Gas hydrates, chemical compounds of water and natural gas, are increas

Hey All,

I get asked by PM to take this one on, so here I am. How goes it?

Gas hydrates, chemical compounds of water and natural gas, are increasingly being studied for their potential to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and significant contributors to global warming.

This question is about parallelism versus modifiers. We don't really want any modifiers here, so we have to get rid of answer choices that try to spin it that way.

A. to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and
PROBLEM: Commas set off lists or modifiers. If it's a list, it's already unparallel (to be huge, causing, significant are not parallel). Modifier doesn't make sense either, however, as "causing" would be modifying the previous clauses. The fact that the hydrates may be reservoirs of energy is not causing sea floor instability, so that's out.

B. to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and even as
PROBLEM: Same as above on every level.

C. as huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and
PROBLEM: Same as above.

D. as huge reservoirs of energy, and the possible cause of sea floor instability,
PROBLEM: You only use COMMA followed by "and" at the end of a list of more than three things, not just two. Also, now the final section has become an appositive modifier. This is because the list MUST have ended after the "and", so the comma must be setting off a modifier. Because it's just a noun at the end, it could only be a noun modifying a noun ("Thomas Jefferson, our nation's third president, was awesome."). Obviously, the "instability" is not a "significant contributor to global warming"

E. as huge reservoirs of energy, as possible causes of sea floor instability, and even as
ANSWER: Look at the lovely parallelism "as, as, as", plus it finally makes sense!

Hope that helps!

-t

Potential to be ~ / as ~ both seem ok. // Structure.
E seems to be the best choice.

Tommy
Sorry I have to disagree. PROBLEM: You only use COMMA followed by "and" at the end of a list of more than three things, not just two. -----> D is wrong since the list has to be similar.
"huge reservoirs" is plural, so other items in the list have to be plural (technically)

D. as huge reservoirs of energy, and the possible cause of sea floor instability, ---> should be "causes" not "cause"

Pls correct me, if I'm wrong.

Hey Nusma,

We don't disagree. You just hit on ANOTHER reason why D is problematic. But my reasons are both legitimate, and in the end, more grammatically central than the parallelism issue, because we do sometimes parallel a singular and a plural: "I have three cookies and a glass of orange juice." OR "They are terrible musicians and a lousy comedy team."

Hope that makes sense!

-t

Hi tommy
Ohh ! I didn't see the modifier issue. . instability, significant contributors to global warming. Thanks for pointing that out.
But I have seen gmat keeps the "noun number" same when listing the items. And especially maintains "the" any of the item starts with the determiner "the". The following SC has the same issue - A is wrong.

Rockets, like the airplane and the jet, were
rapidly improved during World War II.
(A) Rockets, like the airplane and the jet,
were
(B) The rocket, like airplanes and jets, was
(C) Rockets, like airplanes and jets, was
(D) The rocket, like the airplane and the jet,
were
(E) The rocket, like the airplane and the jet,
was

OA is E. Source Kaplan.
OE : That is, we can't compare the plural
“rockets”with the singular the “airplane and the jet,”
in (A); nor can we compare the singular “the rocket”
with the plural “airplanes and jets,” in (B).

cheers

Hey Nusma,

Honestly, I'm not 100% on the rule of this. In your example, we're comparing things to the subject, which has a plural verb. In that case, we need to match plural, because the verb is, in some ways, applying to both the original subject and the comparison terms. In the example we've been discussing, the items in question are the objects of the sentence, so there's no verb confusion. Anyway, there are plenty of reasons to cross off D. Stupid D. : )

-tommy

And if it were:

Rockets, like airplanes and jets, were...

What would Kaplan say?

Hey Noburu,

That would definitely be wrong; most things between commas are not considered part of the main sentence/subject (the exception being in a list of three things, where the middle item WOULD be part of the main subject, assuming the list was the subject of the sentence: "Bread, cheese, and water were hard to come by during the war."

-t

Very interesting.

Point 1. Let me give a different dimension of //ism. How many things are the Gas Hydrates have the potential to be or pote4ntial as? Only two and not three as D and E point out: 1. Potential to be huge gas reservoirs and 2. Significant contributors. The intervening participial phrase ‘possibly causing sea instability’ is an adverbial modifier that modifies the previous clause in its entirety. It is therefore not essential to see what it modifies. So in my opinon, D and E are droppable in as much as they point out to three things as the GHs have the potential for while the text means only two factors.
Pont 2. Between to be and as. ‘Potential to be’ IMO, is kind of speculation. Something has the potential to be, but it is not exploited as of now. For all that the potential may even turn negative. On the contrary, ‘potential as’ is something that is confirmed. But the original note borders more on speculation considering them to potentials to be; and one of these factors is even a possible cause for some instability. That is the reason we have to drop C, D and E. In A and B. apparently, the intervening modifier looks inelegantly placed, but still is passable. In B, the addition of ‘even as’ is unnecessary and changes the meaning of the original text. So B is gone. A looks the best bet IMO.

