https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fresh-1D.png https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fresh-1D.png https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/VerbEd-modifier1.png “ED FORMS” – VERBS OR MODIFIERS Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest. This is probably one of the most discussed problems in GMAT Verbal SC section. This sentence is a cake walk for those who understand verb-ing and verb-ed modifiers thoroughly, and is confusing to the hilt for those who have just started to learn these concepts. The tactfully crafted answer choices of this problem keep bringing this question on various forums for discussion and detailed explanation. So let’s take a look at those interesting answer choices: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Free-Trial2.png A. extending B. extends C. extended D. it extended E. is extending In the first glimpse, the sentence looks simple and easy. You scan the sentence, discover the word “spawned”, look at conjunction “and”, think, “Oh! Parallelism dude. How simple!”, mark Choice C. But all the excitement is robbed off by the Answer Key page that says Choice A is the correct answer. So where did you go wrong? Aren't “spawned” and “extended” grammatically parallel? They both have the same structure. The instinct (especially of the non-natives) is to believe that words with “ed” are simple past tense verbs. So if you took “spawned” to be the simple past tense verb, you looked for the same for “extending” and marked “extended”. You got the incorrect answer. VERB-ED – CAN BE SIMPLE PAST TENSE OR MODIFIER So, what is happening in this sentence? “Extended” fits as simple past tense verb and looks parallel to “spawned”. Then how can “extended” be incorrect? Well, the answer is that Verb-ed forms can be used in two ways –One as verb in simple past tense and the other as modifier (also called Verb-ed modifiers) and in this case it is used as the latter (explained later). In essence, the same word, for example extended, can assume the role of a verb in simple past form or that of a modifier. The challenge in the question is to determine whether “spawned” and extended” are verb-ed modifiers or just the verbs and then decide in what form should “extended” be used. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Celebrating-Milestones1.png To determine that, let’s examine two simple examples: a. The company extended the training period for the interns. – extended = simple past tense b. The training period extended last year made many interns unhappy. – extended as verb-ed modifier Let's analyze the meaning of sentence a. The sentence clearly conveys that that the company did the job of extending the training period for the interns. The word “extended” works as “verb” in this sentence. Sentence b means that many interns became unhappy because the training period was extended. In this sentence, the verb is "made". "Extended" is the verb-ed modifier that is giving additional information about "the training period". So, here we see that the same word "extended" can work as a verb and as a modifier, depending upon how it has been used in the sentence. In fact, most of the words can be written as “verb” as well as “modifier” if we add “ed” to them. “Spawned” is also one of them. If you want to know how to tell whether a verb-ed word is a simple past tense verb or a modifier, read in the following section about this simple test that can be very handy. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Litmus-Test1.png There is a simple test we can perform to find out whether the verb-ed is a verb in simple past tense or the verb-ed modifier. Here is the test: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Litmus-Test.png Let’s have another look at both the examples above: a. The company extended the training period for the interns. The subject of the sentence above is “The Company” . Now ask yourself, “Is the subject the doer of the verb?” In other words, did the company extend the training. The answer is yes it did. The Subject Verb pair makes sense. Hence, in this sentence, extended is used as a verb in simple past. b. The training period extended last year made many interns unhappy. The subject here is “The training period”. The next word is the verb-ed “extended”. Is it a verb or a modifier? Ask this question: “Did “the training period” do the action of “extending”? The answer is “No”. The action of extension was not done by the training period. In other words, the Subject-Verb pair does not make sense. This tells you that “extended” is a verb-ed modifier here and not the verb. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/OG-Example.png Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest. Now let us apply this test on the “giant fungus”. After cutting the flab, this is the core that we get: …a giant fungus… spawned by a single fertilized pore some 10,000 years ago… So let’s ask, did “a giant fungus” do the action of “spawning”? The answer is “no” because it is clearly mentioned in the sentence that the action of spawning was done by “a single fertilized pore”. Hence, the litmus test confirms that “spawned” is a verb-ed modifier. Therefore, to maintain parallelism we need to use a form of “extend” that is used as a modifier. Note that “extended” CAN be a verb-ed modifier. However, we need to find out if this form works in this sentence as a modifier: …a giant fungus… extended for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest. Did “a giant fungus” do the job of extension? Yes, it did. It is the giant fungus that extends for more than 30 acres. This means that “extended” will work as simple past tense verb in this sentence and not as a modifier . This is the reason why “extended” cannot be used since a verb CANNOT be parallel to a verb-ed modifier. Let’s once again quickly look at the answer choices: A. extending B. extends C. extended D. it extended E. is extending A quick scan of these choices will tell you that all the answer choices B, C and E are verbs in different forms while Choice E is a clause. Choice A “extending” is the only modifier that describes one of the characteristics of “a giant fungus”. Hence, verb-ed modifier “spawned” and verb-ing modifier “extending” are parallel entities because they both perform the same function, although they differ structurally. HOW VERB-ED MODIFIER IS DERIVED https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grammar.png This section is for those who have the grammarian like quest for knowledge. We will explain here in detail how verb-ed modifiers are derived. This knowledge is not imperative to take the GMAT, but is more for personal understanding as to why verb-ed modifiers work the way they do. So let’s bring the sentence with verb-ed modifier back here: a. The training period extended last year made many interns unhappy. