Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the contin

I picked E correctly on seeing the comparision.

Unlike Valcanoes. . . ,The hot spots . . .

Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, the Earth’s surface mostly anchors hot spots lying and anchored deeply in the interior of the plates
But is the underline part, what does the noun modifier "that comprise the Earth’s crust" refer?

Does it refer logically to "The continental" or to "Oceanic Plates". As per the construction it refers to Oceanic plates.

Please clarify me.

Thanks in advance,
Rrsnathan.

Both "Continental" and "oceanic" seem to be adjectives that apply to the noun "plates." Otherwise, there would have been another "the" before "oceanic".

i am not sure whats the source of this question but this question is definitely not a gmat prep types !!
E can never be the answer for following two reasons
1) the hot spots are mostly are anchored----->we can never have verbs left in the sentence without a subject !!. so this wrong

2) the hot spots are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates ---->the literal meaning(we should always read the meaning literally) of this sentence is not the intended meaning . this sentence(as it stands now) suggests that its the "earth's surface" that is lying deeply in the interior of the plates .this is not intended .its the "hot spot" that is lying deeply in the interior of the plates

I am not convinced with the OA for 2 reasons:

1. "...are mostly are anchored..." how can this be correct?
2. "...the hot spots are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates" what is lying deeply in the interior of the plates? Hot Spots or the Earth's surface? if hot spots then there should have been a comma before 'lying' and the sentence should have looked like "...the hot spots are mostly anchored on the Earth’s surface, lying deeply in the interior of the plates". But this could not be the case, since according to your option E 'lying deeply in the interior of the plates' is modifying Earth’s surface, and this usage does not make sense...I mean how can Earth's Surface lie deeply in the interior of the plates???

what on earth.... are...are???

I also eliminated option E first place for the same reason..are..are
Was trying to choose between B and D.

"the hot spots are mostly are" ???
How can this be right?

I noticed the are - are thing but I assumed it was a typo so I clicked E anyway. However I see people repeating this are-are structure in their replies as well. What's going on here?

I think there is some mistake with the option E, if the section hot spots are mostly are anchored is corrected then Option E is valid choice because this option makes the correct comparison.

Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, the Earth’s surface mostly anchors hot spots lying and anchored deeply in the interior of the plates.

Construction should be like this:
Unlike Volcanoes, found blaa..blaa..blaa, HOT spots are anchored on surface and lying deeply in the plates.

(A) Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, the Earth’s surface mostly anchors hot spots lying and anchored deeply in the interior of the plates - Wrong comparison- Volcanoes Vs Surface. Wrong modifier or misplaced modifier- Verb+ing and Verb+ed w/o Comma always specify nearest noun therefore here lying and anchored are modifying the Hot spots which is correct but it seems that HS's are doing both 'lying and anchored' simultaneously in interior of plates.

(B) Found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust unlike most volcanoes, hot spots are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates - Past participle or any verb+ed modifier in the beginning separated by Comma modifies subject of the clause after the comma therefore here 'Found' is modifying HS which is wrong. Verb+ing w/o Comma modifies nearest noun therefore here lying seems to modify surface.

(C) Most volcanoes, unlike hot spots, are found along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, anchored on the Earth’s surface and lying deeply in the interior of the plates - Verb+ed with or without Comma modifies nearest noun therefore here 'anchored' seems to modify Earth's crust instead of HS. Contrast is lost.

(D) Hot spots, anchored on the Earth’s surface and lying deeply in the interior of the plates, unlike most volcanoes, are found along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust - Contrast is lost. It seems that 'HS are found along......' which is wrong.

(E) Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, the hot spots are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates - It seems right but it has some minor errors therefore it is least of the devil. First 'are' is repeated and second 'and' is required before lying, w/o 'and', lying is seemed to modify the preceding noun Earth's surface which is wrong.

So my take is E with some reservations.

Kudos please to unlock he tests....

Why is there a 'the' before hotspots in answer E? Usage of the implies reference to a particular set of hot spots, where as the statement is about a general truth related to hot spots.

What is the source of this SC?

I think the sentence is badly written.

There is definitely an unintended typo in repeating the word “are” in choice E;
We can omit the article ‘the’ before hot spots to make it more parallel with volcanoes and insert a comma after the word ‘surface’ to make clear that ‘lying’ as adverbial modifier unequivocally refers to hot spots; ( an "and" also will be fine ). It is understandable that a surface cannot lie deeply.
The correct version after amending the errors pointed out by various participants should be
“Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, hot spots are mostly anchored on the Earth’s surface, lying deeply in the interior of the plates “
The broad intention was to bring out a proper comparison between volcanoes and hot plates.
Hope the picture is clear

Unlike most volcanoes, found mostly along the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates that comprise the Earth’s crust, the hot spots are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates

In E , what is the colored part modifying --Volcanoes or Hot spots ...I find there is some ambiguity in wrt to modifier .
Please advice

sobby

The passage is comparing the locations of volcanoes with the locations of hot spots. The text, in essence, makes out that volcanoes lie on the boundaries of the continental and oceanic plates while the hot spots lie on the Earth’s surface deeply in the interior of the plates. If this is recognized, the modification can be comprehended easily. E explicitly state where volcanoes are found by virtue of proximate modification. However if the modifier 'found ... that comprise the Earth’s crust' were to modify the following hot spots, then there is no meaning in saying that are mostly are anchored on the Earth’s surface lying deeply in the interior of the plates. Isn't that a paradox?

At least in matters of comparisons and modifications, one should not just depend upon syntax alone but also correlate with meaning.

Hi daagh
Thanks for replying,
Agreed .. if we see the meaning ....E is correct ..
700+ for sure ...

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.