Because uranium is the heaviest and it is therefore the most penet

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 175: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

Because uranium is the heaviest,  and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

A) and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used

B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals, it has increased use

C) and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used

D) and therefore it is the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used

ParamjitDasGMAT · Accepted Answer

C is the best answer. This is a tricky question testing us on the placement of the comma  , parallel construction, and pronouns. Also, one of the very few questions in which "being" is part of the correct answer.

"Because" is a subordinating conjunction, and therefore introduces a new independent clause  . On the GMAT, the structure of construction with "because" needs to to be as follows:

Because noun+verb..., noun+verb.

This eliminates E, as there needs to be a COMMA (,) before the independent clause "it is being increasingly used..". Without the COMMA, there is no independent clause in option E, which makes E incomplete.

A, B, D unnecessarily repeat the pronoun "it" to refer to "uranium". Since "uranium" is already the common subject in the first clause, using a redundant pronoun to refer to it makes the sentence awkward and wordier than needed. Furthermore, there needs to be a COMMA before the prepositional phrase "of natural metals" - this is because this prepositional phrase should be COMMON to both the superlatives: "the heaviest" and "the most penetrating". Options B and D make it look as though the phrase "of natural metals" only applies to the second superlative - "the most penetrating". This is incorrect, as the logical meaning of the sentence should be that "Uranium is the heaviest of natural metals and ....the most penetrating of natural metals". Eliminate A, B, and D.

Option B also contains the noun form "use".  Provided everything else remains correct  among the options  , on the GMAT, the noun form is almost always the inferior construction as compared to the verb/adjectival forms  .

This leaves us with option C as our most concise, direct, and logically correct answer. On the GMAT, "being" is correct when it is used to describe a temporary process or event. For example:

The task is being completed/The test is being administered.

However, when used to describe a STATE/CHARACTERISTIC, the word "being" is almost always 100% incorrect. For example, the below constructions would be considered avoidable on the GMAT:

John is being happy/John is being a sad person.

In option C, the construction uses the conjunction "AND" to connect 2 superlatives   in parallel. The prepositional phrase   is common to both the superlatives. The parallel structure in Option C works as outlined:

"Because uranium is  the heaviest , and therefore  the most penetrating , of natural metals, it is being increasingly...". This is the best answer.

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 175: Sentence Correction (SC2)

• HIGHLIGHTS

• there is no need to repeat IT IS in the parenthetical phrase  and therefore the most penetrating

• Watch the "nested logic" in these sentences.

• nested logic
The first logic chain is embedded in the second.
Logic chain #1: Uranium is the heaviest of the natural metals, and therefore the most penetrating.  
Logic chain #2: Because uranium is the most penetrating natural metal, uranium is increasingly used to make armor piercing bullets.   
 
We reword #1 a little bit because all of the options do so:
 Uranium is the heaviest, and therefore   the most penetrating, natural metal.

We don't need IT IS in the parenthetical phrase  and therefore the most penetrating. 
We do not need extra words between the subject and its verb.

This question reminds me a lot of a similar (and fun) question  HERE .

THE PROMPT

THE OPTIONS

• The use of  it is  in the parenthetical element * and therefore the most penetrating ) is not necessary. 
• IT IS adds an extra unnecessary clause.
I would eliminate A. If you want to, keep A and compare

• IT IS presents the same problem as that in A
• uranium has not increased the use of anything. 
Eliminate B

• Correct. 
-- We have one full  because  clause:   uranium is the heaviest and therefore the most penetrating of all the metals.
-- The main clause begins with , "it is being increasingly used."
The meaning makes sense. Uranium has two superlative qualities. Those qualities make it a good ingredient in the production or armor-piercing bullets and rockets.
• Nested logic
There are quite a few commas in part because  we have nested logic 
Logical relationship #1  , and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals]
Logical relationship #2

• IT IS presents the same problem as that in A and B

• the word  and  is missing before  therefore, 
• The "Because . . ." clause should end after  natural metals  and  with a comma  — without the comma after  natural metals,  the  because  (dependent) clause seems not to have an ending.
•  of natural metalsl  needs to be set off by a comma so that it attaches to the Because- clause and rather than the main clause

The answer is C.

