Sentence Correction

Environmental scientists have been careful to point out that the pollution of estuaries has various causes, including seepage from septic fields, overuse of waterways by boats lacking proper waste disposal facilities, spraying indiscriminate pesticides by farmers, and inadequate protection of the water table.


A. spraying indiscriminate pesticides by farmers

B. the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides by farmers

C. pesticides which are sprayed by farmers indiscriminately

D. pesticides being sprayed in indiscriminate amounts by farmers

E. farmers who spray pesticides indiscriminately

IMO B for || ism

IMO B

The break up of parallel elements is as follows,
various causes,
including seepage from septic fields, ---- Simple Gerund phrase as Nouns

overuse of waterways by boats lacking proper waste disposal facilities,
--- Noun phrase

spraying indiscriminate pesticides by farmers, -- Simple Gerund phrase as Nouns
The correct usage is,
the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides by farmers -- Complex Gerund as Noun
and inadequate protection of the water table -- Noun phrase

Can any one explain, how Complex gerund and Simple gerund made parallel here. Please correct me if I am wrong.

regards,
hhk

hariharakarthi wrote:The break up of parallel elements is as follows,
various causes,
including seepage from septic fields, ---- Simple Gerund phrase as Nouns

overuse of waterways by boats lacking proper waste disposal facilities,
--- Noun phrase

spraying indiscriminate pesticides by farmers, -- Simple Gerund phrase as Nouns
The correct usage is,
the indiscriminate spraying of pesticides by farmers -- Complex Gerund as Noun
and inadequate protection of the water table -- Noun phrase

Can any one explain, how Complex gerund and Simple gerund made parallel here. Please correct me if I am wrong.

regards,
hhk

Hi hhk,

IMO not sure abt simple/complex gerund noun case...

But IMO, the parallelism is like this....(IMO better word here would have been....which include....rather than including....which is a comma +ing setup and modifies the entire previous clause....but since no option )....

reasons including A, B, C, and D.
All the above are noun/noun phrases.

Here A = seepage
B = overuse
C = the indiscriminate spay(whatever follow a/an/the is always noun)
D = inadequate protection.

Please tell if I am wrong or missing something.

IMO - B

In B the "the" threw me off. Is that legal there?