New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets

Question

New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,  splitting apart continents  80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) splitting apart continents
(B) the splitting apart of continents
(C) split apart continents
(D) continents split apart
(E) continents that were split apart

Icecream87 · Accepted Answer

Here you go: Check MGMAT SC chapter 10 or 11 if you have it
  Concrete nouns vs action nouns vs complex and simple gerunds :   
 1/Concrete nouns:  Refer to things, people, places dates… Ie: rock, continent, politician, holiday, week ...

2/Action nouns : Refers to action, they are formed from verbs Eruption, pollution, change, growth development etc

3/Simple Gerund : Include “ing”, presented as if they follow a verb
- ex: Tracking Satellites accurately is important
- Could be transformed into a working verb: I AM tracking satellites…

Complex Gerund : Starts by (a, an, the) or adjective, followed by ing + “of” prepositional
- ex: The accurate tracking of satellites is important…
- Of note: can also be under the form: the accurate satellites tracking – prefer the “of” version though

Parallel rules: 
  1.Concrete nouns are ONLY parallel to concrete nouns!  
Wrong The  bouquet  was  a giving  of love
Correct The  bouquet  was  a gift  of love
 - A giving is a complex gerund

2. Simple gerund are NEVER PARALLEL with complex gerunds  
Wrong: I enjoyed  drinking the water  and  the wine tasting 
Correct I enjoyed  drinking the water  and  tasting the wine 
 -drinking the water = simple gerund, the wine tasting = complex gerund

3. ONLY complex gerunds CAN PARALLEL with action nouns  but when a proper action noun exists prefer it over a complex gerund   
Wrong: The rebels demanded the  withdrawal  of the government forces from disputed regions, significant  reductions  in overall troop levels,  raising  the rebel flag on holidays, AND a general  pardon 
Correct: The rebels demanded the  withdrawal  of the government forces from disputed regions, significant  reductions  in overall troop levels,  the raising of  the rebel flag on holidays, AND a general  pardon

Prefer an action noun over Gerund:  
Wrong: The rebels demanded the  withdrawal  of the government forces from disputed regions AND  releasing  certain political prisoners  (Simple Gerund used) 
Wrong: The rebels demanded the  withdrawal  of the government forces from disputed regions AND  THE releasing OF  certain political prisoners  (Complex Gerund used) 
Correct: The rebels demanded the  withdrawal  of the government forces from disputed regions  AND THE release O F certain political prisoners  (action noun correctly used)

tarek99 · Answer

I would say B because we have a list of nouns, and some nouns have adjectives as well. Adjectives don't interfere with the nouns, so we have to look for an answer choice that would have either a noun or a noun with an adjective.

BukrsGmat · Answer

119) New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,  splitting apart continents  80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) splitting apart continents
(B) the splitting apart of continents 
(C) split apart continents 
(D) continents split apart 
(E) continents that were split apart

The imp thing in the question is check the construction : Cause -> Effect

New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused 
  reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, 
 the onset of ice ages, 
  splitting apart continents  80 million years ago, 
 and great volcanic eruptions.
 
Now these 4 should be parallel -  the splitting  apart of continents ( complex gerund mostly constructed by the +simple gerund+ of ..)

yashii9 · Answer

We have a list of noun phrases here -

reversals in the Earth’s
the onset of ice ages
volcanic eruptions

(A)  splitting  apart continents - this is a verb and conveys that preceding action did the splitting 
(B)  the splitting  apart  of  continents - "of" makes the difference here..."the splitting" becomes the noun phase
(C)  split  apart continents - "split" again acts as verb - we need a noun - thats why this stands incorrect in the context
(D) continents split apart - change of meaning
(E) continents that were split apart - incorrect

I hope this helps!

MacFauz · Answer

Action nouns are parallel to complex gerund phrases.

Only B satisfies the condition.

Skientist · Answer

To maintain the parallelism of the sentence, the list that the impacts (reversal...., onset, ...splitting.... and ....eruptions) need to be parallel. As it stands in A the list goes noun, noun, verb, noun so we need to correct the verb phrase into a noun phrase.
A – eliminate because splitting is a noun
B – Correct. Splitting in this sense is a gerund and therefore a noun. This is achieved by the placement of ‘the’ and the conjunction ‘of’ which makes continents a modifier of the noun. Think of running, it’s an activity (i.e. a noun) and an action (i.e. a verb)
C – split is a verb in the infinitive, and hence isn’t the noun we’re looking for
D – Not sure how to explain this unless I simplify the sentence. Catastrophic impacts .... caused...SPLIT APART CONINENTS. As is stands, this sentence says that the asteroids created the continents (which are split) rather than creating the action of splitting the continents.
E – Again, this sentence says that the continents were created, rather that the action of splitting.

plumber250 · Answer

Hello,

Let me see if I can work this one through....

New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,  splitting apart continents  80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

OK, from the question it looks like this is a parralelism issue. We have a list of things that 'catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets' may have done, but right now the current underlined sections seems to be out of kilter with the rest of the list. Look at each of the items in turn:

reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field
the onset of ice ages,
 splitting apart continents 80 million years ago 
and great volcanic eruptions.