(If you kept A, compare to C. Answer C runs no risk of confusing the reader.)

In option C, two superlative qualities (heaviest, most penetrating) are connected to one object if comparison (natural metals) 
Because uranium is the  heaviest    ,  and therefore the  most penetrating ,  of  natural  metals .

Do not worry too much about the commas. 
We say this dozens of times: Do not reject or accept 99% of answers based on comma placement.
(Two exceptions: the Oxford comma and the comma that should follow a semicolon + adverb)

Options A, B, and D unnecessarily insert IT IS
Option E is missing an AND

Option C is the best.

• Option C and commas?

(1) (in the because clause) for clarity

Similar and correct:  He was the most imaginative, and therefore the most compelling, of people who interviewed for the fellowship .
In the uranium example, we both draw the conclusion (heaviest = most penetrating) AND connect both heaviest and most penetrating to the group "natural metals."

(2) (after "natural metals") to keep  natural metals  associated with the correct clause and subjects (E is wrong)

COMMENTS

Newcomer and veteran aspirants, your comments are revealing (in a good way).
Even if you did not choose the right answer, your reasoning was very good.

Kudos to all. Nice work.

zhanbo · Answer

Thanks for the question. My answer is  (C) .

The simplified dependent clause is "Because uranium is the heaviest of natural metals". Two commas set off a non-restrictive phrase, which also shares "of natural metals".

(A) While we may dismiss A as more verbose than (C), I feel it is actually wrong to write this way. "and it is therefore the most penetrating" is a clause and not a phrase. It should not be able to share "of natural metal" with another clause. 
(B) Worse than (A). Now "of natural metals" is appropriated for the clause set off by two commas. It is still needed to complete the dependent clause "Because uranium is the heaviest of natural metals"
(D) Same issue as in (B)
(E) The comma before main clause ("it is ...") is needed.

joohwangie · Answer

Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

Because uranium is the heaviest of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in....
heaviest what? "heaviest of natural metals"

A) and  it is  therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used

B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals,  it has increased use   change the inferred meaning; the use(usage/application) of uranium is the same, but it is more commonly used.

C) and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  -- correct

D) and therefore  it is  the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural  metals it  is being increasingly used  -- no connetors or comma between metals and it

Therefore, IMO, C

ccheryn · Answer

Because uranium is the heaviest,  and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

if  and  comes either it acts as parallel marker or as co ordinating conjunction or for subject and two verbs. Only Generis has to explain whether modifier can be connected . so going by this. C,D,E are wrong.

A) and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  ( correct choice with  and  used as IC connector. Passive tone correctly conveys the meaning. Atlast one more right usage of being.. )
 
B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals, it has increased use  ( wrong meaning uranium cannot increase the use of its own, so wrong . passive is necessary)

C) and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used ( wrong as reason mentioned above )

D) and therefore it is the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used ( wrong as reason mentioned above )

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used  ( wrong as reason mentioned above )

TheNightKing · Answer

We are left with C is my guess!

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

Correct answer: D

AB incorrectly use "it is" to indicate that uranium is the heaviest ... and the most penetrating.
ACE incorrectly use "being" to indicate a non-temporary state
B awkwardly attributes the "use" to the uranium. 
E incorrectly places "of natural metals" outside the modifier.

amitanshumaity · Answer

Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

Meaning analysis: Because(presents causality) uranium is the heaviest and therefore the most penetrating of all nautural metals, it is being increasingly used... --> why it is increasingly used is given by because and therefore in the preceding clause.

We need to find a answer choice which renders this meaning.

