Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used

Hi,
Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.



POE:

A. which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning: Incorrect.
1. The correct idiom is “either… or…”. This choice uses incorrect idiom “either… as well as…”.
2. Conjunction “but” connects two parallel entities. What follows “but” here “do not denude”, a verb phase. This means the subject “surface fires” should have another verb that cab be contrasted by the use of “but”. But there is no other verb before “but”. “burning” is verb-ing modifier that modifies “surface fires”.
3. Also what follows “either…” should be parallel to what follows “or…”. “is removal of…” is not parallel to “burning down…”.

B. which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn: Correct answer.
1. This choice uses the correct idiom “either… or…”.
2. There is a verb before “but” now that results in correct grammatical structure of the sentence. “… that burn… but do not denude…”.
3. “which removes…” is parallel to “that burn…”. Notice that both “which” and “that” are relative pronouns. Entities must be parallel to the extent where they communicate the logical meaning of the sentence by maintaining parallel grammatical structure.

C. which removes only selected trees, along with surface fires that burn: Incorrect. This choice uses incorrect idiom “either… along with…”.

D. removing only selected trees, or surface fires, burning: Incorrect. Same ungrammatical sentence structure issue as in choice A (point#2).

E. removing only selected trees, as well as surface fires that burn: Incorrect. This choice uses the same incorrect idiom as does choice A.



1. Idioms must always be correctly worded.
2. Conjunctions must be used to construct grammatical sentences.
3. Entities in the list must be logically as well as grammatically parallel.

The concepts tested in this sentence have been covered in e-gmat concepts:
1. Level 1 – Sentence Structure Part I & II. (These concepts feature in Level 1 Preview Concepts that are available in Free Trial. Just register and learn.)
2. Level 1 – Idioms – Standard Expressions
3. Level 3 – Parallelism – Identify & Correct.
4. Level 4 – Parallelism – Helpful Tips

Thanks.
Shraddha


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It's B.

Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest.


In D, "burning down" is not parallel with "do not denude the forest".

Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, removing only selected trees, or surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.


Regards,
Brajesh

The question tests the concepts of Modifiers and Parallelism.
The modifier in the underlined part “which is the removal of only selected trees,” describes the gerund ‘logging’.
There is also parallelism of correlative conjunctions. The conjunction ‘either’ is present just before the underlined portion. The idiomatic (fixed) pair of conjunctions is either-or.

Options A, C, and E can be eliminated on the basis of parallelism of correlative conjunctions. Options A and E have the conjunction ‘as well as’. Option C has the conjunction ‘along with’. Neither of these conjunctions can follow the conjunction ‘either’. So, these three options can be ruled out.

Option D has a structure that is not graceful. The modifier "removing only selected trees" is also not appropriate in this sentence as a participle modifier immediately after the gerund 'logging' is not a graceful construction.

D also has another parallelism error.
“either logging, which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.”
“burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest” is a modifier that describes “surface fires” just as “which is the removal of only selected trees” is a modifier that describes “logging”. Since the verbs ‘burn’ and ‘denude’ are part of the same modifier and convey two actions that surface fires do, the two verbs must be in the same form. In Option D, ‘burning’ is in the participle form and denude is in the verb form.
So, Option D can also be eliminated.

The parallelism is maintained in Option B.
“which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest.
Therefore, Option B is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

A, C and E are wrong because the correct idiom is Either X or Y. Between B and D, B is better. In B "Which" modifies logging better than does "removing" in D. B should be the answer.

Hi All,

First of all let's find out that we can eliminate D and E straight away. Why ?

If "V1ing - removing" modifier comes after COMMA, it can play one of two roles.
1. It may modify the whole previous clause. "Rosy started the engine, using the power button"
2. It may show results of previous clause. "Crime has recently decreased in our neighborhood, leading to a rise in properties values."

Here if "removing only selected trees" is modifying previous clause "but such work has not addressed either logging" than it changed the whole meaning of sentence. ""removing only selected trees" also can not show result of previous clause so D and E are wrong.

"which removes only selected trees" is concise than "which is the removal of only selected trees". Why ? because verb "removes" is better than noun "removal". The order of VAN that Verb>Adjective or Adverb>Noun, which eliminate A.

Between B and C, C has error for idiom . "Either X or Y. so answer is B.

I hope my explanation helped. If indeed, please give me kudos.

I have a huge problem with B

logging, which removes....


How can this be correct???

logging doesn't remove... logging is the removal of trees... it's similar to saying: baking, which creates cakes or farming, which grows crops.

