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For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has

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For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 07 Aug 2017, 22:54
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For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.

(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen

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What's wrong with c?

And I think that "them" in d is redundant or awkward. Why is it ok?
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D

Originally posted by eybrj2 on 21 Mar 2012, 00:15.
Last edited by BillyZ on 07 Aug 2017, 22:54, edited 3 times in total.
1.Part of the sentence underlined 2.Answer Choice A Added
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   22 Mar 2012, 15:55
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kraizada84 wrote:
@MIKE

Could you please comment on B. I cant differentiate between B and D.

THANX


Well, it's subtle ---

(B) the downs usually because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops too quickly.

One problem is what I mentioned in my above post --- if the verbs ("killing" & "ripening") are this closely joined, then the adverb "quickly" applies to both them. The adverb "quickly" is only supposed to apply to the verb "ripening" --- while it's fine for plants to ripen, it's a problem if they ripen too quickly. The adverb "quickly" is not supposed to apply to "killing" --- it's bad for the weather to kill the plants, and whether it does so quickly or slowly doesn't matter. That is the biggest obvious problem with (B).

Even more subtle --- I can't quite explain why, but "the downs usually caused by unfavorable weather . . ." sounds more natural than the "downs usually because of unfavorable weather . . ." Using some form of the verb "cause" is usually more direct than using the words "because of."

In this sense, this question is not really a solid GMAT SC question, because aside from that relatively subtle thing about the adverb "quickly", there's no real glaring mistake with (B). Here, (D) is right because it has absolutely no mistake, but on the real GMAT, the wrong answers will be more obviously wrong.

Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike :)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 12:22
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eybrj2 wrote:
What's wrong with c? And I think that "them" in d is redundant or awkward. Why is it ok?


For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.
(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen

Problem #1 with C
the phrase "being caused" is very awkward ---- the phrase "being" + participle of a verb is almost never correct on GMAT SC. Whenever you even see the word "being", your hackles should go up and you should be highly suspicious.
Problem #2 with C
by cramming the two verbs so close together, the adverb "too quickly" will apply to both of them. It is a problem that they ripen too quickly. The problem is not that that the crops are killed "too quickly", but simply that they were killed at all. The adverb "too quickly" should just modify the "ripen" verb, not the "kill" verb. (That's also a problem with B)

D is not redundant because there is a parallel structure between the two verbs, "kills" and "ripens" --- both are followed by direct object. It would be redundant, or awkwardly wordy, to say: ". . . that kills crops or ripens crops too quickly." In other words, it would sound funny to use the word "crops" twice. That's why it's perfectly acceptable to use the pronoun "them" for the crops after the second verb: ". . . that kills crops or ripens them too quickly." That's perfect. Grammatically correct, not awkward, not redundant.

Does all this make sense?

It's sounds like you need some help in understanding the rules of grammar and what constitutes redundant and/or awkward constructions. I would like to recommend Magoosh test prep. We have over 200 lesson videos that deliver all the content and strategy for the GMAT, as well as 800+ practice questions, each with it's own video explanation. Here's a sample lesson for SC.
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/599-int ... correction
Here's a sample SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1120
When you submit your answer, the following page will have the video explanation.

I hope all this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mike :)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 00:58
Option C is having "being" which should be avoided, it makes the sentence wordy.

Option D looks good. Them refers to "crops".
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 02:58
C: being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops.
Being caused by doesn't make any sense, at all, if you think of it a little carefully.

Two possibilities:-
Being: A State of "Being", right? or..
Being: As in HUMAN BEING.

So, when you say "....usuallly being caused by" --> What it actually means is that Something is already in the state of being, or there is someother person who was caused by? both these meanings dont make sense.

Lastly, concision - Caused by is consice and nice looking, although it is passive, I guess in this sentence it is required. Because if you say "the downs....because of..." it sounds like a fragment. So, caused by completes the idea nicely in D.

PS: Please underline the portion correctly when posting questions just as you would see it in the Exam prompt.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 03:19
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+1 D

You should avoid use being & try to generally look at it as a last option
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 06:22
eybrj2 wrote:
For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetale growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of ubfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.

a)

b) because of unfavorable weather kinlling or ripening crops.

c) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops.

d) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them

e) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, ot that they ripen


What's wrong with c?

And I think that "them" in d is redundant or awkward. Why is it ok?



"them" is necessary to refer to "crops", so D is right. Please underline the portion of the sentence as in the original question and if you're too lazy to do that at least retype this portion on A to help other people to help you.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   21 Mar 2012, 08:21
stuck between B and D can someone throw some light on that please.

thnx
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   22 Mar 2012, 02:56
mikemcgarry wrote:
eybrj2 wrote:
What's wrong with c? And I think that "them" in d is redundant or awkward. Why is it ok?