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/FT-header3-e1532524244114.jpg Now this sentence can be written as: i. The training period that was extended last year made many interns unhappy. So, we have a relative pronoun clause here that is written in simple past tense in passive voice. Per the grammar rules, verb-ed modifiers are derived by removing the relative pronoun modifier that is written in passive voice by removing “the relative pronoun” and “the helping verb” (is/are/am/was/were). Hence we derive: that was extended last year = was extended last year = extended last year Let’s take another example: b. A good leader who is followed by the mass and is respected for his benevolent qualities is always remembered for several generations. So here we have two relative clauses with passive verbs “is followed” and “is respected”. Let’s turn both of them into verb-ed modifiers. Who is followed by the mass = is followed by the mass = followed by the mass Who is respected for his benevolent qualities = is respected for his benevolent qualities = respected for his benevolent qualities c. A good leader followed by the mass and respected for his benevolent qualities, is always remembered for several generations Notice that active verbs in relative pronoun clause cannot be turned into verb-ed modifiers. Let’s try this: a. A leader who guides his followers honestly earns immense respect from the mass. If we apply the rule to derive verb-ed modifier here, this is what we will get: Who guides his followers = guides his followers Notice the limitation with the sentence containing a relative pronoun in active voice and simple present tense. There is no question of getting verb-ed modifier here because originally there is no verb-ed word in this sentence. This method will not work even if we change the tense of the above sentence: a. A leader who guided his followers honestly earned immense respect from the mass. Who guided his followers = guided his followers Now let’s put this verb-ed modifier phrase in the sentence: a. A leader guided his followers honestly earned immense respect from the mass. No need to say that this sentence is a fragment because here “guided” is the simple past tense verb and not a verb-ed modifier. “earned” again is a verb . So this sentence has two verbs that are not connected properly. We landed up with this disaster because we tried to make the verb-ed modifier out of the verb in active voice in the relative clause. HOW CAN THIS HELP YOU ANSWER GMAT SC? People who are fluent in the language do not need to know the basics behind the derivation of the verb-ed modifiers because they intuitively know that sentence 1 is correct but sentence 2 is incorrect. They may not be able to pin point the reason for the same, but they can distinguish right from wrong. But people who are not that fluent in this language may get confused about the above. For example, one of the students asked me the following question about OG12#85: Can I omit “that” from this sentence or is “that” required? Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations … The answer = “that” is required because if you omit it, the sentence will be a run-on sentence. But consider another version of this sentence: Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that was destroyed multiple times by flooding of Indus river… Now in this sentence, “that” can be omitted (obviously along with “was”) Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization destroyed multiple times by flooding of Indus river… In essence, this information helps build your knowledge about the sentence structure, which in turn results in more solid foundation. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg WHERE CAN YOU GET MORE INFORMATION? Verb-ed modifiers are covered in detail in the concept titled “Modifiers – verb-ing”. This concept is available in the free preview of Sentence Correction course. You will need to login at e-gmat.com to access this concept. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Exercise-Problem1.png Identify whether the underlined words are verbs or verb-ed modifiers. 1. Like birds today, Archaeopteryx had feathers that were fully formed . 2. Our powers of color vision are derived from cells in our eyes called cones, three types in all, each triggered by different wavelengths of light. 3. As Joel Bregman hoped , dozens of young stars turned up in each of the three dead galaxies—and as an added surprise, they even appeared in Messier 105. 4. Dark matter might actually be produced at the energies explored by the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 5. A leader guided by sound principles earned immense respect from the masses. 6. A company founded on sound business principles achieves much higher success. 7. The lamp decorated with stars filled the child’s room with innocent beauty. Correct these sentences if you feel they are incorrect. 1. The lamp decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty. 2. A leader guided his followers earned immense respect from the masses. (PS: For solutions, please scroll down) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Take-Away.png

