SC 1000 - ques #8

[shreeman]

8. A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet, believed to be the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.
(A) believed to be
(B) and that is believed to be
(C) and it is believed to have been
(D) which was, it is believed,
(E) which is believed to be

OA is C

please explain?

[Tani]

Modification again. C is the only one that makes it clear that the Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying creature. The other constructions make the wingspan the largest creature.

[vishalj]

When you see a comma in front of an underlined sentence, you can expect three kinds of answer - 1) choice starting with conjugating conjuction i.e. FANBOYS 2) choice starting with relative clause 3) participle phrase (i..e. starting with +ing)

A. Doesn't satisfy the above condition. Out
B. Right conjuction "AND". However, the relative pronoun "that" is not correct. Out
C. Correct
D. The relative pronoun"which" is modifying "wingspan of 36 feet". So saying that "wingspan of 36 feet" is believed to be the largest flying creature - wrong. Out
E. Same as D. Out

I solved it by POE.

[shreeman]

When you see a comma in front of an underlined sentence, you can expect three kinds of answer - 1) choice starting with conjugating conjuction i.e. FANBOYS 2) choice starting with relative clause 3) participle phrase (i..e. starting with +ing)

Thanks for the explaination.

3. verb+ing form of verb.
generally after comma (verb+ing) form comes and it modifies the whole clause preceding it. But i dont understand how does it modifies? somewhere i read that it modifies the action of the preceding clause and subject of the preceding clause becomes the subject of verb+ing. can you please elaborate?

Also sometime i become confused when to use verb+ing form and when to use infinitive (to+verb) form in a sentence.

please explain?

Thanks