Global warming is said to be responsible for extreme weather changes

chetan2u Why "present participle 'causing' is not correct in D" ?!

In D, we have causing without a comma in front, so it will modify the preceding noun ‘California’ but it does not make sense.
The modifier should be modifying the entire clause and so we require a COMMA in front of causing.

Would you believe that I didn't notice that the comma was missing? At least I see the difference in meaning between them (D/E)... thank you!

Global warming is said to be responsible for extreme weather changes, which, like the heavy rains that caused more than $ 2 billion in damages and led to flooding throughout the state of California, and the heat wave in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, which was also the cause of a great amount of damage and destruction.


(A) which, like the heavy rains that caused more than $2 billion in damages and led to flooding throughout the state of California, - (A) introduces the following structure: ''Global warming... responsible for extreme weather changes, which,...., and the...." In (A), we do not have a complete ''which'' relative clause.

(B) which, like the heavy rains that throughout the state of California caused more than $2 billion in damages and led to flooding, - has the same error as described in (A).

(C) like the heavy flooding that, because of rains throughout the state of California, caused more than $2 billion in damages, - when you cite an example, you cannot use ''like''

(D) such as the heavy flooding that led to rains throughout the state of California causing more than $2 billion in damages, - (D) states that the heavy flooding caused the rains. How can flooding cause rain? it is rains that cause flooding.

(E) such as the heavy rains that led to flooding throughout the state of California, causing more than $2 billion in damages, - has no error. Hence, (E) is the right answer choice.

in choice c, "because of rain" is wrong. it you want it to be correct. "rain" must cause the action of cause damage.
i learn gmat because i want to study mba.
the action of wanting cause learning.
the action of raining need to cause causing damage for because of to be correct

(A) which, like the heavy rains that caused more than $2 billion in damages and led to flooding throughout the state of California,
Can’t use “like” to list out examples (the test writer wants you to think you’re comparing heavy rains with heat waves, but you’re not – they are examples) – we want to say heavy rains led to flooding and heat wave as the examples;

(B) which, like the heavy rains that throughout the state of California caused more than $2 billion in damages and led to flooding,
(1) Can’t use “like” to list out examples – we want to say heavy rains led to flooding and heat wave as the examples; (2) sounds like “the state of California” caused more than $2 billion in damages;

(C) like the heavy flooding that, because of rains throughout the state of California, caused more than $2 billion in damages,
(1) Can’t use “like” to list out examples – we want to say heavy rains led to flooding and heat wave as the examples; (2) sounds like the “because of rains throughout…California” is nonessential, which is erroneous here because we need it;

(D) such as the heavy flooding that led to rains throughout the state of California causing more than $2 billion in damages,
(1) sounds like “the state of California” is causing more than $2 billion in damages; (2) sounds like the flooding led to the rains – presumably, the rain would happen first as a cause of the flooding (the effect)
Is this the number 1 error correct within Answer D? Experts could you please confirm ?

(E) such as the heavy rains that led to flooding throughout the state of California, causing more than $2 billion in damages,
Best option

Hey there - Here is my stab at explaining the modifier differences in D and E - please correct me if I am wrong.

In D, 'such as the heavy flooding that led to rains throughout the state of California causing more than $2 billion in damages,' -- the modifier 'causing' has no comma. A no comma -ing modifier is a noun modifier. Ask, 'is causing more than 2$B in damages' modifying California?' The answer is no.

The 'causing more than 2$B in damages' is modifying the entire phrase, within that phrase is an action 'heavy flooding that led to rains through the state of California'.

Since the action is what is being modified by 'causing' we need an adverbial -ing modifier - so we use a 'comma -ing mod'. ',Causing' is correct- as found in E.

I think you may stumble if GMAT throws you similar examples in which the same rule will be valid in multiple options. Sometimes an exception may come up or you need to find which rule, according to you , is not right . The key message is : Rules are tools but these rules are handy only when multiple options have the same logic and now only the rule can make or break the correct answer.

For this particular question, you are formulating some methodology which may not be valid in another case.
E.g. :
Causing more than $2 billion in damagers, heavy rains led to flooding .-- Comma (can refer to heavy rains or clause: heavy rains led)
heavy rains led to flooding causing more than $2 billion in damagers.-- No comma ( can refer to flooding)

You could be in such a situation where a comma can not decide your answer right or wrong. So what shall you do? or what should you have done to avoid this situation.

Remember: LOGIC is the KING in GMAT.

