On Aug 13,1868, the warship U.S.S. Wateree, anchored in the

Experts can anyone help


I am actually mainly confused here on C

X and Y implies that

X happened and at the same time Y happened ? is my understanding correct

So according to C it rode and at the same time came to rest hovv can this be possible

vvhat is vvrong vvith B - please explain

Thanks for your time

Dear venmic

First of all, the word "and" is not an absolute guarantee of complete simultaneity. If you are listing events with "and", it's true these events should be close in time and sequentially connected ----
"he walked up the stairs and opened the door"
"the engine sped to the spot and promptly put the fire out"
"she wrote him a nasty letter and mailed it to him that same afternoon"
In all of these example, the actions are close in time, but not strictly simultaneous. Granted, it would be incorrect to use a simple "and" connection for events that were quite distant in time or completely unrelated, but you are reading far too much into this vvord. "Close in time" is not the same as "100% exactly at the same time."

To say
"the warship U.S.S. Wateree ... rode on the crest of a tsunami and came to rest in the Atacama Desert ..."
is a perfectly correct: clear, logical, and unambiguous. The two events --- riding the wave and then coming to rest --- are near in time (they both happened within 5-10 minutes of each other) and they are definitely sequentially & causally connected. That's 100% correct, which is one of the reasons that (C) is correct.

Let's look at (B)
On Aug 13,1868, the warship U.S.S. Wateree, anchored in the harbor of Arica, off the coast of what is now northern Chile, rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), while it came to rest in the Atacama Desert, some three miles up the coast and almost two miles inland from its initial anchorage.
One way to express the problem --- there's a failure of parallelism. The two actions --- riding the crest and coming to rest --- should be in parallel, because they are sequentially & causally connected. Actions that have a clear logical connection should have a clear grammatical connection.
Another way to express the problem --- this choice actually has the problem that you imputed to (C) ----- by using "while' (which means "at the same time"), it implies that the riding of the crest and the coming to rest in the desert were simultaneous, which is illogical and not what the sentence means.
Also, it's just awkward and unnatural --- it "sounds funny", probably because of these reasons.

BTW, the story in this sentence ---this is all true --- this actually happened to the USS Wateree in 1868.

Does all this make sense?

Mike

I chose C.

Parallel: anchored -> rode -> came

We should not look at anchored as being part of the list.

On Aug 13,1868, the warship U.S.S. Wateree, anchored in the harbor of Arica, off the coast of what is now northern Chile, rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and came to rest in the Atacama Desert, some three miles up the coast and almost two miles inland from its initial anchorage.

Anchored is just a modifier.

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Can someone help with the answer choice explanation (esp E)?

On Aug 13,1868, the warship U.S.S. Wateree, anchored in the harbor of Arica, off the coast of what is now northern Chile, rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and coming to rest in the Atacama Desert, it was some three miles up the coast and almost two miles inland from its initial anchorage.

A) rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and coming to rest in the Atacama Desert, it was The sentence is describing an event in the past, usage of "coming" in the present tense is incorrect. Additionally, "it was" is redundant. Eliminate.

B) rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), while it came to rest in the Atacama Desert, "while" indicates some sort of contrasting transition, which is not reflected in the information in the second half of the sentence. Eliminate.

C) rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and came to rest in the Atacama Desert, Correct answer. Errors in (A) are removed and no new errors are introduced.

D) riding on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), to come to rest in the Atacama Desert When describing a past event, usage of "riding" in present continuous tense is incorrect. Eliminate.

E) riding on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), it had come to rest in the Atacama Desert, which is Same as (D). Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

A. rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and coming to rest in the Atacama Desert, it was
(1) breaks parallelism: “…the warship U.S.S. Wateree…rode on the crest…AND coming to rest…”;

B. rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), while it came to rest in the Atacama Desert,
(1) meaning error: the “while” leads you to think that the it rode on the crest of wave WHILE it came to rest in the Desert? Nonsensical

C. rode on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave) and came to rest in the Atacama Desert,
best option

D. riding on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), to come to rest in the Atacama Desert
(1) incomplete sentence: missing an action verb – there’s only a string of modifiers

E. riding on the crest of a tsunami (seismic sea wave), it had come to rest in the Atacama Desert, which is
(1) verb tense error, leading to meaning error: “…it HAD COME to rest…” – so it rested in the Atacama Desert FIRST then what? Then it was riding on the crest? It’s ambiguous at best; (2) modifier error, leading to meaning error: the which clause basically states the Desert is some three miles up the coast, but it’s the ship (i.e., the warship U.S.S. Wateree) that’s three miles up the coast

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