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Sub 505 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|                           
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Hi Experts although the C is the correct answer ,however in C They can refer to Explorers also right ? I am getting confused when to apply pronoun ambiguity rule?
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Hi Experts although the C is the correct answer ,however in C They can refer to Explorers also right ? I am getting confused when to apply pronoun ambiguity rule?
Pronoun ambiguity is something that we should apply after we've looked at other (more reliable) ways to eliminate options.
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Native to south america,when peanuts were introduced to Africa by portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

a.when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

b.peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because of being

c.peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

d.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

e.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

C is correct when compared with other choices, but
"probably because they were ", i'm concerned with "were", should not it be "are" , since they are still similar ?
It's like "my blood group was O+"

Anyone wanna clarify this ?





Same doubt for me. Someone please clarify
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I have a doubt regarding the usage of coma in option C.Can someone guide me on that ?

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VeritasKarishma GMATNinja
Hi Experts,
Please help me to understand the following points in A and B
1)What kind of usage is "because of + being"? What's the role of "being" here?
2)Is the usage correct? Is it a dependent clause or a modifier?

(A) when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
(B) peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
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Sneha2021
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Hi Experts,
Please help me to understand the following points in A and B
1)What kind of usage is "because of + being"? What's the role of "being" here?
2)Is the usage correct? Is it a dependent clause or a modifier?

(A) when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
(B) peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

Hey Sneha2021,

Although your query is not addressed to me, I would like to present my two cents here. :-)

1) The word "being" acts as the verb-ing noun, commonly known as a gerund. How do we know that? We are sure of this because prepositions are ALWAYS followed by a noun. And the phrase "because of" ends with the preposition "of".

2) Now, because prepositions are followed by a noun, "being so similar..." is NOT a clause. To keep things simple, just understand that this structure "because of being similar..." presents the reason why they were quickly adopted. We really need not worry so much about the grammatical aspect of this structure.

As far as the correctness of this structure is concerned, yes technically it is correct. However, it is not as straightforward and simple in presenting the intended meaning as "because they were..." is. The latter is easy to read ad easy to process. So, this structure is superior to "because of being similar...".


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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Sneha2021
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja
Hi Experts,
Please help me to understand the following points in A and B
1)What kind of usage is "because of + being"? What's the role of "being" here?
2)Is the usage correct? Is it a dependent clause or a modifier?

(A) when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
(B) peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

Sneha2021

"because of" is a proposition and should be followed by a noun/pronoun.
e.g. I lost my place because of him.

"Being" is the gerund form of the verb "be" and is acceptable here though I prefer "because they were..."
"Being" is normally used for temporary conditions. But peanuts are not being similar to Bambarra temporarily. They are similar to Bambarra.

Hence, "because they were" is better.
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Sneha2021
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja
Hi Experts,
Please help me to understand the following points in A and B
1)What kind of usage is "because of + being"? What's the role of "being" here?
2)Is the usage correct? Is it a dependent clause or a modifier?

(A) when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
(B) peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

Hello Sneha2021,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

In the construction "because of being", "because of" is a prepositional phrase that conveys a cause-effect relationship, wherein the noun following the phrase is the cause. Further, in this construction "being" is a noun; specifically, it is the present participle ("verb+ing") form of "be", acting as a noun; this noun refers to the action of peanuts being similar to the Bambarra groundnut. Please note that we can be certain that "being" is a noun, rather than a verb in the passive continuous tense, in this context, since prepositions are always followed by nouns.

Thus, taken together, this phrase conveys that peanuts are "so similar to the Bambarra groundnut", and as a result, they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture. This phrase is grammatically correct, but the use of "being" renders it needlessly indirect, making it inferior to "because they were", which is used in the best answer choice, Option C. Remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
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AjiteshArun
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How can 'they were' be correct? Wouldn't it be those were?
Coz it they stand for people/persons.
They is not restricted to people.

I bought the chairs because they were comfortable.

Thank you for your helpful explanation. To clarify, what type of modifier is "probably because"? An adverbial modifier?
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How can 'they were' be correct? Wouldn't it be those were?
Coz it they stand for people/persons.
They is not restricted to people.

I bought the chairs because they were comfortable.

Thank you for your helpful explanation. To clarify, what type of modifier is "probably because"? An adverbial modifier?

Hello woohoo921,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; "probably because" is an adverbial modifier because it is providing information about an action - "were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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