It is clear that the red section, which equates with the underlined is out of sync. It's the only one with an 'ing' i.e. an action occuring. Everything else is different.

Looking at the answer options gives us a clear winner...

(B) the splitting apart of continents.  And here it is by adding the 'the' we change the meaning, and it becomes a statement like the others, rather than something happening. 
(C) split apart continents  This 'split' is in the past tense - unlike anything else 
(D) continents split apart  Again past tense  
(E) continents that were split apart  Once more an action occuring in the past

Hope that helps...

Skag55 · Answer

Why "split" in B is not past participle and therefore parallel to "volcanic eruptions" ?

sivasanjeev · Answer

<splitting apart of continents> is a gerund phrase, not a participle.

How to differentiate between a gerund phrase and a participle phrase ...
Consider the following sentences.
 Splitting apart continents , the force was responsible for the spread of super continents.
The underlined part is a present participle phrase which modifies "force"

The catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused  splitting apart of continents 
The underlined part is a gerund phrase. It functions as a noun (object). It doesn't modify anything.
In option A, a participle phrase is used. So, it's not parallel to noun phrases or nouns.
In option B, the error is corrected by using the gerund phrase.

Icecream87 · Answer

We want to parallel :  the onset of ice ages ,  splitting apart continents 80 million years ago , and  great volcanic eruptions

Some parallel rules to remember here: 
  - Simple gerunds can NEVER be PARALLEL to complex gerunds
- ONLY complex gerunds CAN be PARALLEL to action nouns
- When an appropriate action noun exists, choose it over a complex gerund

Since the onset of ice ages is a complex gerund and that eruption is an action noun, we can only have an action noun (if it exists) or another complex gerund to complete the parallel

Answer A is a simple gerund and there is no appropriate action noun in the other answer choices. So look for a complex gerund-- answer B

of note: a complex Gerund Starts by (a, an, the) or adjective, followed by ing + “of” prepositional. ie : The accurate tracking of satellites (complex) vs the (simple version) Tacking Satellites accurately

parasgarg99 · Answer

"The splitting" this acts as a complex gerund. And as stated in Manhattan SC guide, We should not mix complex gerunds and action Nouns (in our case eruptions).

Simple gerunds (I interpreted, Splitting to be a Simple gerund ) and actions nouns can be parallel.

So, IMO answer should have been A

DmitryFarber · Answer

parasgarg99 , take another look at our guide. We say that "of the two types of gerund phrases,  only  complex ones can be parallel to action nouns." The only problem would be if we inserted a simple gerund into the list. That's exactly what A does.

DivyaKnows · Answer

Hi,

How is "splitting" in A ,a participle and "the splitting" in B a gerund ?

Can you share some source where I can get clarity on this concept.

Thanks !

AjiteshArun · Answer

We may be able to do this by "sound". Let's  assume  that  splitting  is in fact, acting as a noun.

... catastrophic impacts... may have caused (a)   reversals  in the Earth’s magnetic field , (b)  the  onset  of ice ages , (c)   splitting  apart continents 80 million years ago , and (d)  great volcanic  eruptions  .

We get (a) may have caused reversals, (b) may have caused the onset, (c) may have caused splitting apart continents 80 million years ago, and (d) may have caused eruptions.

Now, we could try taking the following call:

A   X may have caused splitting apart continents 80 million years ago. 
vs.
 B   X may have caused the splitting apart of continents 80 million years ago.

Given that the splitting apart of continents 80 million years ago is a "one-time" event, we should go with B.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  DmitryFarber  - In my list below, obviously item 1 and item 3 are concrete nouns.

What is item 2 ? Does item 2 fit the definition of a complex gerund perhaps ?

Do you think the statement below is parallel ?

I own a cat, a dog eating chicken nuggets from KFC, and a hamster

DmitryFarber · Answer

jabhatta2 
Your list is just three nouns: cat, dog, and hamster. "Eating" starts a modifier, but that doesn't change that "dog" is a noun. However, while it's fine to add modifiers to some nouns in a list and not others, it's weird to have one of the nouns describe what an animal is doing right now. The GMAT would probably put the dog last in the list and add the modifier afterward.

OrAnGe80 · Answer

Hi  DmitryFarber ,

how do we make sure if below item is part of list and not a modifier ?

New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, the onset of ice ages,  splitting apart continents 80 million years ago,  and great volcanic eruptions.

saby1410 · Answer

AjiteshArun 
In option C & D Does 'split' is acting as a verb.

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  saby1410 ,

Yes.  Split  is almost certainly a verb in C. It could be a verb in D as well, but option D ("continents split apart") can also be read as "continents (that were) split apart".

An easy way to remove these options is to check whether they can be used to complete the statement "impacts may have caused ________". Neither   impact may have caused  split apart continents    nor   impacts may have caused  continents split apart    works.

New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets

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New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets

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