The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.
(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing
(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and which differed
(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing
(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differed
(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing


Interesting question with lot of different explanations and answers !!!
Some expert please shed some light.
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This question has been already posted few times.
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[quote="shikhar"]The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.
(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing
(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and which differed
(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing
(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differed
(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing




I don´t agree that this is a poor quality questions. In fact, it tests modifiers, relative pronouns and adjective choice.

1. You should eliminate A and B because the relative pronoun "which" carries a singular verb "was". "Which" would be modifying (describing) the word "times" and, as we know, the word "times" is a plural.
2. You should eliminate answer choice C because of parallelism. "Differing" would not be parallel to anything in this sentence.
3. Between answer choice D and E we have to choose the correct adjective and meaning. If we say "differed from" we would be using the wrong idiom and we would be changing the meaning in an unacceptable way. "Differred from" would mean something like "kicked out" from. We don't want that meaning. Even if it were OK to say "differ from" it would be wrong to say that the local time is "differed". However, "differing from" does give us the meaining that we are looking for, by saying that the local time used to "differ from city to city" at that time.
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