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Around the World in 80 Questions (Day 3): Entomologists have recently

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debjit1990

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the tense of 'sprawl' should be consistent with the verb 'consists'. Hence (B) is correct

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Given: Entomologists have recently discovered what appears to be a global mega-colony of ants, a massive complex that consists of over 22 million interconnected anthill networks constructed by over 200 billion Argentinean ants some 100 years ago and sprawling across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

(A) sprawling
(B) sprawls
(C) sprawled
(D) it sprawled
(E) is sprawling

Here the main noun of the sentence is the mega-colony of ants. Hence our verb should follow the SV number agreement. Colony is singular and hence the very should be singular. Also parallelism is used by using 'and' where two actions are described i.e. the colony 'consists' of over 22 million interconnected anthill networks and 'singular verb' across Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Here simple present is used before and for the verb consists and hence 'and' should have simple present form of verb sprawl after it.

option A, C, D, and E are all wrong for the above reason.

Hence correct choice is option B i.e. 'sprawls'.

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20 Jul 2023, 03:39

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Entomologists have recently discovered what appears to be a global mega-colony of ants, a massive complex that consists of over 22 million interconnected anthill networks constructed by over 200 billion Argentinean ants some 100 years ago and sprawling across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Meaning. It is to be highlighted that the interconnected anthill networks are spread over the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

(A) sprawling
use of present participle 'sprawling' to modify the interconnected anthill networks, which are spread over the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia, is correct

(B) sprawls
S-V agreement error since it's the 'plural' networks, for which the modifier has been used

(C) sprawled
use of past participle 'sprawling' to modify the interconnected anthill networks, which are spread over the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia, is correct

(D) it sprawled
'it' can have only one precedent ie, the mega colony --- doesn't convey the meaning appropriately

(E) is sprawling
use of present participle 'is sprawling' can't modify the interconnected anthill networks, which are spread over the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia

(A) is the CORRECT answer

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20 Jul 2023, 04:18

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"... a global mega-colony of ants, a massive complex that....100 years ago and sprawling across ... "

the AND is the crucial thing here and makes it clear that the portion until the first comma ("..ants) is to joined together with the portion after AND. We need to see if this segment makes sense gramatically and logically.

A - "..ants sprawling across the Americas, ..." - perfect. We hold on to this option
B - "...ants sprawls across the Americas, ..." - subject verb agreement fails. Eliminate B
C - "...ants sprawled across the Americas, ..." - tense issue. sprawled is past tense, while the starting of the sentence regarding entomologists is present perfect tense. Eliminate C
D - " ...ants it sprawled across the Americas, ..." - nonsense. Eliminate D
E - " ...ants is sprawling across the Americas, ..." - nonsense. Eliminate E

Therefore answer is A.

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(A) sprawling Correct. participle modifying networks; parallel to verb-ed modifier constructed
(B) sprawls This is verb, not parallel to verb-ed modifier constructed; plural networks don't match sprawls
(C) sprawled This is verb, not parallel to verb-ed modifier constructed
(D) it sprawled networks constructed...it sprawled? wrong
(E) is sprawling This is verb, not parallel to verb-ed modifier constructed; plural networks don't match is sprawling

Answer (A)

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Option A sprawling
There is no error in the sentence

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Entomologists have recently discovered what appears to be a global mega-colony of ants, a massive complex that consists of over 22 million interconnected anthill networks constructed by over 200 billion Argentinean ants some 100 years ago and sprawling across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

(A) sprawling
"sprawling" is in the present participle form, which implies ongoing action but doesn't fit the context of a mega-colony that was constructed 100 years ago.
(B) sprawls
correct option choice, sprawls is parallel with 'consists of' both referring to the massive complex
(C) sprawled
unclear what sprawled is modifying, incorrect structure
(D) it sprawled
"it sprawled" introduces a pronoun "it," which is not necessary and changes the structure of the sentence.
(E) is sprawling
suggests that the event is currently taking place, but the sentence indicates that the mega-colony was constructed 100 years ago, so it's not ongoing at the moment.

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20 Jul 2023, 04:40

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Bunuel

(A) sprawling- not parallel with "consists"; "sprawling" is an v-ing modifier whereas "consists" is a simple present verb.

(B) sprawls- It should be parallel with "consists"

(C) sprawled- simple past tense; usage of simple past tense will mean that massive complex used to sprawl in the past but it is no longer in position to do so. Also, it is not parallel with the non-underlined simple tense (consists).

(D) it sprawled- this option is clause but then it will not be parallel with a noun + noun modifier which is present before "and"

(E) is sprawling- I think B is a better choice than E.

IMO OA should be B

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A incorrect
B Tense error
C Correct
D pronoun it unclear
E Verb issues

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Ans. (B) sprawls

Entomologists have recently discovered what appears to be a global mega-colony of ants, a massive complex that consists of over 22 million interconnected anthill networks constructed by over 200 billion Argentinean ants some 100 years ago and sprawling across the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

All those big words in the sentences are useless, we can shorten the sentence as below:

"Entomologists have discovered a complex that consists of over 22 million anthill networks and sprawling across the Americas".

Much easier. All the unwanted descriptive words that add no value to grammar have been removed/replaced.

Now applying the parallel construction idea, we see that "consists" comes after that, so after "and" "sprawls" should come to maintain parallelism.

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(A) sprawling
-- not parallel with consists

(B) sprawls
-- consistent and correct

(C) sprawled
-- it is a present phenomenon

(D) it sprawled
-- it is a present phenomenon

(E) is sprawling
-- not parallel with consists

Option B

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20 Jul 2023, 05:21

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Bunuel

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20 Jul 2023, 05:45

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-ed verbal can be parallel to another verbal. In this case -ing verbal will be parallel. Therefore the modifier "constructed" will be parallel to "sprawling".
Answer Option A.

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Bunuel

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We need to maintain a parallelism between a massive complex that consists....... and the underlined portion which is sprawling.
(A) sprawling - Incorrect as present participle is not parallel with finite verb consists
(B) sprawls - Correct
(C) sprawled - Incorrect meaning issue, as it indicates that sprawling of network has stopped
(D) it sprawled -Incorrect - usage of it is incorrect and has same error as that of option C
(E) is sprawling - Incorrect parallelism issue, and meaning issue ( it indicates that sprawling of network is currently temporarily on going , while sentence needs to indicate the general fact about the network)

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Bunuel

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The that clause is defining the massive complex by mentioning two features so both must be parallel.
Hence sprawls is correct usage here as it is parallel to consists.

(A) sprawling (Parallelism issue, it is modifying ant colony and not massive complex)
(B) sprawls (Correct as explained)
(C) sprawled (The past participle is modifying ant colony and not massive complex)
(D) it sprawled (Use of past tense is incorrect here)
(E) is sprawling (Use of continuous tense is incorrect, the complex is not sprawling at this time)

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