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ED FORMS - Verbs or Modifiers

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egmat

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22 Oct 2013, 09:36

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karant

Hello Shraddha,

First of all, I want to thank you and e-gmat team for the wonderful articles.

Need your help in below official question.

By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national and international speed records, and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be of dangerously experimental design.

A and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be
B earning them at a time that aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew were
C earning these at a time where aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were
D earned at a time in which aviation was still so new such that many of the planes she flew were
E earned at a time when aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were

1. Why Choice A is wrong?
IC,AND IC (if we consider earned a verb)

2. What is wrong with the usage of earning(verb-ing modifier) here.
I have compared the above question with the example you have cited in verb-ing article :
Sachin Tendulkar played an exceptionally outstanding innings, making the team win gloriously.

Thanks

Hi karant,

Let us use the 3 step process to solve this problem

Meaning Analysis:

Pilot Jacqueline Cochran had seventeen records by 1940. She earned them at a time when aviation was still so new that many planes which she flew were of dangerously experimental design.

Sentence Structure Analysis:

for

many of the planes

Notice that the noun “many of the planes” has no verb associated with it. Moreover, “for” is incorrect here. “that” should be used.

Option Choice Analysis:

Option A: Incorrect for the above mentioned reasons.

Option B: earning them at a time that aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew were

This option also incorrectly uses “for”. Moreover “that” in “at a time that aviation was still…” is incorrect. “when” should be used to refer to an event or time period.

Option C: earning these at a time where aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were

Again, “where” is incorrect in Option C. “when” should be used to refer to an event or time period.

Option D: earned at a time in which aviation was still so new such that many of the planes she flew were

“such that” is used to present a purpose or intent. (For example, “The rock was fixed at an angle such that it doesn’t allow water to leak”). “that” is more appropriate in place of “such that” in this sentence.

Option E: earned at a time when aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were

This is the correct option. Notice how this option corrects the errors present in the previous options.

karant

egmat

Great question Himanshu. Actually you have brought up a verb - originate - that has two possible meanings.
Meaning 1 - to create
Example 1 - Newton originated the idea of Gravitation
Meaning 2 - to come into being
Example 2 - The idea of gravitation originated from the discovery of a falling apple.

So as you can see the two meanings are pretty related to each other. In fact you can write the second example sentence in passive voice (using meaning 1 of the verb) as follows:

Example 3 - The idea of gravitation was originated by Newton when he discovered the falling apple.
Abbreviated Example 3 - The idea of gravitation ~~was~~ originated by Newton when he discovered the falling apple. INCORRECT
In this case the word "originated" is a verb-ed modifier. It is not a verb in past tense. In order to act as verb it needs "was".

Hope this helps with your doubt. Once again, great doubt!

Regards,
Payal

Hello Payal/e-gmat team,

I am still confused why we are not treating 'originated' as verb-ed modifier in choice C
1. Language Variations is not the doer of the action 'Originates'. Litmus test fails.

2. As per the definition of verb-ed modifier, we should be able to write verb-ed modifier in passive voice with the help of relative pronoun
The company extended the training period. (The company that was extended....does not make sense. Hence, extended is working as verb here)
The training period extended last year made interns unhappy. (The training period that was extended......makes sense. Hence, extended working as verb-ed modifier)

Now coming to the question.
Language variations originated from diverse ethnic... (Choice C)
Language variations that were originated from diverse ethnic ........ According to me the sentence makes complete sense. So, originated can be used as modifier here.

If originated is working as modifier in choice C, why Choice C is wrong ? (Originated and Perpetuated both are modifiers)

Please help where I am going wrong.

