Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close

Question

Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close to Earth may be captured by Earth’s gravitational field, ultimately spiraling inward and, fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere while being a “falling star”, or is redirected at high speeds along a new trajectory.

(A) spiraling inward and, fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere while being a “falling star”, or is redirected

(B) having spiraled inward and, fully consumed when its fiery descent through the atmosphere to be a “falling star”, or is redirected

(C) having spiraled inward and being fully consumed when its fiery descent through the atmosphere as a “falling star”, or was redirected

(D) spiraling inward and, fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere to act like a “falling star”, or be redirected

(E) spiraling inward and being fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere as a “falling star”, or be redirected

For a discussion of auxiliary verb (a.k.a. helping verbs) and how they reflect verb number (i.e. singular vs. plural), as well as a full discussion of this SC question, see this post.
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/auxiliary- ... -the-gmat/

Mike

Show Answer

Official Answer

E

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

Hi Daagh,
I too first thought A to be the answer at first glance...
But had to relook due to following reasons..

1) Act like vs act as.. 
act like is generally used with animate object and not with inanimate objects, and we are talking of inanimate objects..
A and D can be eliminated..

2) parallel issue.. 
spiralling, becoming and acting are parallel..
therefore  spiralling inwards, becoming...., and acting  is the correct form..
A,B,D and E can be eliminated..

3) Meaning issue.. 
All three activities  spiralling inwards, becoming...., and acting  are actions of the preceding clause   be captured by Earth's gravitational field ..
so is correctly used this way..
Again C is only left..

4) the final error is the parallelism between captured by earths atmosphere and redirected.. 
so C is correctly conveying parallelism in two different activities..
Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close to Earth may  be captured  by Earth's gravitational field, ultimately spiraling inward, becoming fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere, and acting as a “falling star,” or   be redirected   at high speeds along a new trajectory...

SO C should be correct..

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear asethi100 , Gee, if I could turn green and have physical strength much greater than normal, that could be helpful in certain situations. :-)

The word " as " is one of the trickier words of the English language. It has several uses uses 1) as a subordinate conjunction --- In this guise, it introduces a clause that must have a full + structure: As the Sun was setting in the west, the Moon was rising in the east . This is the form used in comparisons ---- again, because " as " introduces a clause, there must be a full verb following it. Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees, as Dian Fossey studied gorillas . 2) as a preposition --- Prepositions are always followed by a noun or pronoun and are never followed by a verb. Many of the uses of " as " as a preposition involve idiomatic uses with verbs. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idioms-involving-as/ 3) in assorted idiomatic constructions --- see https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/a-tricky-g ... vs-act-as/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idioms-of-comparison/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... positions/ https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... nsequence/ In this context, the word " as " in the OA, (E) , serves as a preposition, and therefore only needs a noun as an object, not a verb. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

tcsing · Answer

Great question

I chose E because: The sentence can be boiled down to "... an asteroid... may be captured... ,or Y " --> Y needs to parallel " may be captured" A, B, C --> not parallel D --> parallel but the "and...or" (ignoring the words in between the 2 commas) doesn't make sense.

vietmoi999 · Answer

great, thank you Mike

comma+having done modifies the preceding clause and show an action happening before the action in the main clause.

so, "having spiral" must happen before "be captured" grammatically. This situation is not logic. B and C out

"and fully consumed" in A and D has no adjective in parallelism. Moreover, "consumed" should be paralel with "spiraling" logically. A and D out.

PerfectScores · Answer

The sentence clearly tests parallelism. The sentence has the verb ' may be capture d' and at the end of the sentence too (if you read the full sentence) you need a similar and parallel verb. Hence, the choice comes down to D and E.
Option D: ' Act like ' is incorrect. ' Act ' is a verb and verbs cannot be compared using ' like ' but using ' as '.
Hence, E is the answer.

asethi100 · Answer

Mike... It's surprising how similar you look to Bruce Banner from the Avenger's series.... Just an observation..!

On a more serious note, isn't it true that while using "as" as a comparator, the part of the sentence following "as" needs to have an active verb. I'm confused between options D & E for this question.

mvictor · Answer

isn't as+noun = function?

for comparison, as needs to be followed by a clause.
is the meteor playing the role of a falling star?
confused here.

