Public-access cable television was created in the 1970s as a

[quote="dimitri92"]Public-access cable television was created in the 1970s as a means to derive public benefit from the laying of private television cables on public land.

a: from the laying of private television cables on public land

b: from laying private television cables on the public land

c: by the laying of private television cables on the public's land

d: from private television cables being laid on public land

e: by laying private television cables on land that was public wordy

the correct idiom here is to benefit from, so we are left with A and B.
The key here, I guess so, is that the author is thying to emphasize the importance of the first part of the sentence, i.e. the laying of private television cables but not from the fact that it is laid on public land.

you still missed out an important point in the answer choices ... i'll wait for a couple of more posts

thanks seekmba ... this is exactly what i wanted the people to see

public land is a noun ... the would be helpful if we wanted to indicate a particular public land

this rule alone makes us choose the right answer :D

the OA is A btw

can anyone explain from and by controversy

i didn get it please!!!!

A tough question. Thanks for the rule explanation though.

Hii Experts , I want to know whether my elimination of choice B is correct. I elminated B because from is preposition which mus be followed by noun or noun phrase. And Verb-ing of noun(as in option A) is equal to noun whereas in option B laying private..(gerund phrase ) which can't followed by prepositionis incorrect
Or it is THE which makes difference?

Hi,

Could someone please explain what's the problem with Option D?

Thanks

rajatkataria14@gmail.com You're close--the article "the" definitely makes "laying" into a noun (an event noun), whereas before it could have been interpreted as a verb or a gerund (noun form of a verb with -ing). The event part is important, because what A is saying is that this event (the laying of cable) is something the public could benefit from, even though the public didn't actually lay the cable.

Novice90 D makes it seem that we're actually benefiting from the cables being laid on public land in particular, rather than simply benefiting from the cables themselves. Ideally, I'd have phrased this as "the private television cables that were laid on public land."

As a side note, the word "being" is almost always used in awkward, redundant, or unclear usages in SC.

HIDE TIMER STATISTICS
Public-access cable television was created in the 1970s as a means to derive public benefit from the laying of private television cables on public land.

a: from the laying of private television cables on public land

b: from laying private television cables on the public land

Why b is not the answer?

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The original sentence contains the correct idiom "to derive X from Y," where X and Y are both nouns. In this sentence, the use of the noun phrase "the laying of private television" maintains consistency and parallelism with the noun “benefit” mentioned earlier in the sentence.
(A) CORRECT. This choice is correct as it repeats the original sentence.
(B) The verb "to derive from" requires noun objects. Here, "laying" is not a noun. Moreover, "the public land" is not idiomatic; it should be "public land."
(C) The correct idiom is "to derive X from Y," not "to derive X by Y." Moreover, "the public's land" is unnecessary when "public land" would suffice.
(D) "To derive from" is correct in this choice. The wordy and unidiomatic construction "private television cables being laid on public land" fails to provide a noun that would ensure consistency with the noun “benefit” mentioned earlier in the sentence.
(E) The correct idiom is "to derive X from Y," not "to derive X by Y." Moreover, "land that was public" is wordy; "public land" is more concise.

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