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D
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
25%
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Question Stats:
76% (01:33) correct
24%
(01:53)
wrong
based on 2137
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In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down as 415 miles.
(A) discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down
(B) discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much
(C) team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great
(D) team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great
(E) team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far
(A) discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down
(B) discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much
(C) team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great
(D) team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great
(E) team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far
31 Jan 2019, 01:57
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We don't want to knock out a choice for using the passive voice unless there is something that makes passive voice wrong/inappropriate. Answer choice A has plenty of problems, and while passive voice is not inherently wrong, it does play a role in the trouble here.
Let's look at the modifier beginning with "that a fragment . . ." What is it supposed to modify? Presumably "discovery." So what if we strip out some other modifiers to see how that looks? "A discovery has been made that a fragment seems like it came from a depth." This doesn't work. First, we can "discover that X happened" or we can "make the discovery that X happened." But we don't want to say "A discovery has been made that X happened." The structure running up to "that" sets us up to expect the modifier to talk about the effect of the discovery itself, as in "A discovery has been made that changes our view of the early Solar System." Do you see the difference? We just want to describe what was discovered, not add detail about the effect or nature of the discovery, so this structure is confusing. That's why passive voice doesn't work well here. Given all that we want to add in the modifiers, it really helps to use the simple structure "discovered that." Strangely, though, none of the answers give us that. This leads us to another problem.
What is it that has really been discovered? According to A, the team has discovered that this fragment seems to have come from great depths. But it's odd that they discovered what it seems to do. If it really comes from the depths, then we don't need to emphasize the seeming, but if it doesn't, then we don't have much of a discovery. It's more sensible to say that the team discovered a fragment, and this fragment seems to come from the depths. That's more or less what every choice but A goes with.
Another problem? "Seems like." This is a common expression in speech, but it's not good for formal written English, especially when no comparison is being made. (If the fragment is "like" something, what is it?) In fact, we can get to D on the merits of "seems to have" alone.
Finally, "a depth as far down" is redundant!
Let's look at the modifier beginning with "that a fragment . . ." What is it supposed to modify? Presumably "discovery." So what if we strip out some other modifiers to see how that looks? "A discovery has been made that a fragment seems like it came from a depth." This doesn't work. First, we can "discover that X happened" or we can "make the discovery that X happened." But we don't want to say "A discovery has been made that X happened." The structure running up to "that" sets us up to expect the modifier to talk about the effect of the discovery itself, as in "A discovery has been made that changes our view of the early Solar System." Do you see the difference? We just want to describe what was discovered, not add detail about the effect or nature of the discovery, so this structure is confusing. That's why passive voice doesn't work well here. Given all that we want to add in the modifiers, it really helps to use the simple structure "discovered that." Strangely, though, none of the answers give us that. This leads us to another problem.
What is it that has really been discovered? According to A, the team has discovered that this fragment seems to have come from great depths. But it's odd that they discovered what it seems to do. If it really comes from the depths, then we don't need to emphasize the seeming, but if it doesn't, then we don't have much of a discovery. It's more sensible to say that the team discovered a fragment, and this fragment seems to come from the depths. That's more or less what every choice but A goes with.
Another problem? "Seems like." This is a common expression in speech, but it's not good for formal written English, especially when no comparison is being made. (If the fragment is "like" something, what is it?) In fact, we can get to D on the merits of "seems to have" alone.
Finally, "a depth as far down" is redundant!
Scientific discovery is a complete and comprehensive phenomenon, thoroughly probed and proven by Authority. There is no place for a tentative observation such as 'seems' in that theory. This is an inevitable fact of Science.
'Seems like' is rather a spoken language and not formal prose. 'as if' and 'as' followed by a clause are the legal alternatives to 'seem like'.
In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down as 415 miles.`
A. discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down ----1) wrong as per the observation made above plus 2)the redundancy of 'depth as far down'
B. discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much -- 2. wrong as in A. 2. who can antecede neither California nor the team
C. team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great --- SV number agreement error.
D. team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great -- yes, good enough
E. team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far -- 1. has discovered is more dynamic and active than 'has made the discovery of as per V-A-N 2. What has seemingly come from? is it the fragment or the Swiss alps? We can at least take some refuge if it were the non-restrictive' 'comma plus which' instead of the restrictive 'that'.
D is the choice.
'Seems like' is rather a spoken language and not formal prose. 'as if' and 'as' followed by a clause are the legal alternatives to 'seem like'.
In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down as 415 miles.`
A. discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down ----1) wrong as per the observation made above plus 2)the redundancy of 'depth as far down'
B. discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much -- 2. wrong as in A. 2. who can antecede neither California nor the team
C. team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great --- SV number agreement error.
D. team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great -- yes, good enough
E. team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far -- 1. has discovered is more dynamic and active than 'has made the discovery of as per V-A-N 2. What has seemingly come from? is it the fragment or the Swiss alps? We can at least take some refuge if it were the non-restrictive' 'comma plus which' instead of the restrictive 'that'.
D is the choice.
