carcass wrote:
sivasanjeev wrote:
In undisturbed primary forests, the Honduran mahogany grows up to a height of 130 feet, having a buttressed trunk and a crown that spread over the canopy of lesser trees.
A. up to a height of 130 feet, having a buttressed trunk and a crown that spread
B. up to 130 feet in height, and with a buttressed trunk and a crown spreading
C. to as high as 130 feet in height, having a buttressed trunk and with a crown that spread
D. to a height of 130 feet, with a buttressed trunk and with a crown that spreads
E. as high a height as 130 feet, having a buttressing trunk and a crown spreading
In this such question lokk at a parallell structure and avoid as much as possible HAVING because most of the time is wrong. NOT always but most of the time
B is not parallel
D is right
Ask if something remains unclear
regards
First method of eliminationA. up to a height of 150 feet -->
redundant. Either it should be 'up to 150 feet' or 'to a height of 150 feet'B. up to 130 feet in height -->
same issue as AC. to as high as 130 feet in height -->
redundant and incorrect comparison as X asD. to a height of 130 feet -->
looks fine.
E. as high a height as 130 feet -->
same issue as C
Second method of eliminationA.
having a buttressed trunk and a crown that spread
--> The
construction is a participle phrase, which needs to be followed by a noun. Second thing, 'spread' is referring to the 'crown', so it should be singular ==> spreads should be used.
B. and with a buttressed trunk and a crown spreading
--> the first 'and' after the comma should introduce an independent clause. But it isn't the case.
C. having a buttressed trunk and with a crown that spread
--> Same issue in A
D. with a buttressed trunk and with a crown that spreads
--> parallelism maintained. Crown agrees with 'spreads'
E.
having a buttressed trunk and a crown spreading
--> Participle phrase needs to be followed by a noun.
One advanced concept, I would like to present here.
1.
Having a buttressed trunk, the tree grows to a height of...
->The underlined part is a participle phrase.
->It acts like an adjective.
->It normally is placed at the beginning of a sentence. (And hence, carcass's statement to avoid as much as possible HAVING because most of the time is wrong)
2. The tree grows
having a buttressed trunk.
->The underlined part is a gerund phrase.
->It acts like a noun.
->It should be the direct object of a verb.