I know that as can play 4 different roles:
1 - time sequence - As I was doing my laundry, Jack entered the room.
2 - presenting reasoning - Tommy can't come, as he is in the hospital.
3 - comparison - As does Jim, Kevin plays video games all day.
4 - presenting function of a noun - As a planet, the Earth rotates around the Sun.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear mvictor , My friend, I'm happy to respond. :-)

It's very hard to create simple rules for the word " as ," as it is one of the most complicated words in English. As a preposition, it's true that the word " as " + often denotes function: to use a shoe as a hammer to use the equity in one's home as a means to cover medical expenses That's a general pattern, but not a 100% rule. One exception involves the verb " to act ," and the subtle connotations of " act like " vs. " act as ." For more on this idiom, see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/a-tricky-g ... vs-act-as/ My second example sentence involves another tricky idiom, " means of " vs. " means to ." For more, see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-sente ... -means-to/ My friend, it is impossible to arrive at GMAT SC mastery by assembling some ideal list of rules and special cases. Ultimately, you need to develop a habit of reading to attain excellence on the GMAT Verbal section. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-imp ... bal-score/ Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

daagh · Answer

Although it is daunting at first sight, grammar may help solve this puzzle.

a)spiraling inward and becoming fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere while acting like a "falling star,” or becoming redirected –  this is the correct choice 
 
b) having spiraled inward and having become fully consumed during its fiery descent through  the atmosphere acting as a “falling star ,” or having become redirected –1 . atmosphere act as falling star—wrong modification. 2. Having spiraled, and having become  or  having become -- incorrect parallelism.

c)spiraling inward, becoming fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere, and acting as a “falling star,” or be redirected --  spiraling inward, becoming fully consumed and acting as a “falling star,” or be redirected --- wrong parallelism 
 
d)having spiraled inward  and  become fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere, acting like a “falling star,” or being redirected ----  wrong parallelism—the ‘and’ is not necessary.

e) spiraling inward and being fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere as a “falling star,” or be redirected ---  same error as in D.

daagh · Answer

In this jumble of modifiers and symmetrical parallelism, the critical factors are:

1. The first arm of the symmetry of parallelism is the entire phrase starting with the participle of verb+ing --ultimately spiraling inward and becoming fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere while acting like a "falling star,”. Therefore, on the other side of the parallelism marker -- ‘or’, it should be another present participle of verb+ing form. 
On that note, 'spiraling' and 'becoming' are parallel. Be redirected as in C and E are wrong.

The phrase ‘having spiraled denotes a wrong sequence that the asteroid may be captured after having spiraled inward. This is against the intended meaning. Therefore, B and D are gone. Only A is correct with an intact parallelism

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear chetan2u & daagh , My two very impressive colleagues, I wanted to add my voice to this discussion. :-)

As it happens, I am the author of this particular question, and it appears originally in this blog article on Auxiliary Verbs . I think chetan2u gave a brilliant analysis of this question. In particular, he gave a good explanation of the tricky idiom "Act like" vs. "Act as" , which cannot be inferred simply from the Like vs. As rule. Let me know if there are any more questions about this SC problem. Best of luck to both of you! Mike :-)

chetan2u · Answer

Hi mikemcgarry , A beautiful Q as usual from you, although I still differ slightly on that assumption Q :wink:

It too was a great Q with superb explanation otherwise. And thank you for your appreciation. Appreciation from you and daagh in verbal means a lot. Chetan

daagh · Answer

On second thoughts, I agree that "be captured" must parallel 'be redirected. Hence, A cannot be the answer. Between C and E, both of which use 'be directed", E is particularly weak in using "being consumed" (being here is neither part of a subject nor a passive voice verb). C maintains the list parallelism without any hitch. The preposition 'as' is used as a role player in the context.

ahujaparth10 · Answer

mikemcgarry - Beautiful article on Act Like v/s Act As.

I have two questions
1. Can Act As & Act Like both be used for living beings? I understand that for inanimate objects we always use Act As.
2. Have you also written something on the usage of As v/s Like when they are used to present a role v/s used for comparison? In both cases, I believe As/Like are followed by a noun entity, but it gives me a hard time recognizing whether the sentence intends to present a comparison or a role. For example, a sentence like - https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-the ... 82260.html

Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close

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