For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.
(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen

Problem #1 with C
the phrase "being caused" is very awkward ---- the phrase "being" + participle of a verb is almost never correct on GMAT SC. Whenever you even see the word "being", your hackles should go up and you should be highly suspicious.
Problem #2 with C
by cramming the two verbs so close together, the adverb "too quickly" will apply to both of them. It is a problem that they ripen too quickly. The problem is not that that the crops are killed "too quickly", but simply that they were killed at all. The adverb "too quickly" should just modify the "ripen" verb, not the "kill" verb. (That's also a problem with B)

D is not redundant because there is a parallel structure between the two verbs, "kills" and "ripens" --- both are followed by direct object. It would be redundant, or awkwardly wordy, to say: ". . . that kills crops or ripens crops too quickly." In other words, it would sound funny to use the word "crops" twice. That's why it's perfectly acceptable to use the pronoun "them" for the crops after the second verb: ". . . that kills crops or ripens them too quickly." That's perfect. Grammatically correct, not awkward, not redundant.

Does all this make sense?

It's sounds like you need some help in understanding the rules of grammar and what constitutes redundant and/or awkward constructions. I would like to recommend Magoosh test prep. We have over 200 lesson videos that deliver all the content and strategy for the GMAT, as well as 800+ practice questions, each with it's own video explanation. Here's a sample lesson for SC.
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/599-int ... correction
Here's a sample SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1120
When you submit your answer, the following page will have the video explanation.

I hope all this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mike :)


@MIKE

Could you please comment on B. I cant differentiate between B and D.

THANX
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   22 Mar 2012, 08:44
+1 to Mike...i would go with D too for the same reason
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   22 Mar 2012, 20:04
mikemcgarry wrote:
kraizada84 wrote:
@MIKE

Could you please comment on B. I cant differentiate between B and D.

THANX


Well, it's subtle ---

(B) the downs usually because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops too quickly.

One problem is what I mentioned in my above post --- if the verbs ("killing" & "ripening") are this closely joined, then the adverb "quickly" applies to both them. The adverb "quickly" is only supposed to apply to the verb "ripening" --- while it's fine for plants to ripen, it's a problem if they ripen too quickly. The adverb "quickly" is not supposed to apply to "killing" --- it's bad for the weather to kill the plants, and whether it does so quickly or slowly doesn't matter. That is the biggest obvious problem with (B).

Even more subtle --- I can't quite explain why, but "the downs usually caused by unfavorable weather . . ." sounds more natural than the "downs usually because of unfavorable weather . . ." Using some form of the verb "cause" is usually more direct than using the words "because of."

In this sense, this question is not really a solid GMAT SC question, because aside from that relatively subtle thing about the adverb "quickly", there's no real glaring mistake with (B). Here, (D) is right because it has absolutely no mistake, but on the real GMAT, the wrong answers will be more obviously wrong.

Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike :)


@ Mike,

That was helpful.

I think B and D also has a difference, please comment on the difference i have drawn out below:

My thoughts:

(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops

--> Can we also say B is flawed because the use of -ing verb i.e. unfavorable weather is not restricted here. It just conveys if unfavorable weather--> crops killed and ripened ?

(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them

--> the use "that" here makes it more accurate by restricting the "unfavorable weather", i.e. not all 100 unfavorable weather kills/ripens but out of 100 some like 30-40 kills/ripens. Because its never true whenever there is unfavorable weather then crops get killed/ripened.
hence D goes best.

Am i correct in drawing out the difference? Is this difference worth differentiating the correct answer?

thanx
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2012, 02:15
Why I have eliminated D because it has construction "because of....or...."
i guess this is grammatically incorrect. it should be "because of....or because of....".

correct me if i am wrong.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2012, 15:17
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kraizada84 wrote:
I think B and D also has a difference, please comment on the difference i have drawn out below:

My thoughts:

(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops

--> Can we also say B is flawed because the use of -ing verb i.e. unfavorable weather is not restricted here. It just conveys if unfavorable weather--> crops killed and ripened ?

(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them

--> the use "that" here makes it more accurate by restricting the "unfavorable weather", i.e. not all 100 unfavorable weather kills/ripens but out of 100 some like 30-40 kills/ripens. Because its never true whenever there is unfavorable weather then crops get killed/ripened.
hence D goes best.

Am i correct in drawing out the difference? Is this difference worth differentiating the correct answer?

thanx


Well, the -ing phrases in B are used correctly. I'm not sure what you mean by "restricted", but the noun "unfavorable weather" is correctly modified by the participles "killing" and "ripening". For example, in the sentence:

Unfavorable weather killing crops and giving livestock diseases is a big problem for farmers in the Midwest.

That sentence is perfectly correct grammatically, with the parallel participial phrases "killing crops" and "giving livestock diseases" both modifying the noun "unfavorable weather." Does that make sense?

In general, you can modify either with a participial phrase ("unfavorable weather killing crops") or a dependent clause ("unfavorable weather that kills crops"). Both are perfectly correct. In general, participial phrases are often a little shorter and less "clunky" then subordinate clauses, but it all depends on wording and context.

