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souvik101990
New hypotheses propose that astronomic impacts of meteors and comets may have resulted in reversals in the Earth’s tectonic field, the dawning of ice ages, drifting apart ocean floors 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) drifting apart ocean floors
(B) the drifting apart of ocean floors
(C) drifted apart ocean floors
(D) ocean floors drift apart
(E) ocean floors that were drifted apart


Hi , the answer is B ;

New hypotheses propose that astronomic impacts of meteors and comets may have resulted in reversals in the Earth’s tectonic field ,the dawning of ice ages,drifting apart ocean floors 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

Let us walk through option choices

A ) drifting apart ocean floors ---- Not Parallel with other list in sentence ---- wrong;
(C) drifted apart ocean floors ---- Change in verb tense --- Not Parallel .
(D) ocean floors drift apart --- what is ocean floors drift apart modifying ; It seems as if Ocean floors itself drifted and also it is not parallel ---- hence wrong ;
(E) ocean floors that were drifted apart --- Modifier error - Not parallel ---- wrong ;

Only B maintains the correct parallelism here . Hence B :)
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I think the answer is B... because it is parallel with the sentence given in the question.... in choice a) omission of "the" make the sentence nonparallel.... in choice c) "drifted" changes the tense or if it would have been "and drifted apart ocean floors" then it might have been right.... choice d) just changes the meaning of the whole sentence, in changing from drifting to drift apart... in choice e) is first of all not at all parallel with the given sentence, moreover dawning and drifting are subordinate clauses not the main... thus e) is also wrong...
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The sentence talks about the impacts caused or the phenomena occurred as a result of something. Hence "drifting apart ocean floors" should also indicate a phenomenon while maintaining parallelism with the other two phenomena. For this the 'of' and 'the' are needed.

Only option B satisfies all these, hence answer should be B
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souvik101990
New hypotheses propose that astronomic impacts of meteors and comets may have resulted in reversals in the Earth’s tectonic field, the dawning of ice ages, drifting apart ocean floors 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) drifting apart ocean floors
(B) the drifting apart of ocean floors
(C) drifted apart ocean floors
(D) ocean floors drift apart
(E) ocean floors that were drifted apart

IMO ans is B

Parallel listing here can be categorized as...

.......may have resulted in reversals in
1. the Earth’s tectonic field,
2. the dawning of ice ages,
3. the drifting apart of ocean floors 80 million years ago,
4. and great volcanic eruptions


Also, The drifting (similar to the dawning ) emphasis on gradual continuous processthat took place 80 million years ago and hence states the implied meaning correctly :done

Three beers :shocked :beer :boom for you if my reasoning is correct and i win :wave
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The answer is B.

Here 'drifting apart ocean floors' is not describing the result of 'the dawning of ice-ages'.
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Agree with B. It maintains parallelism
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souvik101990
New hypotheses propose that astronomic impacts of meteors and comets may have resulted in reversals in the Earth’s tectonic field, the dawning of ice ages, drifting apart ocean floors 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) drifting apart ocean floors
(B) the drifting apart of ocean floors
(C) drifted apart ocean floors
(D) ocean floors drift apart
(E) ocean floors that were drifted apart


I will choose B.

The logic I used is parallelism. The list is of nouns: reversal, the dawning, the drafting and volcanic eruptions.
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IMO B:
The sentence talks about "impacts of meteors and comets" effects caused by impact should be parallel. The correct choice should be parallel and should indicate a cause and effect relation ship.
In the answer choices only A and B indicate a cause and effect relationship, and only choice B is parallel.
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I think it is B. Maintains proper parallelism.
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souvik101990
New hypotheses propose that astronomic impacts of meteors and comets may have resulted in reversals in the Earth’s tectonic field, the dawning of ice ages, drifting apart ocean floors 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

(A) drifting apart ocean floors
(B) the drifting apart of ocean floors
(C) drifted apart ocean floors
(D) ocean floors drift apart
(E) ocean floors that were drifted apart

I will go with A
Here is why:-
A) drifting apart ocean floors- since the action continues in present. hence Correct
B) Grammatically correct but it does not conveys that the action continues in present- change in intended meaning.
c) Not parallel
d) Not parrallel
e) Not parallel
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