Broccoli thrives in moderate to cool climates and propagated

(A) propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing
-- seond part of sentence should also start with present tense
(B) propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed so as to produce
-- same as (A)
(C) is propagated by seeds either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed so that they produce
-- designed so that they produce makes it wordy
(D) is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or in plant beds designed to produce
-- Correct Answer. present tense in second part and correct use of idiom " designed to"
(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing
-- designed for is not correct idiom

Answer is D.
(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing
is not correct because you have:
sown either _____or Sown_____, this introduces parallelism error (Adverbial phrase (directly in the field) is not parallel to Verb Phrase (Sown in plant beds).

While dealing with either or I simply follow this rule" what is before either should not be tagged with or".Here sown is before either so you should not tag it with or.

That makes me choose D.

in (E) sown is used twice, we have to be careful to avoid redundancy while using "either"

If you have to say that you want to eat one option of dishes to eat how would you say?

i want to eat either ice-cream or pan cake.
OR
I want to either eat ice cream or eat pan cake.

Hope this helps !

hey!
reading the replies i understood using sown twice is redundancy.

Still on clarification would be helpful. Had the sentence structure was either sown ___________ or sown______________ would it be correct?

umm.. grammatically correct but concision wise not too concise. You can take sown common (in algebraic terms, I find it easy to correlate it with algebra )..
it is more concise to say .. --> sown either blah or Blah.. however, if both verbs were different it makes sense to include them after either.. for example, either sown .. or thrown .. in this case you can't take verb out as common.

I guess , this will make a confusion over any other AC with either X OR Y, you are not incorrect though.

Correct answer is D

Here using "sown" twice is not redundancy error.
It is about "either or" construction, wherein follow following rules:

............................either verb phrase.............or verb phrase
..........................either noun phrase..............or noun phrase......
.........................either prep phrase..................or prep phrase
........................either adjective................or adjective............

IMO:D
E IS OUT BECAUSE OF THE PARALLELISM ERROR "EITHER X OR Y" , WHERE X AND Y MUST BE IN PARALLEL .ITS NT HERE ..

Please check put "Thursday's with Ron" video on parallelism some rules that becomes quite handy in answering such questions!

Either xxxxx or yyyy

Here yyyyy must be parallel to xxxxx

Posted from my mobile device

Broccoli thrives in moderate to cool climates and propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing transplants.

I have a small doubt this question. Parallelism of correlative conjunction, ‘either----or’ demands that we have to maintain parallel structures after ‘either—or’ i.e. either X or Y. I am not clear whether this is a rigid rule, going by this example. Notwithstanding the other errors in these choices, we have to assume that none of the choices is correct.

(A) propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing --- either sown or in plant bed is not parallel --- should be ‘either sown or sown’

(B) propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed so as to produce –either directly or sown in plant beds is not parallel. Should be ‘either directly or indirectly’

(C) is propagated by seeds either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed so that they produce --- either sown directly or in plant beds --- is not parallel – Should be ‘sown directly or sown indirectly’

(D) is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or in plant beds designed to produce--- either directly or in plant beds is not parallel. Should be ‘either directly or indirectly’

(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing--- either directly or sown is not parallel --- Should be ‘either directly or indirectly.

Takeaway: In official questions, we shouldn’t entertain such doubts, probably because this concept is beyond the comprehension of non-natives. We are at cross-roads. Ain't we?

Broccoli thrives in moderate to cool climates and propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing transplants.

(A) propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing - propagated is a verb-ed modifier ; Parallelism issue - Either X or Y
(B) propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed so as to produce - same as A
(C) is propagated by seeds either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed so that they produce - same as A
(D) is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or in plant beds designed to produce - Correct
(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing - Either X or Y -- parallelism issue

Answer D

(A) propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing - "is propagated" more sense. Also, in either X, Y idiom X & Y should be parallel.

(B) propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed so as to produce - Same as A.

(C) is propagated by seeds either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed so that they produce - Apart from either or issue referent of "they" is an issue here.

(D) is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or in plant beds designed to produce

- "is propagated" makes sense. "to produce" is correct. Either or usage may look incorrect here but try introducing "indirectly" after "or" to see if this makes sense.

is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or (indirectly) in plant beds designed to produce

(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing - Apart from either or issue, "for producing" is incorrect.

Answer: (D).

IF we write
the plant bed is designed to produce transplants.
this mean the bed produces the transplant
but if we write.
the bed is designed for learning how to grow trees.
this mean the bed dose not perform learning. learning is general action performed by, for example, students of biology.
so, "designed for doing' exists in english but with a different meaning

This question is based on Parallelism and Construction.

The sentence gives us two pieces of information about broccoli – that it thrives in moderate to cool climates and that it is propagated by seeds.

In Options A and B, the auxiliary verb ‘is’ is missing. Without the auxiliary verb, the word ‘propagated’ is only a participle that describes broccoli. The lack of the auxiliary verb affects parallelism because the conjunction ‘and’ implies two clauses. So, Options A and B can be eliminated.

There is another aspect of parallelism in the sentence because of the correlative conjunctions ‘either-or’. Each of the pair of conjunctions must be followed by a word of the same part of speech.

In Option C, the first of the pair – either – is followed by the participle ‘sown’ but the second of the pair – or – is followed by a preposition ‘in. Since the option lacks parallelism, Option C can be eliminated.

Option E has the same lack of parallelism. ‘Either’ is followed by the adverb ‘directly’ and ‘or’ is followed by the participle ‘sown’. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Though in Option D also, the conjunction ‘either’ is followed by the adverb ‘directly’, this option is the best of all the options as it conveys the meaning accurately – that the seeds are sown either directly in the field or in plant beds.
This option contains the auxiliary verb ‘is’ before the participle ‘propagated’ and accurately conveys the verb form, thus maintaining parallelism of clauses.
The option also contains the appropriate idiomatic phrase “designed to produce transplants”.
Therefore, D is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Broccoli thrives in moderate to cool climates and *propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing* transplants.

(A) propagated by seeds, either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed for producing
Why should we have to use propagated (Past tense) . thrives - simple present

(B) propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed so as to produce
Keep B

(C) is propagated by seeds either sown directly in the field or in plant beds designed so that they produce
Sown either ....or...should be the right approach

(D) is propagated by seeds sown either directly in the field or in plant beds designed to produce
Elegant and logical

(E) is propagated by seeds, sown either directly in the field or sown in plant beds designed for producing
sown either ...or...should be the approach

out of B and D, Usage of sown two times and propagated(past tense) are the errors in B. So, eliminate B
D is the answer

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