imSKR wrote:
Hi
AndrewN Sir
AjiteshArunQuote:
B. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended
Verb+ing is used for modifying the preceding clause ( doer should not be clear) OR result of an action mentioned in preceding clause.
P decided , proposing ( reference e.g.: using latest technology, engineer identified the problem; identify : using latest technology)
Decided proposing? – they are actions one after another . it should be decided to propose something . So , how proposing modify preceding clause.
After a thought, I rejected B.
For C , actions are one after another; exactly what I thought in B . 2 actions : decided and instead proposed. ( and instead is also right in one of the official question)
So I was confident with C option.
But you know in end , it was a shock again.
Please suggest : how proposing is modifying preceding clause. I am not able to understand .
Hello again,
imSKR. I think you might benefit from examining the two answers side by side, along with the sentence, of course, and then condensing the structure to make everything easier to follow. First, take note of the differences:
Quote:
Finally reaching a decision on an issue that has long been politically charged in the Pacific Northwest, politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend to protect the fish.
B. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended
C. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan for protecting wild salmon and other endangered fish, and instead they proposed a series of smaller steps, intending
Lucky for us, the underlined portion is self-contained at the head, forming an independent clause on its own. The shell of the sentence:
Politicians decided to postpone [something] and instead propose [something else] to protect fish.
To be honest, I did not focus on the first split, between
to protect and
for protecting, even if I favored the former. The second split, however, convinced me that (B) was a better answer, and the third cemented that decision. The reason I placed more confidence in (B) at the second split is that the -ing modifier perfectly comments on the action of the preceding clause,
politicians decided to postpone a plan,
proposing instead something else. What is the problem? I think you may need to expand your view of the -ing modifier. In (C), the
instead seems better placed after
proposed, although I did not eliminate the answer choice on those grounds. At the end of the underlined portion, we have to decide whether the
smaller steps were taken
to protect the fish, as choice (B) indicates, or whether the politicians, by postponing one plan and proposing another, one that happened to involve
a series of smaller steps, were
intending to protect the fish. Notice how (B) places parallel elements in line with each other, while choice (C) does not:
(B)
an ambitious plan [intended] to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish and
a series of smaller steps intended to protect the fish(C)
an ambitious plan for protecting wild salmon and other endangered fish and
a series of smaller steps, intending to protect the fishBetween the two options, (C) presents too many warning signals. (B) is much clearer and presents the ideas for the two plans in just about the same mold (nearly verbatim).
I hope that helps. Remember that grammatical conventions usually have kinks or exceptions somewhere. It is not that the -ing phrase in (C) could not work, but in SC questions, you are tasked with finding the best answer of the bunch, and for reasons I have drawn attention to above, I would shy away from (C).
Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question.
- Andrew