Swoosh617 wrote:
The direction in which the Earth and the other solid planets—Mercury, Venus, and Mars—spins were determined from collisions with giant celestial bodies in the early history of the Solar System.
(A) spins were determined from
(B) spins were determined because of
(C) spins was determined through
(D) spin was determined by
(E) spin was determined as a result of
can somebody match the subject and verb in the above sc. I am confused.
So the first verb i see is "spins," and then I asked myself "what spins?" The "other solid planets" are spinning, and because the planets are plural, the verb should reflect that. That rules out answer choices A, B, and C because they use "spins" which would reflect a singular subject. That leaves D and E. I chose D since it's less wordy and I'm not too sure if you can say "determined as a result of"
Right, you got it - once you break this down it is quite easy. SC often punishes those who pick "wordier" answers - IMO
determined and
as a result of are repetitive, since you can only determine something as a result of some process, so "determined by" will suffice.
The
direction in which the Earth and the other solid planets—Mercury, Venus, and Mars—
spins were determined from collisions with giant celestial bodies in the early history of the Solar System.
1) The direction (singular) in which blah blah blah blah blah *was* (must also be singular) determined.
2) The direction in which
the Earth and the other solid planets—Mercury, Venus, and Mars- spin (must be plural because it refers to multiple planets) blah blah blah
3) determined from collisions with blah blah blah. Here, the correct phrasing is "determined as a result of," but that can be shortened to "determined by," which gives us the most concise sentence.