning, the required idiom is perpetuated by, as in the OA:
language variations...perpetuated by geographic isolation
Here, the usage of perpetuated by conveys that geographic isolation is causing the language variations to continue.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is D.

OA: language variations originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by by geographic isolation
Here, originating and perpetuated are parallel in that each serves as MODIFIER describing the language variations.
For another OA in which a VERBing modifier is parallel with a VERBed modifier, check here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-question- ... 13193.html

GMATGuruNY wrote: For another OA in which a VERBing modifier is parallel with a VERBed modifier, check here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-question- ... 13193.html

Perfect Mr. Hunt,

I am a non native speaker. for me it is tough to decide If -ed form is a verb or a modifier. Any way to distinguish between them?

richachampion wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote: For another OA in which a VERBing modifier is parallel with a VERBed modifier, check here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-question- ... 13193.html

Perfect Mr. Hunt,

I am a non native speaker. for me it is tough to decide If -ed form is a verb or a modifier. Any way to distinguish between them?

variations originated from
tentacles spawned by
In each case, the structure is the same:
NOUN + VERBed + PREPOSITION
In most cases, the VERBed in this structure will serve as a modifier.

GMATGuruNY wrote:
variations originated from
tentacles spawned by
In each case, the structure is the same:
NOUN + VERBed + PREPOSITION
In most cases, the VERBed in this structure will serve as a modifier.

Thanks Mr. Hunt,

I have something to share with you please let me know If I am wrong or right.

To test whether the verb form is a modifier or verb itself test if the verb is the action done by the subject/noun.

If the verb form is the action done by the subject then it is verb otherwise it is a modifier.

the correct answer -

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language variations
(D) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated

language variations can't originate themselves not perpetuate. Therefore perpetuated must be a modifier. Right Sir?

richachampion wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote:
variations originated from
tentacles spawned by
In each case, the structure is the same:
NOUN + VERBed + PREPOSITION
In most cases, the VERBed in this structure will serve as a modifier.

Thanks Mr. Hunt,

I have something to share with you please let me know If I am wrong or right.

To test whether the verb form is a modifier or verb itself test if the verb is the action done by the subject/noun.

If the verb form is the action done by the subject then it is verb otherwise it is a modifier.

This line of reasoning is valid for NOUN + VERBed.
If the noun performs the action of the VERBed, then the VERBed serves as an actual verb.
If the noun does NOT perform the action of the VERBed, then the VERBed serves not as a verb but as a modifier.

This line of reasoning cannot be applied to NOUN + VERBing.
In this structure, the noun always performs the VERBing action.
Even so, the VERBing serves not as an actual verb but as a modifier.
To serve as a verb, a VERBing requires a helping verb, as follows:
is VERBing
has been VERBing
was VERBing

the correct answer -

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language variations
(D) originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated

language variations can't originate themselves not perpetuate. Therefore perpetuated must be a modifier. Right Sir?

The green portion is correctly reasoned.
The red portion is not.
The language variations are in fact ORIGINATING from diverse ethic and cultural heritages.
to originate from X = to come from X.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

Thanks Sir!

GMATGuruNY wrote:

The green portion is correctly reasoned.
The red portion is not.
The language variations are in fact ORIGINATING from diverse ethic and cultural heritages.
to originate from X = to come from X.

I also noticed a trend when participial ||'sm is tested you will find a passive construction -> usage of "by" will be present.

Reason: Since the participial form "_ed" will be the action done on the main subject that means the doer of the verb form "_ed" will be some other noun that will be expressed by passive construction such as "by".

Here also in the non-underlined portion look at this "by geographic isolation" -> This means that geographic isolation is doing some action. The action of perpetuating.
Subject: GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION -> Doer of action.
Object: LANGUAGE VARIATION -> Receiver of the action.

Hi Mitch/Richachampion,

Do you have other exercises or material related to this topic? i don't remember seeing this notion in the MGMAT SC guide, it's quite hard to grasp and detect for a non native.

So takeaways:

whenever we are faced with a sentence having noun + Verb-ed + preposition and dealing with parallelism we have to to check first if Verb-ed is acting as a verb or a modifier.

if the verb form is the action done by the subject then it's a verb (if preposition is "from"-> Verb from is a Verb )
if the action is done by something/somebody else then it's a modifier (if preposition is "by"-> Verb from is a modifier)

Correct me if i am wrong.

Thanks.

joealam1 wrote:Hi Mitch/Richachampion,

Do you have other exercises or material related to this topic? i don't remember seeing this notion in the MGMAT SC guide, it's quite hard to grasp and detect for a non native.

Mr Hunt has already shared one more Official Example, Check Here -

GMATGuruNY wrote: For another OA in which a VERBing modifier is parallel with a VERBed modifier, check here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-question- ... 13193.html