Human activity on the continent of Antarctica is regulated by the Anta

Question

Human activity on the continent of Antarctica is regulated by the Antarctic Treaty,  which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and is giving protection to the continent's ecozone .

A. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and is giving protection to the continent's ecozone

B. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone

C. which, had being signed in 1959 by 12 countries, prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone

D. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries prohibiting any military action, and supporting scientific research and the continent’s resource protection

E. having been signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone

TBT · Answer

Hi,
Can someone explain use of 'having been' in E. Also, if in C there is 'had been' would it be correct?

happypuppy · Answer

Question Stem: Human activity on the continent of Antarctica is regulated by the Antarctic Treaty,  which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and is giving protection to the continent's ecozone.

Error: It has parallelism error. `prohibits, supports and is giving` are not going in parallel. As the modifier talks about the Treaty.

A. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and is giving protection to the continent's ecozone
- Has error
 B. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone
- Corrects the only error. 
C. which, had being signed in 1959 by 12 countries, prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone
- Had is wrong. Had is used to discuss the earlier event of two events happened in past. 
D. which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries prohibiting any military action, and supporting scientific research and the continent’s resource protection
- Has the parallel error
E. having been signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone
- Having been signed is wrong. Signing was one time act and does not have any on going effect.

HSogani · Answer

The use of 'having been' in E is wrong as it is a past participle and is used to emphasize that a first action has been completed before the second action begins. 
In C, had been would be wrong. 'Had been' is past perfect continuous tense and the action has already taken place.

Kudos if I could help.

RahulHGGmat · Answer

Request someone to explain the problem with D

HSogani · Answer

In option D,  prohibiting any military action   is the issue. It seems as if the countries are prohibiting military actions, but actually, the treaty is prohibiting military actions.

Kudos if understood.

machsih1 · Answer

It may be a silly question, but why do "which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries" and "prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research..." not need to be parallel?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  machsih1 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "was signed in 1959 by 12 countries" and "prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research..." ARE parallel, as "which" applies to both, and both are verb phrases.

However, the two phrases are not in the same tense, as they refer to actions that take place in different time periods; the treaty was signed in the past, but it "prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone" in the present. Remember, two verbs in one sentence, even those that apply to the same noun, can be in different tenses if they refer to events in different time periods.

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

GMATist1 · Answer

Would B have been more meaningful if it were

which was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and prohibits any military activity, supports scientific research, protecting the continent's ecozone.

Protecting would have modified the action of "prohibit" and presented a result of the action.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Human activity on the continent of Antarctica is regulated by the Anta

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Human activity on the continent of Antarctica is regulated by the Anta

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