Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not

hello, I want to ask about the idiom despite.
How can I know which idiom of despite is used properly in gmat?

"Despite" can be used with a concrete noun or a present participle. A gerund is not a good fit for "despite".

"Despite covering the entire planet"... correct ( present participle).
"Despite ist covering the entire planet".. wrong ( gerund)

You will find standard usages of "despite" (and "in spite of") here:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar ... nd-despite

Is usage of "but rather" not redundant?

Hi, the first "it" does not have a clearly mentioned precedent, is the option still considered correct?

Although [u]it[/u] covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather

Hi AjiteshArun AndrewN EducationAisle EMPOWERgmatVerbal



While solving this question, I had question in mind :
I would like to enquire :
1.) which conjunctions need clause - although? ( Although it is cold outside, I feel warm)
Other examples: even though, though, because, therefore, until, whether, thereby?
2.) which conjunctions need only words or phrases or clause- but? ( It is cold outside but not snowing.
Other examples: Until , because ,etc?
I think replacing 'but' with 'although' will not work.

Question1: How can I know that such constructions would be wrong .
Question2:What are other conjunctions? - Where can I learn such a list?
Question3: Despite, In spite of - are these prepositions ? But In a sentence there placement is similar as conjunctions? How can differentiating Propositions with conjunctions can make difference? Do you have some examples?
E.g. Although it is cold outside, I feel warm
E.g.: In spite of cold outside, I feel warm
(IN other words, do you have some scenarios in which such knowledge made the difference when I need to choose between conjunction or propositions due to some rule)

Hi AjiteshArun AndrewN EducationAisle EMPOWERgmatVerbal



While solving this question, I had question in mind :
I would like to enquire :
1.) which conjunctions need clause - although? ( Although it is cold outside, I feel warm)
Other examples: even though, though, because, therefore, until, whether, thereby?
2.) which conjunctions need only words or phrases or clause- but? ( It is cold outside but not snowing.
Other examples: Until , because ,etc?
I think replacing 'but' with 'although' will not work.

Question1: How can I know that such constructions would be wrong .
Question2:What are other conjunctions? - Where can I learn such a list?
Question3: Despite, In spite of - are these prepositions ? But In a sentence there placement is similar as conjunctions? How can differentiating Propositions with conjunctions can make difference? Do you have some examples?
E.g. Although it is cold outside, I feel warm
E.g.: In spite of cold outside, I feel warm
(IN other words, do you have some scenarios in which such knowledge made the difference when I need to choose between conjunction or propositions due to some rule)

Option D has "it" in it. Isn't it describing "Earth's" which is an adjective making it wrong? Pronouns should always describe a noun and not an adjective.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hi TGC,

Let me try to answer your questions.

(1) “Despite” can be followed by a noun or verb-ing modifier. Take the following examples:
a. Despite bad weather. Jane came over for dinner.
b. Despite being the youngest in the group, Bob gave the best answers.

(2) It is NOT ALWAYS necessary for “Although” to be preceded by a clause in order to denote a contrast. For example:

a. Although simple, the outfit stands out in the crowd.

As we can see, “although” here is not followed by a clause. It is just followed by a word – small (an adjective = noun modifier). Now this noun modifier correctly modifies the Subject of the following main clause and hence, presents logical and unambiguous comparison.

So it is not necessary for “Although” to be always followed by a clause.

Now let’s come back to the official sentence and study the correct answer Choice D:

Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

When it comes to parallelism, we must be very careful in identifying the correct parallel list. We first need to identify the correct entities here.

This sentence is presenting a few characteristics of Earth’s crust. It:
a. is neither seamless nor stationary
b. but rather (is) fragmented into mobile semigrid plates.

In this answer choice all these entities are grammatically as well as logically parallel. The choice employs appropriate idioms to use these adjectives correctly to denote the correct comparison.

Note that “is” is not only applicable to “neither seamless not stationary” but also to “rather fragmented”. Here two verb phrases are parallel to each other.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Well pls see the link and pls clarify if although and though or any subordinate markers can be followed by a noun? This link explicitly states that it has rto be followed by a clause. https://www.englishgrammar.org/spite-or ... epositions.

Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather IS fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

The verb after the but is missing in the option D. How is the part after but rather a clause? SHouldnt it be a clause?