Thanks

Coming to your second query,

Please note that, the usage “Language variations were originated …” is incorrect.

For example, it is grammatically correct to say “Lizards originated from Dinosaurs”.

However, it is not grammatically correct to say “Lizards were originated from Dinosaurs”.

This is because there is no doer of the action “originated” in the second sentence.

Similarly, “Language variations that were originated…” is incorrect.

So we cannot consider “originated” as a Verb-ed modifier in this sentence.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Krishna

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24 Nov 2013, 18:47

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Hi Shraddha,

Thanks for the article. I'm an e-gmat student and have a clarifying question.

In another of your e-gmat article titled 'Verb-Ed modifiers Vs. Verb-ing modifiers', it is mentioned that the Verb-ED modifier modifies the immediately preceding noun; in the case that the immediately preceding noun is non-sensical, the Verb-ED modifier would modify the immediately preceding noun phrase. Moreover, the Verb-ED modifier cannot jump over a verb to modify a noun in the subject place. In this example, how can spawned modify 'a giant fungus'? Shouldn't be it modifying the noun phrase 'an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles'? If it were modifying 'a giant fungus', isn't it jumping over the verb 'is'?

How similar or different is this fungus example than the diabetes example in the article I cited here, in terms of the Verb-ED modifier issue?

Best,
Prital

egmat

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06 Dec 2013, 00:56

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rxprital

Hi Prital,

That is a very good observation.

Let us look at the sentence.

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

You are right that "spawned" modifies "an interwoven filigree of mushrooms..."

But what according to the sentence is the "interwoven filigree of mushrooms...."?

Is it not giant fungus?

So, the verb-ed modifier isn't modifying "giant fungus" directly. It is modifying "interwoven filigree....". However, according to the sentence, since both "giant fungus" and "interwoven filigree..." are same, we can say that the verb-ed modifier modifies "giant fungus".

Hope this helps

Regards,
Krishna

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19 Jan 2014, 08:36

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Hi E-GMAT

Just in the reference of the above article , mainly on the how the Verb-ed modifier is derived, Could you please help me differentalting the two statement ,which are stated above and discussed in the article.

1. A leader guided his followers honestly earned immense respect from the mass.

2.Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of Tigris and Euphrates.

So in the statement 1.is very clear that the statement is in active voice . and guided and earned these two verb are not connected properly that leads to fragment error.

No in statement 2. if we remove that , then there is only one modifier flourished,which modify "the site of an ancient civilization ".

So my confusion is how does "that" helps here to remove the fragment here?. Flourished still modifying" the the site of an ancient civilization"

Could you please help me to highlight the main verb or whole sentence structures into clauses.

Thanks

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20 Jan 2014, 07:53

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Referring to the article mainly on "How the Verb-ED modifier is derived section".There are two sentence which are discussed in the article makes me a bit confuse.

1.A leader guided his followers honestly earned immense respect from the mass.

2.(OG12-#85) Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization [b]that flourished at the same time as the civilizations [/b]in the Nile delta and the river valleys of Tigris and Euphrates.

My analysis and query...

The Statement 1 makes it very clear that guided and earned are not connected properly and the sentence is written in Active voice . So a relative pronoun is must in this statement.

But in Statement 2 ,even if you remove "That " the modifier flourished is modifying the civilization and i didn't see any other verb-ed or verb in the sentence after "that". So the statement seems correct to me.

Could you please Highlight the clauses in the sentence 2 and correct me where i'm going wrong?

egmat

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22 Jan 2014, 12:19

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Nitinaka19

Hi Nitin,

Thanks for posting you doubt here.

1. A leader guided his followers honestly earned immense respect from the mass.

So your analysis for this one is absolutely correct.

Now let's look at the official sentence:
Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of Tigris and Euphrates.

(Subjects = blue, Verb = green)

The word "that" in this official sentence has been used as a Relative Pronoun. It modifies and provides additional information about the previous noun entity "an ancient civilization". Since, "that" is the Subject of the Dependent Clause that it starts, "flourished" acts as the Verb for this Subject. It is the ancient civilization that did the action of flourishing itself. "flourished" is NOT a Verb-ed Modifier here because it is not an action that was done on the ancient civilization by something else.