If we look at choice C it says because U is heaviest and therefore most pertaining, of nautural metals, it is being...
This structure renders the correct logic and all the clauses are connected correctly.

IMHO C

LalitaSiri · Answer

Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

A) and  it is  therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used - not parallel

B) and  it is  therefore the most penetrating of natural metals, it  has increased  use - not parallel, wrong verb tense

C) and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used - CORRECT

D) and therefore  it is  the most penetrating of natural metals, it is  BEING  increasingly used

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used - no conjunction here --run on sentence

Therefore the correct answer choice is C

eakabuah · Answer

I'm going with my gut feelings on this one, despite many proponents for option C.

I believe one way to look at this question is to see it as parallelism between two main clauses with  Because  as the parallel marker. On this ground, C is incorrect. This is because option C: Because   uranium is the heaviest  , and   therefore the most penetrating  , of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets. Clearly, we cannot compare a clause:   uranium is the heaviest   with a phrase:   therefore the most penetrating  . We can eliminate C., Of course, Sir  generis  will clarify this issue for me. It is amazing how much I have learned from SC Butler.

Option A: Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is   therefore   the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is   being   increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets. Is the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets ongoing at the moment? Is that the intended meaning? I don't think the use of the present continuous tense is right in the context.   is increasingly used  , the present tense is used to state a fact, which is stated in this context. This same verb tense error can be used to eliminate options C and E as well. 
I also believe that the use of   therefore   without a comma in A is inappropriate. The same error is repeated in option B as well. Options C and D however, avoids this error by bringing  therefore  right after  and , and this is a correct structure that does not require a comma to be placed after therefore.

Option B: Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is   therefore   the most penetrating of natural metals, it   has increased use   in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.  it has increased use  At first I erroneously misconstrued  has increased use  to be in the present perfect tense. Nevertheless. the use of  has increased use  is still incorrect as it changes the meaning of the sentence by suggesting that the usage of uranium has seen an increased use now compared with an earlier period. This is different from the intended meaning, which is the usage of uranium as a result of some of its properties is on the rise. As already stated above, the same punctuation error of omitting a comma after therefore is present in option B. B can, therefore, be eliminated.

Option E: Because uranium is the heaviest, therefore the most penetrating,   of natural metals   it is   being   increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets. There is a punctuation error in option E. A comma is required after  of natural metals . In addition,  it is being used , the present continuous tense is incorrect in the context.

The best answer is, therefore, option D. The present tense is used to report a fact correctly, there is no punctuation error in terms of the usage of   therefore  , and there is no parallelism error.

GMATXP · Answer

D - avoids "it is being", comma in the right place.

Posted from my mobile device

Shishou · Answer

I stand to be corrected but I choose C.

Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

A) and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used   This construction did not need to repeat IT. Replacing IT by Uranium makes the sentence read " Because uranium is the heaviest and uranium is therefore the most penetrating".Ths makes the construction unideal

B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals, it has increased use  I will certainly argue for a meaning issue here. Its not that it is already used increasingly but rather it is now being used increasingly. The it placed here makes the reading awkward

C) and therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used   This is the correct answer.Uranium is the heaviest and its weight also makes it the most penetrating. It is not repeated here and makes the sentence much better to read

D) and therefore it is the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used Makes the same mistake of using IT again while changing the meaning

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used   This is missing the connector and and without the connector "and" we fail to see the relation between the penetrating property and the weight of the uranium/color]

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo D.
 
Because uranium is the heaviest,  and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

Meaning: As uranium is heaviest and most penetrating of natural metals, it's usage is being increased in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

Answer choice analysis:

A) and it is therefore  the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used  - The modifier ' the most penetrating' is hanging alone in the sentence as the possible reference phrase ' of natural metals' mentioned in comma pair, such construction presents incomplete idea.

B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals,  it has increased use  - Meaning error; the dependent clause distorts the meaning by introducing present perfect tense and changing the form of the main verb in the sentence, which is use. Hence it's incorrect though the modifier error has been corrected.

