Peaks of Mountain

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Peaks of Mountain

by goelmohit2002 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:36 am
Hi All,

In the below question, I was able to narrow down to C and E.....but could not figure out the reason to choose one over the other....

OG says to kick out E as

"Choice E uses the correct verb form, is, but it incorrectly introduces a dependent adverbial although clause into a prepositional phrase (with crests ...)."

Can some one please help me decrypt the cryptic language of OG for kicking out E ?


The peaks of a mountain range, acting like rocks in a streambed, produce ripples in the air flowing over them; the resulting flow pattern, with crests and troughs that remain stationary although the air that forms them is moving rapidly, are known as "standing waves."

(A) crests and troughs that remain stationary although the air that forms them is moving rapidly, are
(B) crests and troughs that remain stationary despite the rapidly moving air that forms them, is
(C) crests and troughs that remain stationary although the air that forms them is moving rapidly, is
(D) stationary crests and troughs although the air that forms them is moving rapidly, are
(E) stationary crests and troughs although they are formed by rapidly moving air, is
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by scoobydooby » Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:54 pm
although is used to express a contrast. it links a dependeant clause to an independant clause.

in E, the part before although is a prepositional phrase ("with", no verb) and the part after although is an indpendant clause (subject+verb+stands on own). wrong use.

in C, the part before although is a dependant clause (subject+verb+cant stand on its own and the part after although is a independant clause. correct use.

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by goelmohit2002 » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:26 am
scoobydooby wrote:although is used to express a contrast. it links a dependeant clause to an independant clause.

in E, the part before although is a prepositional phrase ("with", no verb) and the part after although is an indpendant clause (subject+verb+stands on own). wrong use.

in C, the part before although is a dependant clause (subject+verb+cant stand on its own and the part after although is a independant clause. correct use.
Hi Scooby,

I could not understand how C has verb in it...

X that Y....

here as per my opinion Y tells more about X.....

For e.g. "crests and troughs that remain stationary"....as per my understanding is not an independent clause.....there is no main verb in the sentence.... here that IMO is acting as a relative pronoun....

Can you please tell what I am missing here ?

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by scoobydooby » Fri Jul 17, 2009 3:01 am
yes, not saying it is an independant clause. it is a dependant clause, ie cannot stand by itself

"crests and troughs that remain stationary"
subject: crests and troughs
verb: remain
relative pronoun: that. it modifies the subject "crests and troughs"

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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:48 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply. Seems like the debate is between C and E here. Interesting. In OG12, the explanation mentions nothing about a "dependent adverbial clause." The explanation merely complains that E is passive. (I assume you got your explanation from OG11?)

So I'm guessing they chopped that other part of the explanation because they didn't think it was valid... which means we don't have to worry about it. Yay! :)

The reason I don't like E: I'm trying to point out this contradictory thing, that the crests and troughs remain stationary even though the air itself is moving constantly. E, first of all, makes this contrast less clear by making "stationary" an adjective before "crests and troughs" rather than showing a parallel construction (crests and troughs --> stationary, air that forms them --> moving rapidly).

Second, the pronoun "they" should refer not only to "crests and troughs" but also to any attached adjectives, so we'd be repeating the "stationary" bit during the part where we're trying to say the air is moving constantly. Technically, that's still true, but that's an awkward construction.
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by goelmohit2002 » Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:14 am
Stacey Koprince wrote: Second, the pronoun "they" should refer not only to "crests and troughs" but also to any attached adjectives, so we'd be repeating the "stationary" bit during the part where we're trying to say the air is moving constantly. Technically, that's still true, but that's an awkward construction.
Awesome Stacey !!! Thanks a lot.

Does it mean that whenever we see adjective + noun in a sentence....and a pronoun referring back to that setup...then adjective is always included ?

Many thanks Again
Mohit

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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:27 am
In some set-ups, yes - but not if what you are trying to do is contrast the first group with a second, different group.

eg, The black cat is larger than the white one. "one" refers just to the word "cat" (and, in fact, using the word "one" indicates that we're talking about a specific cat, not just using a general pronoun)

The healthy kids are having more fun than those who are sick. Again, we're trying to contrast these two groups, so it doesn't make sense for "those" to refer to healthy kids. Just kids.

If, however, the pronoun is intended to refer specifically to that thing you were talking about before (when you used the noun), then yes, it should include adjectives.

The tall policeman wanted some extra exercise, so he joined a basketball team. Not just he = policeman, but he = tall policeman.

This sentence has the same kind of setup: The stationary crests and troughs are X, and they <the stationary crests and troughs> are formed by Y.
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