By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.
(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b
Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
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By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were
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BTGmoderatorRO
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ErikaPrepScholar
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First, we want to address issues of parallelism and sentence structure. In A, B, and C, we have
"By recording ... and then digitizing and analyzing ..., a team of scientists ..."
"recording", "digitizing", and "analyzing" are all things that the team did, and they are all parallel. However, in D and E, we have
"By recording ... and then the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed ... a team of scientists ..."
Now the second part of our modifier isn't parallel with the first. So we can rule out D and E.
A and C we can rule out for a different instance of parallelism - when we see "not ... but", we know we are comparing two things, and the things we compare must be parallel.
A. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
B. "... a team of scientists found that the noise was NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
C. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT to be BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
Only B mirrors the past tense "consistent" with the past tense "was".
"By recording ... and then digitizing and analyzing ..., a team of scientists ..."
"recording", "digitizing", and "analyzing" are all things that the team did, and they are all parallel. However, in D and E, we have
"By recording ... and then the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed ... a team of scientists ..."
Now the second part of our modifier isn't parallel with the first. So we can rule out D and E.
A and C we can rule out for a different instance of parallelism - when we see "not ... but", we know we are comparing two things, and the things we compare must be parallel.
A. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
B. "... a team of scientists found that the noise was NOT continuous BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
C. "... a team of scientists found the noise NOT to be BUT consisted of individual bursts or pops ..."
Only B mirrors the past tense "consistent" with the past tense "was".
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A, C and E: By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, a team of scientists found the noise.BTGmoderatorRO wrote:By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.
(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b
Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
The phrase in red distorts the intended meaning.
When the crinkled wrappers were STRETCHED OUT, the noise was not found; it was CREATED.
Eliminate A, C and E.
D: By recording the noise...and then the sound emissions were digitized
Here, the blue portion is a MODIFIER, while the red portion is a CLAUSE.
The result is a lack of parallelism.
Eliminate D.
The correct answer is B.
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As a tutor, I don't simply teach you how I would approach problems.
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Akrita@Jamboree
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I am happy to help. This is a question testing Parallelism. Here, we want to put two sets in parallel - "By recording....and digitizing and analyzing" AND "not...but consisted.."BTGmoderatorRO wrote:By recording the noise of crinkled wrappers as they were slowly stretched out in an otherwise silent chamber, and then digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not continuous but consisted of individual bursts or pops just thousandths of a second long.
(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
OA is b
Can anyone help me with the choice of the answer here? what is wrong with option D?
Thank you
Since, after but, we have a verb - 'consisted' - we need a verb ( was..') after not. This leaves us with B and D. In D, 'were digitized and analyzed' is not parallel to 'recording'. This leaves us with B.
(A) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not
(B) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(C) digitizing and analyzing the sound emissions on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
(D) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found that the noise was not
(E) the sound emissions were digitized and analyzed on computers, a team of scientists found the noise not to be
