Hi,
I received a PM to explain this sentence.
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times,
which was determined by
when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing from city to city, and to the
establishment of regional times.
"¢ The growth of the railroads led to
o the abolition of local times, and
o the establishment of regional times.
"¢ Two characteristics of local times have been mentioned in the sentence:
o they were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian, and
they differed from city to city.
1. Singular verb "was" does not agree in number with plural subject "local times". SV must agree in number error.
2. Also "was" seem to be the verb for "abolition of local times", meaning abolition was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian. This is certainly not the intended logical meaning of the sentence. Meaning error.
3. The two characteristics of "local times" must be parallel to each other. Here, "which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian" (a clause) is not parallel to "differing from city to city" ( a verb-ed modifier phrase). Parallelism error.
POE:
(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and
differing: Incorrect. Errors discussed above.
(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and which
differed: Incorrect. Same SV number agreement and meaning errors as in A.
(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and
differing: Incorrect. Same parallelism error as in A.
(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed: Incorrect. "determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian" (a verb-ed modifier) is not parallel to "differed from city to city" (a verb phrase). Notice here that "determined" is not a verb here. It is a verb-ed modifier that is modifying "local times". If it were a verb, ther would be no comma before it and the subject and the verb would be connected properly.
(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing: Correct. "determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian" (a verb-ed modifier phrase) is parallel to "differing from city to city" (a verb-ing modifier phrase). Both the modifiers are correctly presenting the characteristics of "local times". Refer to OG 12#42 to see how verb-ing and verb-ed modifiers can be parallel to each other.
1. SV pair must always agree in number.
2. SV pair must always make sense together.
3. In a list of parallelism, all the entities must be grammatically as well as logically parallel.
The concepts tested in this sentence have been covered in e-gmat concepts:
1. Level 1 - SV - Agree in Number (This concept features in Level 1 Preview Concepts that are available for free. Just register and learn.)
2. Level 2 - SV - Make Sense
3. Level 1 - Parallelism - Identify and Correct
4. Level 1 - Parallelism - Helpful Tips
Hope this helps.
Shraddha