C) and therefore the  most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used   - the modifier ' the most penetrating' is hanging alone in the sentence as the possible reference phrase ' of natural metals' mentioned in comma pair, such construction presents incomplete idea.

D) and therefore it is the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used - Seems fine as the most penetrating, which modifies correctly, has trailing prepositional phrase. Hence, it presents complete idea and meaning.

E) therefore the most p enetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used   - the modifier ' the most penetrating' is hanging alone in the sentence as the possible reference phrase ' of natural metals' mentioned in comma pair, such construction presents incomplete idea. Additionally, independent clause clung unnecessarily to the dependent clause.

snoep · Answer

Because uranium is the heaviest, and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing bullets and rockets.

the structure is Because A, B. B being the main clause and a complete thought in itself. A should be a cause and B an effect. Here "it is being increasingly used" appears to be the main clause. There is also an intermediate result here described after "therefore".

based on the meaning, sequence of the cause-effect/reason-result relation seems to be, uranium is increasingly used in the production of armor-piercing because it is the most penetrating of all metals, and because it is the most heaviest, it is the most penetrating of all metals.

Being can be used with adjective or past participle. Being used (past participle) -> means on-going action of 'use' and increasingly modifies 'used' to show emphasis on frequency of the increase. We can use 'being' as 'being used' or 'increasingly being used' or remove being altogether . however, As most of the options have 'being incorrectly used', we can find other reasons to eliminate the ac's.

A) and it is therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals, it is being increasingly used
here the cause seems to be uranium is heaviest and the clause of most penetrating is not complete. uranium is the heaviest of all metals, hence it is being increasingly used.. which is not the correct meaning

B) and it is therefore the most penetrating of natural metals, it has increased use
This option has 'has increased use' meaning has additional use of uranium in the field in terms of say additional feature/functionality. 'increasingly used' intends to suggest that adoption to use uranium is increasing in production field.. so there is a change in meaning

D) and therefore it is the most penetrating of natural metals, it is increasingly used
this seems to convey the intended cause and effect relation and meaning. it is also efficient to say 'increasingly used'

E) therefore the most penetrating, of natural metals it is being increasingly used
same error as above choices, also these are longer clauses, for clarity a comma before 'it is being increasingly used' will help

D seems to be the answer!

although I don't seem to get thru the "comma + And.." for simplicity , If And is connecting only two clauses, we don't need comma. also therefore is one connector into the mix.

generis · Answer

I have posted the official explanation  HERE .

porwal1 · Answer

Can someone explain the reason of having a comma after penetrating and what is its usage?

Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

Hi  porwal1  ,

I think your question is addressed above. You may want to re-read the thread.

Uranium has two superlative qualities in relation to  heavy metals. 
-- it is the heaviest metal of all natural metals
-- it is the most penetrating metal of all natural metals

We could write:
Because uranium is the  heaviest   of natural metals  and therefore the  most penetrating   of natural metals , it is being increasingly used

That sentence does not need to be as long as it is.
We remove  of natural metals  after  heaviest 
We add a comma after  penetrating  because both  heaviest  and  most penetrating  need to be attached to "of heavy metals," and using a comma after  penetrating  gives both superlatives a connection to "of heavy metals."

In answer to your question, the usage of a comma after  penetrating  is for clarity; for style; and for the sake of mimicking human speech.
Two superlatives are connected to their target comparison group: of heavy metals.

Finally, we preserve the structure of the (dependent) because clause and main clause:
Because Uranium is X, and therefore Y, of Z,  it is  being used . . .
-- the dependent intro clause is correctly set off by a comma
-- the main clause finishes the "because" thought

Hope that helps. You may want to re-read the thread and if you still have a question, write your question and tag me.
I will be happy to try to help.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Because uranium is the heaviest and it is therefore the most penet

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Because uranium is the heaviest and it is therefore the most penet

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