If we remove the relative pronoun "that" from the sentence, then "flourished" will directly become the Verb for the Subject "an ancient civilization". in that situation, we will have Two Independent Clauses connected with each other with just a Comma. This is not grammatical.

Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks.
Shraddha

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25 Jan 2014, 01:21

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bagdbmba

egmat

debayan222

Correct these sentences if you feel they are incorrect.

1. The lamp decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty. = Incorrect
Correct = The lamp that decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty.

2. A leader guided his followers earned immense respect from the masses. = Incorrect
Correct = A leader who guided his followers earned immense respect from the masses.

Hi Shradhha,
For the first sentence-did the lamp do the action of decorating on its own? I guess not! Then how this sentence "The lamp that decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty." can be correct ? Please help me understand it.

For the second sentence-if we write this as 'A leader guided his followers and earned immense respect from the masses'...Will that be wrong ? Please explain.

Much appreciate your feedback.

Hi Debayan,

I can understand where your confusion arises from. You are thinking in lines of say: Amy decorated the room. Here, there is no confusion because Amy physically performed the action of decorating the room. However, in the “lamp sentence”, the lamp physically did not do the action of decorating the room. The word “decorated” has been used more in the sense of “beautified”. The lamp made the room more beautiful.

A leader guided his followers and earned immense respect from the masses.

Grammatically, this sentence is correct. However, the meaning is slightly different here. This sentence says that the leader did two things:
a. guided his followers
b. earned respect from the masses.

Both the actions are at the same level. However, in the e-gmat sentence, the leader performed one action “earned the respect”. Guiding the followers comes as the additional information in the sentence. The action of the IC and the action of the DC are not at the same level.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi Shraddha,

In the first sentence The lamp didnt not do the action of "Decorating" so it is modifier.
In the sentence "The lamp decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty." why we need to convert it into Relative clause by adding "that". As sentence can have modifier word and a verb right?

Please enlighten me.

Regards,
Rrsnathan.

egmat

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27 Jan 2014, 11:39

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rrsnathan

Regards,
Rrsnathan.

Hi rrsnathan,

Let's take this sentence.

I decorated my room.

There is no doubt that here :decorated" is a verb because "I" - the Subject - himself/herself did the action of decorating the room.

Now let's take a look this one.

The lamp decorated the room.

Now here again, "The lamp" is the Subject and "decorated" is the Verb. Yes, this sentence is different from the sentence I presented above because here lamp is not a living being that used its hands to decorate the room. What this sentence conveys that the lamp adorned the room.

Now let's take the sentence that has confused you:

The lamp decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty.

Here again,
decorated" has been used in the same manner as it has been used in the second example presented above. So "decorated" is a verb here and Not a modifier. But again, there is one more Verb for the Subject "The lamp". That is "filled". A Subject CAN definitely have two Verbs, but they must be connected properly through a conjunction. We just CANNOT write two Verbs for one Subject side by side without joining them with a conjunction. So that's the problem here. We must do something so that the sentence remains grammatical. So there are multiple ways of doing that:

1. The lamp that decorated the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty.
2. The lamp decorating the child’s room filled his room with innocent beauty.
3. The lamp decorated the child’s room and filled his room with innocent beauty.

Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks.
Shraddha

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Very succinctly put e-gmat. Kudos.. For the question put up in the topic below was my thought process. Could you please comment if it correct and more importantly could this fail me ?

Q - Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

A. extending
B. extends
C. extended
D. it extended
E. is extending

In the above sentence we can see that the underlined portion is just a modifying phrase giving extra information , so if we omit that the sentence becomes

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth........extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Now we can see that only extending fits in .

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10 Jun 2014, 05:45

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himanshujovi

Hi himanshujovi,
Thank you for the query.

• Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

You have correctly identified that the highlighted part of the sentence is a modifier. However I want to add two points to your analysis:

1. A modifying phrase cannot end with ‘and’ as it is the case with the underlined portion “a giant fungus….years ago and”. So, the modifier extends till the end of the sentence i.e. “a giant fungus that….. Michigan forest.”