Global warming is said to be responsible for extreme weather changes, which, like the heavy rains that caused more than $ 2 billion in damages and led to flooding throughout the state of California, and the heat wave in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, which was also the cause of a great amount of damage and destruction.



(D) such as the heavy flooding that led to rains throughout the state of California causing more than $2 billion in damages,
(D') such as the heavy flooding that led to rains throughout the state of California, causing more than $2 billion in damages,

(E) such as the heavy rains that led to flooding throughout the state of California, causing more than $2 billion in damages,


heavy flooding led to RAINS?
heavy rains led to flooding?
which one you would choose? --> how heavy flooding can lead to Rains? so logically D is nonsense even it has comma or no comma before causing

I hope you got the point:)

I get the explanations.

But, I have another doubt.In the sentence given,the part after the underlined portion,
''and the heat wave in the northeastern and midhwestern Unitd states,which was also......''

Here about the ''which''after comma.
Shouldn't it modify the word or phrase immediately before it?In this case 'Midwestern United States'

Or is there something to consider like object of preposition to determine which phrase the 'which' in question modifies?

Posted from my mobile device

KarishmaB
Hi Karishma,
Can you explain the sentence structure of A?

A) Global warming is said to be responsible for extreme weather changes, which, like the heavy rains that caused more than $ 2 billion in damages and led to flooding throughout the state of California, and the heat wave in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, which was also the cause of a great amount of damage and destruction.

1)"which" refers to what? Can we say that which has no verb?
2)like the rains that caused - Is it correct? Is it Noun (rains) + Noun modifier (that are caused)?

Hello Sneha2021,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, regarding the incorrect Option A, "which" refers to "extreme weather changes", and we can, indeed, say that this phrase has no active verb.

Further, the construction "the rains that caused" is a correct example of a "noun + noun modifier" construction, but the larger phrase is incorrect, as it incorrectly uses "like" to provide examples; please remember, "such as" is used to provide examples and "like" is used to compare nouns; "like" is incorrect here because there is no comparison being made in the sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hey experts,

KarishmaB GMATNinja AjiteshArun DmitryFarber mikemcgarry sayantanc2k

Is there any error in option C apart from like used to present example? Thanks in advance!

There is a meaning issue in (C).

What we mean to say is that heavy rains caused flooding which led to damage. Because of heavy rains, flood happened and because of floods, damage happened.

Now notice (C):

like the heavy flooding that, because of rains throughout the state of California, caused more than $2 billion in damages,

What this means is:
Because of rains throughout the state of California, heavy flooding caused more than $2 billion in damages.

Heavy flooding caused damage because of rains! This makes no sense.
Heavy flooding happened because of rains and heavy flooding caused damage.

Notice (E)

(E) such as the heavy rains that led to flooding throughout the state of California, causing more than $2 billion in damages,

Heavy rains led to flooding. This caused damage. Makes sense.

After 'which', I am looking for the rest of the clause. It is missing.

Global warming is responsible for extreme weather changes, which cause a lot of damage to life and property. (for example)
which clause modifies 'extreme weather changes'.

To give examples, I cannot start with 'which'.
Normally we use 'such as' for examples but 'like' is gaining acceptability to give examples too so I wouldn't take a call based on that. If it were the only decision point in my sentence, then I would choose 'such as' to give examples.

'the rains that caused damage' - Here 'rains' is the noun and 'that caused damage...' is its essential modifier clause.

The parallelism is between "extreme weather changes" and "the heat wave".
Global warming is said to be responsible for 2 things:
1. extreme weather changes
AND
2. the heat wave[/quote]


I think the parallelism is between "the heavy rains" and "the heat wave".

Brego7

Not quite. When you see "comma + -ing," you're typically looking at an adverbial modifier, not a noun modifier, so it doesn't modify any subject at all. Rather, "causing" is showing the result of the previous action. And that action is "led to flooding." In this case, since heavy rains did that action, we can say that the heavy rains caused the damage. However, we can't always reason that way. For instance, if I say "Kamala Harris was elected vice-president of the US, making her the first woman to hold the office," it's not quite right to say that VP Harris herself MADE herself the first woman (although she certainly worked for it). Rather, that result is simply the outcome of her election. The ", making" modifier is adverbial and does not apply to a noun.

Hello Experts,

Though the underlined part is clear, I fail to understand how 'which' is used to describe the heat wave in the non-underlined portion.

Until now, I assumed as a hard rule that 'which' creates a non-essential modifier modifying the closest noun.

Is there a rule or a set of rules governing such exceptions. It would really help if there was any reference/explanation to understand more on this.

Regards,
Srikanth