Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restr

Question

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
>> missing verb
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
>>IS there any grammatical error here, apart from idiom issue?
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

1: Defying efforts at Vs Defying efforts to achieve something.
2: The USA dollar continued to rise, reaching its blah blah [participle modifier presenting the result of the action in main clause.]

ray3232 · Accepted Answer

Answer:

Defying efforts to restrain it OR
Defying efforts at restraining it.

Logic: Any wish,will, intention and desire is followed by "to+verb" Eg: Intention to get a good score, Plan to murder etc.

So A,B and C are eliminated.

Next between D and E,
E. The United States Dollar is continuing to rise, and to reach (Not Parallel).
D. The United States dollar continued its rise, reaching- reaching is an offshoot of the dollar's rise or put in another way -the rise of the dollar is 'the cause' and reaching its highest level is 'the effect'. So in cause and effect, you use "ING".

Hope I am clear.

Ray

anairamitch1804 · Answer

Choices A, B, and C use the wrong idiom ‘effort at restraining’; the correct idiom is ‘effort to restrain’. 
Also, choice A has no verb at all in the overall sentence.

B is wrong because "to reach" should be "reaching" to represent the result of the action in the preceding clause (cause-effect). B is also wrong because the "it" in the first phrase refers to "rise" in the following clause (misplaced modifier).

C is wrong because it uses ‘and it reached’ even when the two actions are not independent; in this case, the second action can’t happen without the first. In such a case, ‘and it reached’ construction is wrong. This is a clear cause-and-effect sequence. Here, the second (dependent) action has to be written in ‘verb-ing’ form.

E is wrong because "and to reach" is trying to be parallel with "to restrain", which can’t be the case, as the subjects are different in the two cases - ‘the restraining’ is done by “the policymakers”, whereas the word ‘reach’ refers to the dollar. As a result, the parallel construction distorts the meaning. Also, "is continuing" doesn't make sense either because the action is completed. Furthermore, continuous tenses describe an action at a particular moment, not a period. 
E is not parallel. We can write 
1) Subject is x-ing and y-ing. 
or 
2) Subject wants to x and to y

In E we have Subject is x-ing and to y.

D. Correct … it uses the cause and effect logic correctly by using ‘verb-ing’ for the effect.

vd · Answer

IMO D is the answer here

ya i agree that 'It' is awkward here and as a pronoun it just might have the antecedent of "policymakers" and "Atlantic"

raconteur · Answer

D for me.

I believe the correct idiom is "efforts to" so that takes out A,B, and C.

"Defying" sets a progressive present tense, so "reaching" its matches up just fine. In E, "and to reach" is awkward. If E had "and reached" then perhaps that would be OK. But I like the ll with defying/reaching.

alpha_plus_gamma · Answer

D.."efforts to" is correct. "and to reach" in E is wrong.

abhijit_sen · Answer

First of all remove the fluff:
Defying efforts at restraining it or Defying efforts to restrain it. Obviously the later option is better, so A, B, and C is out.
Two parallel activities "defying" and "reaching" is correctly parallel in D but E break this parallelism.

ykaiim · Answer

How can dollar continue its rise?

seekmba · Answer

Hi ykaiim, A, B and C are out because the idiom is "efforts to restrain"

Only D and E remain of which E is very bad option.

only D remains.

chandu4gmat · Answer

Answer D. Efforts --- to is correct usage. E is wordy.

metallicafan · Answer

+1 D

"efforts....to"

"reaching..." must be a modifier.

HuongShashi · Answer

A. efforts to not efforts at; no main verb, continuing, reaching
B. like A, the rise of US dollar can't compared with the German mank
C. like A, reaching cant compared with the mark
E. is continuing is wrong
D is my choice. Please correct if there is anything I mentioned wrong. Thanks!

JarvisR · Answer

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
>> missing verb
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
>>IS there any grammatical error here, apart from idiom issue?
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising , and it  reached
 (D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
 (E) to restrain it, the United States dollar  is continuing its rise, and to  reach

1:  Defying efforts at  Vs  Defying efforts to achieve something. 
2: The USA dollar continued to rise, reaching its blah blah

WaterFlowsUp · Answer

Yes , in option B the sentence formation is incorrect. There is an unnecessary comma after continued. In some sense the sentence tries to say that those countries tried to restrain dollar from rising but option b says that they tried to stop the rise from reaching its zenith.
There is also a modifier error. The opening modifier is intended to modify dollar and not rise.
However, i took more than 115 seconds to realize why option B is wrong

JarvisR · Answer

Thanks  WaterFlowsUp .
Any quick way to identify what "Defying" is modifying? To me even the "The rise" sounds correct. 
I ruled out B based upon the idiom error and the way sentence structure was formed.

vijayshree · Answer

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic  at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching  its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching

1. Read the sentence in this way --Defying efforts  by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic   at

The correct idiom is Efforts---- to -----------not efforts at .

2. Read the sentence in this way----------- the United States dollar, continuing its rise , reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

The united states dollar is subject that require verb --- but " Reaching " is not active verb . it is Gerund - ---hence verb is not in the sentence .  to make it active verb one needs is / am / are was were before gerund -- " reaching "

(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach

The correct idiom is Efforts----- to -----------not efforts at .

The united states dollar is subject -----not " the rise "

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark----- is modify the -----the united state dollar ------not " the rise "

How can " the rise " can reach its highest level

(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and  it  reached

The correct idiom is Efforts ------to -----------not efforts at .

no need to use of " it " after ---and----- in the above sentence . " it " is a pronoun refers to preceding noun , which is united state dollar that is already mention . use of " it " is redundant , therefore no need of " it "

(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching

Correct idiom -----efforts --to ,

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark---- correctly modifying ----- the United States dollar continued its rise

(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

correct idiom ----- efforts ----to

but  is continuing -----------, and --------- to reach ------not ||

is continuing --( active verb ) --------- while ---- to reach ---( infinity verb )

correct answer is D

vijayshree · Answer

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic  at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching  its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching

1. Read the sentence in this way --Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at

The correct idiom is Efforts---- to -----------not efforts at .

2. Read the sentence in this way----------- the United States dollar,continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

The united states dollar is subject that require verb ---but " Reaching " is not active verb . it is Gerund ----hence verb is not in the sentence . to make it active verb one needs is / am / are was were before gerund -- " reaching "

(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach

The correct idiom is Efforts----- to -----------not efforts at .

The united states dollar is subject -----not " the rise "

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark----- is modify the -----the united state dollar ------not " the rise "

How can " the rise " can reach its highest level

(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached

The correct idiom is Efforts ------to -----------not efforts at .

no need to use of " it " after ---and----- in the above sentence . " it " is a pronoun refers to preceding noun , which is united state dollar that is already mention . use of " it " is redundant , therefore no need of " it "

(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching

Correct idiom -----efforts --to ,

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark---- correctly modifying ----- the United States dollar continued its rise

(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

correct idiom ----- efforts ----to

but is continuing -----------, and --------- to reach ------not ||

is continuing --( active verb ) --------- while ---- to reach ---( infinity verb )

correct answer is D

iPen · Answer

A, B, and C out - idiom of effort...to.

E is out because the last part following the conjunction, and, is not a complete thought.

D is correct, with a complete thought sandwiched between two absolute phrases.

abhi1693 · Answer

Is Defying a participle acting like an adjective or a verb.

Posted from my mobile device

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi sondenso, when a pronoun (in this case  it ) appears as part of the  introductory  modifier (as is the case here, where the sentence starts with a  participial  phrase), the rule is that this pronoun refers to the noun immediately  after  (in this case  the United States dollar ) the introductory modifier. So, here,  it  refers to  the United States dollar .

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  cases where pronoun appears before the antecedent , their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restr

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Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restr

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