My kudo to the original poster of this thread.
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What is the OA. I am still confused between potential to be and potential as.

@daagh: Here I think potential to be is the right usage.
Ex- Sachin has the potential to be the captain
Sachin's potential as captain is questionable
So usage of example 1 is more suitable here.

The point is, if GHs are reservoirs of energy that cause sea floor instability,, then A is correct (the phrase starting with “ possibly causing” is taken as a modifier). On the contrary, if GHs cause seafloor instability as a separate factor, then E is ok on the count of //ism alone, notwithstanding the intrusion of ‘even’ in that choice.
Coming to the factor of ‘the potential to be and the potential as’, if both are interchangeable as you have researched out, then GMAT may as well avoid this question altogether, not wanting to get caught in the muddle.
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Potential to [verb], potential as [noun]. Both are correct idioms, given the verb "be" with "potential to" or the noun clause "huge source of energy" with "potential as"
Everything boils down to parallelism; (E) is the only answer choice where all three elements of the list are parallel "As huge sources....as possible causes...as significant contributors"
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For those who are still unconvinced about A and E, i've thought critically about this.

The only way A is DEFINITELY wrong is an ambiguous modifier or worse, wrong modifier.

See below:

Gas hydrates are increasingly being studied for their potential to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and significant contributors to global warming.

What is possibly causing instability? Is it Gas hydrates? Is it Reservoirs or energy? We can't tell exactly WHAT is causing instability.

Hence go with E, which clearer that Gas Hydrates are being studied as 3 things.

tough one for sure. I got it wrong

Gas hydrates, chemical compounds of water and natural gas, are increasingly being studied for their potential to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and significant contributors to global warming.

A.to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and -list is not parallel
B.to be huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and even as -list is not parallel
C.as huge reservoirs of energy, possibly causing sea floor instability, and -list is not parallel
D.as huge reservoirs of energy, and the possible cause of sea floor instability, -list is not parallel
E.as huge reservoirs of energy, as possible causes of sea floor instability, and even as -Correct

AjiteshArun

Why A is wrong? How do we know what is the correct intended meaning?

Point 1. I mean why "possibly causing sea floor instability" can't be a modifier modifying "reservoirs of energy".

Point 2. How do we know that this is a list of three items and not of two as Daagh said?

Point 3. "to be huge reservoirs of energy" and "significant contributors to global warming." (Are these two items parallel?)

Point 4. Do we require to repeat "to be" with "significant contributors to global warming" to make it parallel?


Hope I made myself clear.
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Hi TommyWallach daagh
Just one question
doesn't the word "even" break parallelism in E?
I maybe wrong but I am just curious to know if not why ?

I am also interested in the answer on this question

This question is based on Construction and Parallelism.

At first sight, there seems to be a choice between the expressions ‘to be’ and ‘as’. In this sentence though, either expression is acceptable.
However, there is a list of things that gas hydrates have the potential to be in the sentence – huge reservoirs of energy, possible causes of sea floor instability, and significant contributors to global warming. The list must be parallel in structure.

In Option A, there is a lack of parallelism in the list. The second item in the list is in the form of a modifier that is placed awkwardly. Since it is not clear what the modifier is describing, the construction with a modifier makes the sentence clumsy. So, Option A can be eliminated.

Option B repeats the mistakes in Option A and has an additional lack of parallelism. The conjunction ‘as’ at the end of the option does not match the infinitive ‘to be’. So, Option B can be eliminated.

The only difference between Option C and Option A is the change from ‘to be’ to ‘as’. This option also lacks parallelism and contains a modifier error. So, Option C can be eliminated.

Option D changes the construction of the sentence. The conjunction ‘and’ implies that there are two items in the list and that the third phrase is a modifier that explains the two items in the list. Since huge reservoirs of energy and the possible cause of sea floor instability cannot logically be significant contributors to global warming, this option is illogical. So, Option D can be eliminated.

The list of things that gas hydrates have the potential to be is parallel in Option E. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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Hey there!
I'm not expert at this as I'm new to this, but ill take a hit
looking at the option except for option E the parallelism of the word "as" doesn't match with the rest of the sentence for that reason i chose E .