Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds

Hi Nandish, as Vyshak correctly pointed out, D actually changes the structure of the sentence, so that now D has the following two Independent clauses connected just by a comma:

i) It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 8 feet in length - This has a subject it and verb is
ii) the Alaskan brown bear is a close relative of grizzly bear - This has a subject the Alaskan brown bear and verb is.

This kind of a structure is called run-on, and is always incorrect. Similarly, E is also a run-on.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses run-on sentences, their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.

Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 8 feet in length, the Alaskan brown bear is a close relative of grizzly bear.

A.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring -- Correct
B.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and it measures - Parallelism error
C.Largest of all land carnivores, it weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures - Parallelism error
D.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring -- Run- on sentence - 2 independent clauses connected by comma
E.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures -- Run- on sentence - 2 independent clauses connected by comma

Answer A

Why is C wrong? Can anyone pls explain.

There is no parallelism error in C. it is common for weighs and measures

Option C sounds awkward but that cannot be the reason to discard.

Option A may sound correct but the Verb-ing phrase can also modify land carnivores or the noun phrase Largest of all land carnivores - distorting the meaning.

Am I missing something?

Why is C wrong? Can anyone pls explain.

There is no parallelism error in C. it is common for weighs and measures

Option C sounds awkward but that cannot be the reason to discard.

Option A may sound correct but the Verb-ing phrase can also modify - land carnivores- or the noun phrase - Largest of all land carnivores - distorting the meaning.

Am I missing something?

Xbox
1.If largest of the land carnivores is a noun phrase that contains a noun 'land carnivores' and when the subsequent modifier encased in the parenthesis modifies the noun phrase that touches it. then it will be interesting to know what is the verb of such 'a clause' is.
2. If the modifier simply modifies all the land carnovores, do all the land carnivores weigh 1500 pounds each or the modifier refers to only those land carnivores that weigh 1500 pounds each?

Take out the unnecessary words in answer C:

It weighs 1500 pounds, the Alaskan brown bear is a relative of the grizzly bear.

There are two major errors here. This is a run-on sentence; it has two main clauses with no conjunction between them. We need a word like 'and' in the middle, or else we need a period or a semicolon between the two clauses.

But there is also a pronoun error. It's not clear what "it" refers to when it is first used. It might be easier to see the problem with a simpler example:

She went to the store, and the chef bought lemongrass.

There's no way to tell in this sentence if the "she" at the beginning of the sentence is "the chef" at the end of the sentence. Compare with this sentence:

The chef went to the store, and she bought lemongrass.

Now it is clear that "the chef" and "she" are the same person. If a vague subject (like 'it' or 'she') refers to a specific subject (like 'the Alaskan brown bear' or 'the chef') in a sentence, then the specific subject needs to be named first. Otherwise there's no way to know who or what the 'it' or 'she' is referring to.

And, unrelated, the word "the" seems to be missing at least once in the OP. The sentence absolutely needs to say "the grizzly bear" at the end, and I'd normally expect to see a 'the' somewhere in the first clause of the sentence too.

Thanks understood what's wrong with C.

Can u also share what does the Verb-ing modify in A.

Is the construction of A - Noun, Verb-ing, Independent Clause; in this case does the Verb-ing modify the Noun. TIA

Hi Daagh,

Thanks for the response. I am not able to understand the structure of the sentence (what is the modifier and what is it modifying). Can you pls you please help?

XboX

1. We are starting the sentence with an appositive modifier (Largest of all land carnivores) that points to the noun the Alaskan bear
2. Then we have a couple of verb+ing modifiers that both modify the noun namely the Alaskan bear
3. Now you get the independent sentence, namely, the Alaskan brown bear is…..
Therefore, this is a simple sentence with adjectival modifiers appearing before the main clause.

The important thing here to remember is that the modifiers will not have any verb. If the modifiers have any verb, then the sentence will become comma splices( run-ons) since there will be two clauses joined by a comma. That is precisely the reason why choices B, C, D and E are all wrong

A.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring
B.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and it measures
C.Largest of all land carnivores, it weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures
D.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring
E.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures

HTH

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