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Bunuel
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 09 Oct 2023, 01:30
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E
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Difficulty:

95% (hard)

Question Stats:

37% (01:48) correct 63% (01:50) wrong based on 223 sessions

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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers proposed a cause for the chestnut die-off: a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads to the death of the tree within a short period.

A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads

B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading

C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading

D. invades the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading

E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading


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E
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 09 Oct 2023, 09:41
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Answer is E

E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading

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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 09 Oct 2023, 10:00
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Following this for Detailed Solution.

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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 09 Oct 2023, 11:51
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IMO Answer is C.

In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers proposed a cause for the chestnut die-off: a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads to the death of the tree within a short period.

Meaning wise: Fungus invades the tree bark and lowers PH of infected tissue (this leads to death of tree)

1. Parallelism:


A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads
Keep
B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading
Keep
C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Keep
D. invades the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Eliminate
E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Eliminate

Now,
A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads
Meaning change
B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading
Its not a list but cause
C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Best answer.

Better explanation would be much appreciated :)
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 10 Oct 2023, 02:18
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Hi KarishmaB,

Can you please share your reasoning for E?

Thanks in advance. :)
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 10 Oct 2023, 21:34
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sood1596,
Your approach to Parallelism error is correct; you're using the wrong elements together to establish parallelism.


Going by the meaning, the fungus is known to invade the trees bark, ultimately leading to its death. But HOW? That's the modifier phrase for you, and that should have elements that are parallel.

Let's analyse options C,D,E.

C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Forming and lowers are not parallel here. Eliminate.

D. invades the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Same issue as C. Eliminate.


E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
E solves the issue with the other 2 options. Keep!


Hope this helps!


Let me know if my explanation lacked something KarishmaB Bunuel.
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 19 Oct 2023, 03:47
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sood1596
IMO Answer is C.

In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers proposed a cause for the chestnut die-off: a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads to the death of the tree within a short period.

Meaning wise: Fungus invades the tree bark and lowers PH of infected tissue (this leads to death of tree)

1. Parallelism:


A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads
Keep
B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading
Keep
C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Keep
D. invades the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Eliminate
E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Eliminate

Now,
A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads
Meaning change
B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading
Its not a list but cause
C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading
Best answer.

Better explanation would be much appreciated :)
Show more


Yep, good approach.
In my case, I tried to focus on meaning first by mentally eliminating the 'unnecessary' phrase between (,):

In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers proposed a cause for the chestnut die-off: a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads to the death of the tree within a short period.

So, we got: a fungus invades/invading the tree's bark, leads/leading to the death of the tree.
As such, "forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels" should be parallel. This should allow you to keep B and E.

Between B and E, its a question of meaning and parallelism again.. B seems to put everything at the same level which does not sound right as you get the feeling that something is missing at the end.
So, E is correct.
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In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers 04 Nov 2023, 08:30
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Bunuel
In a study published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers proposed a cause for the chestnut die-off: a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s, invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads to the death of the tree within a short period.

A. invading the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leads

B. invading the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads, lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, and leading

C. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowers the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading

D. invades the tree’s bark, forms cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading

E. invades the tree’s bark, forming cankers as it spreads and lowering the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels, leading


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VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:



The colon in this sentence tells you that the second half of the sentence explains the first half. In this case, the second half of the sentence explains how the fungus caused the chestnut die-off. After determining this, it’s a matter of making the sentence logical and making sure that all lists are in parallel. Using the “Slash & Burn” technique, you can see that the phrase “which was introduced to the United States in the early 1900s” is unnecessary information, and that (for this sentence to have a main verb and thus be complete) you need the next word to be “invades” rather than “invading.” This means that you can eliminate choices (A) and (B).

“Leading” at the end of the underlined portion is consistent among all three choices, so you can ignore it. Now you just need to look at the middle clause. It is a short list, so both items must be parallel. You can either use the pair “forms… and lowers” or the pair “forming… and lowering” to describe the actions of the fungus. However, a mix of the two isn’t acceptable. Based on this, you can eliminate (C) and (D) since they mix and match these two forms, leaving you with (E).

You may ask why “lowering” must be parallel to “forming,” as opposed to “lowers” being parallel to “spreads.” If the phrase were “as it spreads and lowers,” the object of both verbs would be “the pH of infected tissue to toxic levels,” which is clearly illogical (the fungus doesn’t “spread levels of pH”). Remember: particularly if you’re unsure about a grammatical decision, always consider the meaning of the sentence.
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