According to scientists who monitored its path,
an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from
the Sun recently triggered a large storm in the
magnetic field that surrounds Earth. which brightened
the Northern Lights and also possibly knocking out a
communications satellite.

(A) an expanding cloud of energized particles
ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large
storm in the magnetic field that surrounds
Earth, which brightened the Northern Lights and
also possibly knocking

(B) an expanding cloud of energized particles
ejected from the Sun was what recently
triggered a large storm in the magnetic field
that surrounds Earth, and it brightened the
Northern Lights and also possibly knocked

(C) an expanding cloud of energized parti cles
ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large
storm in the magnetic field that surrounds
Earth, brightening the Northern Lights and
possibly knocking

(D) a large storm in the magnetic field that
surrounds Earth, recently triggered by an
expanding cloud of energized particles,
brightened the Northern Lights and it possibly
knocked

(E) a large storm in the magnetic field surrounding
Earth was recently triggered by an expanding
cloud of energized particles, brightening the
Northern Lights and it possibly knocked

a very good question !

(C) wins, because of verb+ing modifier and parallelism
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First part of the sentence has "it" need to decide on the "noun" it is referring to: ABC vs. DE, eliminated DE, went by meaning here derived from non-underlined portion..

A: "which" wrongly modifies Earth
B: "it" is ambiguous
C: is the CORRECT option

@Chris

Can you elaborate on your exaplanation? Although, i picked up ABC to go by, but now i see why "the storm" could be the the correct noun options to be evaluated..

Thanks
GODSPEED

what if pronoun it is removed from answer option d?

a large storm in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, recently triggered by an expanding cloud of energized particles,brightened the Northern Lights and possibly knocked


is there any wrong with this ?
if c is omitted here, does this option be the best one among the four choices?

According to scientists who monitored its path, an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large strom in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, which brigthened the Northern Lights and also possibly knocking out a communications satellite

A. an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large strom in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, which brightened the Northern Lights and also possibly knocking
--> NONPARALLEL

B.an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from the Sun was what recently triggered a large strom in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, and it the brigthened the Northern Lights and also possibly knocked
-->illogical sentence

C.an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large strom in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, brightening the Northern Lights and also possibly knocking
--> CORRECT

D. a large storm in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, recently triggered by an expanding cloud of energized particles, brigthened the Northern Lights and it possibly knocked
--> nonparallel/passive

E. a large storm in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth was recently triggered by an expanding cloud of energized particles, brigthening the Northern Lights and it possibly knocked
--> passive+not parallel

will go with C
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Can you please clarify how it refers to 'an expanding cloud' and not the 'storm' ? I think this decision is crucial to solve this question.
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I did not understand why the modifier "According to scientists who monitored its path," should modify the cloud of ...... The scientist can monitor the path of storm too right? As they do for storms on earth! Am I missing anything here? Please help!