Any advice sayantanc2k and daagh?

I do not see a problem if the name of a process is the subject of an action verb that indicates the result or the outcome of the process.

According to me, the sentences "Baking creates cake." is OK, so is "Logging removes trees."

However it is awkward when the name of the process is the subject of the action verb of the process itself. The actual action taken during the process of "logging" is "cutting" trees. Thus "Logging cuts trees." is awkward.

How to differentiate between D and B

Comma + present participle acts as a verb modifier, not a noun modifier. Therefore ", removing...." refers to "has not addressed", not "logging". Also ",burning..." refers to the same verb and not "surface fires".

Steffi defeated Sabatini, winning the Wimbledon.... here ",winning..." does not refer to "Sabatini" - it refers to "defeated".

Correct idiom: either X or Y.
A and E: either logging...AS WELL AS surface fires
C: either logging...ALONG WITH surface fires
Eliminate A, C and E.

A conjunction such as but must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS:
NOUN but NOUN
VERB but VERB
MODIFIER but MODIFIER.

D: surface fires, burning down invidivual trees but do not denude
Here, but incorrectly serves to connect burning (modifier) to do not denude (verb).
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is B.
B: either logging, which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn down individual trees
Here, the portions in red both serve as MODIFIERS.
The first modifier refers to logging, while the second modifier refers to surface fires.
Since they have different referents, the two modifiers do not have to be structured the same way.

Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.

Since 'either' has been used in the non-underlined part, we are forced to bring a matching 'or' for idiom's sake. Only B and D qualify


A. which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning-- either and as well as is wrong

B., which removes, only selected trees or surface fires that burn --correct choice.

C., which removes only selected trees, along with surface fires that burn .... either along with, is wrong

D. removing only selected trees, or surface fires, burning --- burning wrongly modifies such works that include logging and burning.

E. removing only selected trees, as well as surface fires that burn--- either as well as is wrong.

B is the correct choice
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Confused about the role that is playing ?...1) Is it an subordinating conjunction then why comma is not used.
2) Or As a pronoun. But is comma the basis of conclusion.

Not sure I understand your question. In "...surface fires that burn....", that is being used as a relative pronoun.

Some people like to differentiate "relative pronouns" (which, that, who, whom etc.) from "subordinating conjunctions" (because, although, until etc.); others like to club "relative pronouns" in the broader category of "subordinating conjunctions".

Frankly both approaches work, as long as you understand that both subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns, mark the start of a dependent clause.
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I understand - why B is the correct option. But I want to know is there no condition for either X or Y in which X and Y also needs to follow parallelism?

Hi Priya, X and Y definitely must be parallel, in either X or Y structure.

In fact, that is happening in the correct option B:

....such work has not addressed either logging...or surface fires....

Both logging and surface fires are nouns/noun-phrases and are hence parallel.
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egmat

In Option B, can we say that there is an issue in parallelism?

The 1st part is modified by an non essential modifying clause "which ......" while the second part is modified by an essential modifier "that ....."

Hey toyesh30

Thank you for your query.

The quick answer to your question is: No, this is not a parallelism error.

Let's understand why:

B: Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest.

Sentence Structure:

Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest

have used satellite images to tally deforested areas,

where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees,

but such work has not addressed

either logging,

which removes only selected trees,

or surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest.

Important Points to note:

1. The two parallel nouns, by virtue of the correlative "either...or", are: "logging" and "surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest". This is a classic example of parallelism in an imperfect list. The reason that "logging" is not followed by an essential modifier is that there is only one kind of "logging". "Surface fires", on the other hand, can be of various types depending on the kind of damage they do. Hence, the logical meaning conveyed by the sentence requires us to take these two nouns as parallel. What's important to note is that at the end of the day, "logging" and "surface fires that burn down individual trees but do not denude the forest" are indeed nouns. So, we are maintaining both grammatical parallelism and logical consistency.

2. Just because one of the nouns in a list is modified by a non-essential modifier, it is not necessary that every noun in that list be modified by a non-essential modifier. Here's another official question to practice this: https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-envisione ... ml#p318336

To conclude, there is a degree of flexibility that comes with Parallelism. As long as the core principles are maintained, the sentence will be fine. Always remember though, parallelism of "MEANING" trumps that of grammar. "Meaning" comes first.


I hope this answers your question and improves your understanding.

Happy Learning!

Abhishek
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Hello toyesh30,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, there is no parallelism error in Option B.

The nature of modifiers acting upon parallel elements does not affect whether the elements are parallel.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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