2. In the given sentence, you omitted the comma also while omitting the underlined part, but the comma is not the part of the modifying phrase. So, we cannot remove it.
Now, the presence of a comma before a verb-ing modifier can change the meaning of the sentence and the modified entity. Let’s understand the usage of verb-ing modifier:

USAGE I
If a verb-ing modifier is placed after a clause, and it is preceded by a comma, then it modifies the preceding clause. This modifier:
i) Either provides additional information about the preceding clause
ii) Or presents the result of the preceding clause.

Tom killed the snake, using a stick. (Additional information)
The recession adversely affected the company’s business, reducing its profits by 50%. (Outcome)

USAGE II
If a verb-ing modifier is placed after a clause and it is not preceded by a comma then it modifies the preceding noun.
He got into the cab waiting outside his house. (‘waiting’ modifies ‘the cab’)

Now, when we omit the highlighted part, the sentence becomes:
• Scientists have recently discovered
• what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Now, since the verb-ing modifier ‘extending’ here is preceded by a comma, it should modify the entire preceding clause, and it should make sense with the subject of the preceding clause.
However it is not clear what the additional information presented by the modifier ‘extending’ is. Also, it does not make sense with the subject of the preceding clause ‘what’. So, this option is incorrect.

If you have any doubts in the understanding of the verb-ing modifiers please refer to the following articles:
usage-of-verb-ing-modifiers-135220.html
verb-ing-modifiers-part-2-in-our-first-article-on-verb-ing-135567.html

So, your understanding regarding the usage of the modifiers in this question is not completely correct. I would recommend that you go through the above articles to know more about the verb-ing modifiers and then come back to this question. If you have any more doubts regarding this, I’ll be more than happy to help.
Also, don’t forget to refer to Shraddha’s awesome explanation for this question at the beginning of this article. This explanation clearly states that the modifier 'extending' modifies "a giant fungus" in the original sentence. If we remove the highlighted part in this sentence, it won't be possible for 'extending' to modify 'a giant fungus'.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Deepak

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russ9

egmat

Hi egmat

Can you please explain why "that" is needed in the first sentence? I know that the lamp didn't DO the decorating but I don't see how "that" fixes this?

Thanks!

Hi russ9,
Thank you for the post.

Let’s do the sentence structure for the given sentence:
• The lamp
o decorated the child’s room
o filled his room with innocent beauty.

As shown, there are two verbs for the subject ‘the lamp’ in the given sentence. These verbs are not connected properly. So, either we need to connect these verbs using ‘and’ or we can provide another subject for one of the verbs. Now, let’s see how ‘that’ solves this problem:

• The lamp
o that decorated the child’s room
• filled his room with innocent beauty.

So, ‘that’ acts as the subject for the verb ‘decorated’ and now the sentence becomes grammatically correct.

Hope this helps!

Deepak

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Hi @egmat/Shraddha,
One question regarding the litmus test. In one of the sentence for practice - "Our powers of color vision derive from cells in our eyes called cones, three types in all, each triggered by different wavelengths of light."- we concluded that "called" is a modifier as action of calling is not done by cells. This makes sense.

However, I was trying to apply the same concept to another usage of "called" and got confused. What is called in the sentence below :
"I am called Ravi."
Isn't "am called" the verb of the sentence? But if I apply the litmus test here, it would suggest that called is a modifier as the action of calling is still not done by the subject - "I". Right?

Am I making any mistake here? It would be great if you could help me clarify my doubt.

Thanks,
UrsTruly

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UrsTruly

Hi UrsTruly,
Thank your for the query.

You are absolutely correct in saying that “am called” is the verb of the sentence. Now, as we know “is/am/are” are usually followed by verb-ing form, but here “am” is followed by the past participle form. Why is it so? - Because this is a passive verb, not an active verb.

Let’s take an example:
• Harry completed the assignment.

Here, the verb is “completed”, and it makes sense with the subject “Harry”. Now, let’s change the sentence to passive voice:
• The assignment was completed by Harry.

In this sentence “completed” does not make sense with the subject “the assignment”. However, the verb here is “was completed”, which makes perfect sense with the subject “the assignment”. So, “the assignment” is not the subject of “completed”, it is subject of “was completed”. Now, can you apply the same understanding to your question?

Hope this helps!

Deepak

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28 Aug 2014, 04:55

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Sinner1706

Hi Shraddha/E-Gmat Team,

Understood the concept on Verb-ed Modifiers. Could you clarify the below question, in line with Verb-ing modifiers

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language
variations which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by geographic isolation.