If the role of participial phrases vs. subordinate clauses is unfamiliar, I highly recommend Magoosh. We have 200+ lesson videos, including videos that explain all the grammar on the GMAT. Here's a sample lesson:

https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/615-modifiers-i

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   25 Mar 2012, 15:28
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shadabkhaniet wrote:
Why I have eliminated D because it has construction "because of....or...."
i guess this is grammatically incorrect. it should be "because of....or because of....".

correct me if i am wrong.

First of all, did you mean that you eliminated B because of the "because of" construction? The words "because of" do not appear in D.

You don't need "because of....or because of...." ---- it's parallel structure, so you don't need to repeat every word of the grammatical construction. Here, it's just two parallel objects of a prepositional phrase, and each object is modified by a participial phrases. Examples:

I spend time in cities or the countryside.

The words "cities" and "countryside" are objects of the preposition "in." Now, I'll add participial phrases.

I spend time in cities bursting with energy or the countryside evoking simpler times.

The sentence is more complex, but the underlying grammatical structure is the same. The nouns "cities" and "countryside" are still objects of the preposition "in," and we don't need to add a second "in" before "the countryside", because those two nouns are still in parallel. Adding modifying clauses to both doesn't change the fact that they're in parallel.

Does this make sense? Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   28 Mar 2012, 13:05
+1 D,
Is better than any other option
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   22 Aug 2013, 21:07
because of something

is adverbial and so can not modifies the only preceding noun.

that is the reason why B is wrong.

is my thinking correct.

we can say

I fail gmat because of the laziness

I can not say

my failure because of the hard test is clear.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   24 Sep 2013, 03:38
eybrj2 wrote:
For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.

(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen


My Queries....

Show Spoiler
What's wrong with c?

And I think that "them" in d is redundant or awkward. Why is it ok?


If you would see the un-underlined part, and identify the tone of the sentence, you would notice that the sentence is in a "continuing tone", something which is happening / ongoing. For similar reasons, I started to look for the verb "kills" after reading the sentence. Also, that is the reason C gets eliminated, since it's tone is not similar to the un-underlined part of the sentence.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   24 Sep 2013, 10:59
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vietmoi999 wrote:
because of something

is adverbial and so can not modifies the only preceding noun.

that is the reason why B is wrong.

is my thinking correct.

we can say: I fail gmat because of the laziness

I can not say: my failure because of the hard test is clear.

Dear vietmoi999,
I would like to clarify some things in response. The preposition "because of" introduces an prepositional phrase that may be adverbial (modifying a verb) or may be adjectival (modifying a noun). Here's a blog on adjectival & adverbial phrases & clauses:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-clauses/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-clauses/
Here's a blog about "because" vs. "because of"

In your first example sentence, it's awkward to have the definite article before "laziness" --- the construction "the laziness" makes no sense without further qualification. That one just should be:
I failed the GMAT because of laziness.
That's correct, and that's a use of the "because of" as an adverbial clause.
The second one is grammatically correct, but rhetorically a bit awkward --- it's awkward primarily because the causal relationship could be stated much more powerfully and compactly with a "because" clause. You see, the word "failure" is action word, but it's a noun --- the GMAT loves this construction for incorrect answers. Action words as nouns make for clunky awkward sentences, but action words as verbs make clear direct sentences. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/active-verbs-on-the-gmat/
Original: "My failure because of the hard test is clear."
Improved: "I clearly failed because the test was hard."
With all due respect, you set up a paper tiger, an inherently flawed sentence, as your demonstration that "because of" could not be adjectival. In fact, it's perfectly possible for "because of" to modify a noun in a rhetorically sound sentence. For example
(1) The mudslides, because of heavy rain all winter, threatened the houses at the bottom of the hill.
(2) His success in the class because of a perfect score on the final lead to a prestigious scholarship.
In both of those, "because of" modifies a noun.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   03 Oct 2016, 19:22
For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.

(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen


Here the use of caused by is more justified as it is modifying the noun(subject) " the downs". Because of is generally used when the verb is modified or is used to present a reason.

This leaves us with D and E. Chose D as E is not parallel.

Please correct me if i am wrong.

Thanks.
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink] New post   04 Oct 2016, 10:34
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kamathimanshu wrote:
For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.

(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen


Here the use of caused by is more justified as it is modifying the noun(subject) " the downs". Because of is generally used when the verb is modified or is used to present a reason.

This leaves us with D and E. Chose D as E is not parallel.

Please correct me if i am wrong.

Thanks.

Dear kamathimanshu,
I'm happy to respond. :-)

The structure "the downs caused by" is very good, but the structure "the downs because of" would also work. Choice (C) is super-awkward, but we can't reject (A) & (B) purely on their beginnings. (A) & (E) have the same parallelism problem: that's a reason to reject them both. If you look at my post in this thread from Mar 22, 2012, you will see my discussion of what's wrong with (B).

Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Re: For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has [#permalink]
04 Oct 2016, 10:34
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