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modifier problem

by rahulg83 » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:24 pm
To determine whether there are deposits of frozen water on the moon, research scientists at NASA launched two unmanned satellites that orbited the moon's atmosphere, analyzing radar echos from the lunar surface.

A) analyzing
B) as the analysis technique of
C) to the analysis of
D) to analyze
E) a tecnique for analyzing

OA after some time....
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by mehravikas » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:55 pm
IMO - D
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by Mayur Sand » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:02 pm
IMO [spoiler](D)[/spoiler] as this event is simple past and no ongoing so (A) analyzing is out,rest just don't fit in
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by vishalogy » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:04 pm
(D) To analyze.

I would have chosen (A) analyzing but the comma placed ahead of it distorts the meaning.
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by ska7945 » Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:07 am
To determine whether there are deposits of frozen water on the moon, research scientists at NASA launched two unmanned satellites that orbited the moon's atmosphere, analyzing radar echos from the lunar surface.

A) analyzing
B) as the analysis technique of
C) to the analysis of
D) to analyze
E) a tecnique for analyzing

I dont like the all the choises, but E should be the better choice here.
D cant be right. (,)to analyze is wrong.
what's the source? and plz post OA
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by rahulg83 » Wed Jun 03, 2009 3:40 am
OA is A

But in A, isn't analyzing modifies atmosphere??
Even i chose D, but OE given was that it would have been a better option had it used 'used to analyze' insted of 'to analyze'. :?

Any opinions??
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by aj5105 » Wed Jun 03, 2009 3:58 am
source?
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by rahulg83 » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:10 am
I have this princeton paper test...don't know how old or how reliable it is, but some explanations are weird as this one...anyways i am sticking with D
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by Vitalina » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:54 am
I also picked up A. Why do we treat analyzing as modifier? I reason that the satelittes did 2 actions simultaneously: they orbited the moon, while doing what analyzing the echos
Gerund form is used to stress an action happening alongside the one in the main clause
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by lunarpower » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:04 am
(a) and (d) both make conceptual sense. (a) probably makes more sense than does (d), but both are at least somewhat reasonable.
they have slightly differing meanings:
(a) [participial -ing modifier] implies that "analyzing..." was just something that the satellites did while they were orbiting
while
(d) [infinitive] suggests that this is the PURPOSE - the reason WHY the satellites were orbiting.
(d) seems less likely to me, since it's a bit weird to orbit for the PURPOSE of analyzing echoes (as opposed to collecting or intercepting such echoes, which would make a lot more sense).

HOWEVER,
(d) is incorrect because this sort of infinitive construction CANNOT be preceded by a comma.
it just can't.

that's really the only reason why (d) is wrong.
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by hk » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:03 pm
I went by the process of elimination and ended up with A.

B and C change the meaning or rather they make no sense. I eliminated E because moon's atmosphere is not a technique as the sentence implies.
Between A and D i went with D as a comma infront makes this a definitely wrong choice. So i chose A.
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by yogami » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:23 pm
it cant be analyzing because analyzing is an ongoing event and it sounds as if the scientists launched the satellites while analyzing the data which does not make sense. D it is. E cant be the choice because E says launching the satellite is a technique. D it is D it is D it is!
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by vaishalijain7 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:31 pm
rahulg83 wrote:OA is A

But in A, isn't analyzing modifies atmosphere??
Even i chose D, but OE given was that it would have been a better option had it used 'used to analyze' insted of 'to analyze'. :?

Any opinions??

'Analyzing' can't modify 'atmosphere' because you need 'which' after comma if you want to modify atmosphere. Also IMO 'A' is correct because 'analyzing' is present participle and if it's used after comma it modifies the whole preceding clause.
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by vaishalijain7 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:34 pm
Mayur Sand wrote:IMO [spoiler](D)[/spoiler] as this event is simple past and no ongoing so (A) analyzing is out,rest just don't fit in
you can't say that to use present participle the whole sentence should be in present tense, present participle can be used with any tense.
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by yogami » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:54 pm
whats your take on D vaishali? to analyze sounds so much better than just analyzing. We need an OA and end this controversy !!
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