A. which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
B. that originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
C. originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
D. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
E. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuating

Another question, which is an entire opposite of the above question but tests the Verb+ing and the Verb+ed Modifiers to the hilt. The similarities and the differences in two questions, will help make the concept crystal clear.

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

Whats the OA BTW.. Is it B in first Qs and E in second question? Good questions..just need the answer to cement the understanding on Verb-ed & Verb-ing. :roll:

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28 Aug 2014, 07:34

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Zakir14

Sinner1706

Whats the OA BTW.. Is it B in first Qs and E in second question? Good questions..just need the answer to cement the understanding on Verb-ed & Verb-ing. :roll:

Hi Zakir14,

The detailed solution of both these questions are present in this thread only. The OA for the first question is D and for the second one is E.

Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks.
SJ

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I couldn't really follow how "extending" could be the right answer . I feel even the choice "Extending " as a verb in the present continuous form & not as a verb modifier .Kindly help here to clarify

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kaarya58

I couldn't really follow how "extending" could be the right answer . I feel even the choice "Extending " as a verb in the present continuous form & not as a verb modifier .Kindly help here to clarify

extending can be a present continuous verb form only if it follows a helping verb - example : "were extending", "are extending"

Learning fast, Jane cracked GMAT <-- modifier
Jane , learning fast, cracked GMAT <-- modifier
Jane is learning fast, so he will crack GMAT <-- verb

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27 Sep 2017, 18:07

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egmat

This is the word document for the sections "How Verb-ed Modifier is derived" and "how can this help you answer GMAT SC questions?" and detailed solution of the Exercise.
Thanks.

FIRST OF ALL A NICE EXPLANATION GIVEN BY e-GMAT, but iw would be very kind of you, if you can help me with this...

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

After reading e-gmat explanation, i was able to eliminate a/b/c options....Now the problem is between D/E. I am unable to find out whether in phrase local times differed from city to city( is the action of differing being done by local times or .......??) in first modifier its clearly mentioned local times determined BY, which makes easy to spot beacause of preposition By used which clearly tells that action has been done by some external factor, but in case of differed , it becomes complicated....

Please help ....@e-gmat

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Updated on: 28 Sep 2017, 03:18

Originally posted by egmat on 28 Sep 2017, 02:57.
Last edited by egmat on 28 Sep 2017, 03:18, edited 2 times in total.

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gmatify17

Hello gmatify17,

I will be glad to help you with this one.

In Choice D, the word differed is a verb because the local the local times themselves differed from city to city.

Let me present a simple example sentence to make the usage clear.

Local time differs in each of the six time zones in the Unites States.

My project differs from yours in its approach towards problem solving.

In both the above-mentioned sentences, differs acts as a verb.

Same is the usage of the word in simple past tense in Choice D. Hence, this choice stands incorrect because the modifier determined and the verb differed cannot be grammatically parallel.

Choice E rectifies this error by replacing the verb differed with the modifier differing.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha

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28 Sep 2017, 03:10

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kaarya58

I couldn't really follow how "extending" could be the right answer . I feel even the choice "Extending " as a verb in the present continuous form & not as a verb modifier .Kindly help here to clarify

Hello kaarya58,

I am aware that you wrote this post long time ago. Nonetheless, here is an easy explanation to understand why any word ending in "ing" and not preceded by an helping word such as is/am/are/was/were/ etc cannot act as a verb.

A verb has three traits:

i. It must have a tense - Past, Present, or Future.
ii. It must have a number - Singular or Plural.
iii. It must have a voice - Active or Passive.

Now can we specify the tense of the word extending? Also, is it singular or plural? Which voice is it written in?

We cannot answer any of these questions just be looking at the word ending in "ing". Now take a look at the following sentences:

Harry was watering the plants in the morning.

The students are planning to organize a party for the teachers.

They all will be going to the concert this weekend.

Needless to say that just be looking at the helping verbs that precedes each of the "ing" word in the above-mentioned sentences, we know about the tense and the number of the verbs. Also, all these verbs are written in active voice.

Hence, we need a helping verb to precede an "ing" word for it to act as a verb.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha