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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 15 Oct 2020, 06:29
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burnttwinky
Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for anybody with a pan or shovel.


(A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for

(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for

(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
Show more

This question is based on Sentence Structure and Parallelism.

A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for
The preposition ‘for’ is incorrect after the phrase “within reach”. The correct usage is ‘within reach of’.
This option lacks the relative pronoun ‘that’, which would connect the first part of the sentence to the second. So, the option should have been as following –
because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity that put gold literally within reach for
For these two reasons, Option A can be eliminated.

B)because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
The intended meaning of the sentence is that prospecting for gold during the California Gold rush was relatively easy because of certain things that put gold within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel.
The construction of Option B conveys the meaning that prospecting for gold was easy because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, volcanic activity, and putting gold within reach…. However, the intended meaning is that the first three things put gold within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel. If erosion, prehistoric glacier movement etc. are part of a list, there is a lack of parallelism in this option as ‘putting’ is not parallel to the rest of the items in the list. So, Option B can be eliminated.

C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
Option C corrects the error in Option B by introducing the relative pronoun ‘that’. However, such a construction requires ‘thrust’ and ‘putting’ to be parallel to each other, which they are not in this option.
So, Option C can be eliminated.

D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for
Option D contains the same idiomatic error as Option A. The placement of the relative pronoun ‘that’ and the participle ‘putting’ make Option D a sentence fragment. So, Option D also can be ruled out.

E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
This option has the verb ‘put’ for the subject “erosion, prehistoric glacier movement and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity”. The phrase “thrust to the surface by volcanic activity” modifies the noun, ‘riverbeds’. The idiomatic error in Options A and D has also been corrected in this option. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 08 Jul 2021, 20:50
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While structuring sentences, the Take- Away is:


A. Simple sentences contain a single main clause with a subject and a finite verb; any modifier that may follow is not going to be a clause. It can be a prepositional phrase (because of, owing to, etc,) followed by a noun or noun phrase. Any finite verb such as ‘put’ will be wrong, while a participle such as putting or helped by is permitted ‘and putting’ is unacceptable. In short, the template of a simple sentence is: main clause with Sub+ verb) plus an optional prepositional or participial modifier.

Example:
1. Dhoni is a successful captain, because of his winning of important matches somehow
2. Dhoni is a successful captain, winning important matches somehow

B. Complex sentences have not only a main clause with a subject and finite verb, but also a subordinate clause connected by a subordinate conjunction such as since, because, although etc. These subordinate clauses do have a finite verb such as ‘put’; However ‘and putting’ is not permitted since - and putting- is not a finite verb. The template is: a main clause (subject cum verb) plus a subordinate clause (a subordinate conjunction plus a subject (may be skipped sometimes) and compulsorily a finite verb’.
1. Dhoni is a successful captain, who is able to win important matches somehow
2. Since Dhoni is able to win important matches somehow, he is India’s most successful captain.

C. The third category is the compound sentence consisting of two independent sentences with a subject and a mandatory finite verb of each own, (although the subject may be skipped sometimes to avoid redundancy).

Example: Dhoni is a successful captain and he is able to win important matches

In the light of the above, perhaps the text in question may be understood, although it is neither a match nor an alternative to what people like Parker have elucidated. For those who want a more basic sermon, here is a file of mine that might give you a glimpse of this concept.
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Hi daagh

Thank you for the amazing explanation, just wanted to confirm - In option B if instead of 'and putting' only putting was mentioned after a comma, would that sentence also be correct ?
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 31 Jul 2021, 12:33
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I really didn't get how option E is correct. According to previous posts, there 3 things parallel in Option E

X = erosion
Y = prehistoric glacier movement
Z = ancient

As X and Y are nouns, Z also has to be a noun to be parallel

But here "ancient" is used an adjective. How can this be parallel? I'm really confused with the parallelism here.

Hey pikolo2510 ,

Z in your parallel structure is "ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface" rather than just ancient. Ancient is an adjective modifying the riverbeds.

Hence, E is correct.

Does that make sense?
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Hi
Isn't 'thrust' a noun here?
I could not understand the parallelism in this case i.e option E
Quote:
since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
Show more

X, Y and Z
X= noun=erosion
Y= noun = prehistoric glacier movement
Z= noun = gold-bearing riverbeds
Now all these "thrust" to the surface but it doesnt make sense because erosion cant thrust to the surface and same with prehistoric glacier movement.
And if "thrust" is the verb for X,Y and Z then what is the subject for put?
If Z=ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity = clause
in this case, how is the parallelism correct ? how can we put two nouns parallel with a clause?
Am I missing something?
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 31 Jul 2021, 13:04
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Can anyone explain the role of thrust and put in the correct answer choice?
Which one is the main verb between the two ?
What makes this distinction tricky is that “thrust” can function as both a verb and a modifier. Take some silly examples: “Knowing she didn’t have much time to dispose of the evidence, Amy thrust her shovel into the ground with great force and efficiency.” Here “thrust” is a verb – it’s the action Amy is performing.

But “thrust” can also be used as a modifier. “The shovel thrust into the ground broke when it collided with the surprisingly shallow coffin.” Now “thrust” is a modifier describing the shovel. Which shovel? The one thrust into the ground. It’s the presence of the verb “broke” that helps clue us in to the fact that “thrust” plays a different role here.

The OA for this question is more like the second of the two above examples.

Quote:
Erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
“Thrust” is a modifier describing the riverbeds. Which “riverbeds?” The ones thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.

“Put” is the main verb of the sentence, the action performed by erosion, glacier movement, and those aforementioned riverbeds.

I hope that helps!
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Hi GMATNinja
The second use of 'thrust' as a modifier is still confusing
The shovel thrust into the ground broke when it collided with the surprisingly shallow coffin
I am not able to understand the meaning of this sentence and moreover I dont know how to distinguish if a verb in its base form is used as a modifier or its an error since thrust does'nt have a subject
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 31 Jul 2021, 16:11
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Poojita

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to deal with that difficulty. Past participles (past forms of verbs) often appear as modifiers, and there's not a simple rule for determining the intended usage. Generally, though, we should try to find the author's intended sentence core (subject, verb, etc.), and see if that makes sense. Then, if some other word such as "thrust" or an -ed word can work as a modifier, then it's okay. In other words, we should do our best to read the choice as if it makes sense, and eliminate if there's no way to interpret the words that would produce a valid sentence.

Here are a few good cases with "extra" past participles to practice on:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-first-tr ... 25551.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/paleontologi ... 37585.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/fossils-of-t ... 77781.html
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 31 Jul 2021, 22:45
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DmitryFarber
Poojita

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to deal with that difficulty. Past participles (past forms of verbs) often appear as modifiers, and there's not a simple rule for determining the intended usage. Generally, though, we should try to find the author's intended sentence core (subject, verb, etc.), and see if that makes sense. Then, if some other word such as "thrust" or an -ed word can work as a modifier, then it's okay. In other words, we should do our best to read the choice as if it makes sense, and eliminate if there's no way to interpret the words that would produce a valid sentence.

Here are a few good cases with "extra" past participles to practice on:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-first-tr ... 25551.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/paleontologi ... 37585.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/fossils-of-t ... 77781.html
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Thanks alot DmitryFarber!!! for the response
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Isn't because of preferred on the gmat?
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 22 Oct 2021, 01:29
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Isn't because of preferred on the gmat?
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No, there is no such hard rule.
On GMAT you need to choose BEST answer among options given. (OR it can be said as better among five choices and NOT the perfect one).
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 10 Feb 2022, 12:10
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burnttwinky
Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for anybody with a pan or shovel.


(A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for

(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for

(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
Show more

Hi KarishmaB DmitryFarber! In C, is the construction "owing to erosion..." wrong? Also, is the use of "had" in the phrase "and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient" right? In addition, in terms of meaning, the use of "because of" in A and B is not the intended meaning, right? Thank you! :please:
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 10 Feb 2022, 22:35
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burnttwinky
Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for anybody with a pan or shovel.


(A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for

(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for

(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

Hi KarishmaB DmitryFarber! In C, is the construction "owing to erosion..." wrong? Also, is the use of "had" in the phrase "and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient" right? In addition, in terms of meaning, the use of "because of" in A and B is not the intended meaning, right? Thank you! :please:
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"owing to" is used in place of "because of" or "on account of" but here all of these are incorrect.

Prospecting for gold was easy not because of erosion but because erosion had put gold within reach. So we are looking for another clause that explains the reason why prospecting was easy. The nouns "erosion", "glacier movement" and "volcanic activity" are not the reason prospecting was easy. They do not help us understand why prospecting was easy.

We need to say that it was easy because (or since) erosion, glacier movement and gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface put gold within reach.
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 10 Aug 2022, 22:33
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Still cannot wrap my head around the approach to solve this problem:
(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

I chose B, my first step was to identify the correct list of 3 parallel elements.
first option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || volcanic activity
second option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || riverbeds
the main reason to drop the second option was the phrase: gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.
I did not understand the usage of to the surface here and volcanic activity looked similar to the gerunds previously used (erosion, glacier movement)
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 11 Aug 2022, 00:12
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dmohitprasad
GMATNinja AndrewN egmat
Still cannot wrap my head around the approach to solve this problem:
(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

I chose B, my first step was to identify the correct list of 3 parallel elements.
first option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || volcanic activity
second option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || riverbeds
the main reason to drop the second option was the phrase: gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.
I did not understand the usage of to the surface here and volcanic activity looked similar to the gerunds previously used (erosion, glacier movement)
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Hi dmohitprasad,

In "riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity", thrust to the surface by volcanic activity is a modifier. We can read that part of option E like this: "riverbeds that were thrust to the surface by volcanic activity". As for B, there are multiple issues here, but one way to take B out is to focus on the intended meaning. This is what option E says:
1. Prospecting was a relatively easy task since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds put gold literally within reach...

On the other hand, this is what the sentence tells us if we choose option B:
2. Prospecting was a relatively easy task because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity...

We don't want to say something like "prospecting was easy because of erosion". Instead, what we want to say is that prospecting was easy because (or since) erosion put gold within reach (of...).
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 12 Aug 2022, 04:37
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dmohitprasad
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Still cannot wrap my head around the approach to solve this problem:
(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

I chose B, my first step was to identify the correct list of 3 parallel elements.
first option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || volcanic activity
second option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || riverbeds
the main reason to drop the second option was the phrase: gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.
I did not understand the usage of to the surface here and volcanic activity looked similar to the gerunds previously used (erosion, glacier movement)
Show more

Hello dmohitprasad,

We hope this finds you well.

To provide a bit more clarity, the phrase "thrust to the surface by volcanic activity" simply means that the volcanic activity pushed the riverbeds from below the ground to the surface of the Earth.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 13 Aug 2022, 07:15
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dmohitprasad
GMATNinja AndrewN egmat
Still cannot wrap my head around the approach to solve this problem:
(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

I chose B, my first step was to identify the correct list of 3 parallel elements.
first option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || volcanic activity
second option: erosion || prehistoric glacier movement || riverbeds
the main reason to drop the second option was the phrase: gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.
I did not understand the usage of to the surface here and volcanic activity looked similar to the gerunds previously used (erosion, glacier movement)
Show more
Looks like AjiteshArun has you covered nicely, but here are a couple of other thoughts:

dmohitprasad
the main reason to drop the second option was the phrase: gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity.
Show more
A riverbed is at the bottom of the river (below the water). It would be hard to get to gold in a riverbed at the bottom of a river! But volcanic activity thrust those gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface -- and since those riverbeds were no longer underwater, it was easy to get the gold.

(B) also has a more glaring parallelism issue: "and putting gold literally within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel" isn't logically parallel to anything else in the sentence, so (B) has to go.

I hope that helps!
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in E] are we saying that

erosion and prehistoric glacier movement thrust to the surface!

I am unable to make sense out of it. Please help
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in E] are we saying that

erosion and prehistoric glacier movement thrust to the surface!

I am unable to make sense out of it. Please help
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Hi,

The correct version of this sentence contains 3 parallel elements (= 3 factors that all contributed to putting gold within the reach of prospectors with only primitive equipment):
• erosion
• prehistoric glacier movement
• ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity ("thrust to the surface"... is a modifier of "riverbeds". There's no such word as "thrusted"; it's just "thrust", an irregular form.)
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 30 Dec 2022, 07:59
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for anybody with a pan or shovel.


(A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for

(B) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of

(D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for

(E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

This question is based on Sentence Structure and Parallelism.

A) because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for
The preposition ‘for’ is incorrect after the phrase “within reach”. The correct usage is ‘within reach of’.
This option lacks the relative pronoun ‘that’, which would connect the first part of the sentence to the second. So, the option should have been as following –
because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity that put gold literally within reach for
For these two reasons, Option A can be eliminated.

B)because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
The intended meaning of the sentence is that prospecting for gold during the California Gold rush was relatively easy because of certain things that put gold within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel.
The construction of Option B conveys the meaning that prospecting for gold was easy because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, volcanic activity, and putting gold within reach…. However, the intended meaning is that the first three things put gold within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel. If erosion, prehistoric glacier movement etc. are part of a list, there is a lack of parallelism in this option as ‘putting’ is not parallel to the rest of the items in the list. So, Option B can be eliminated.

C) owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
Option C corrects the error in Option B by introducing the relative pronoun ‘that’. However, such a construction requires ‘thrust’ and ‘putting’ to be parallel to each other, which they are not in this option.
So, Option C can be eliminated.

D) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for
Option D contains the same idiomatic error as Option A. The placement of the relative pronoun ‘that’ and the participle ‘putting’ make Option D a sentence fragment. So, Option D also can be ruled out.

E) since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of
This option has the verb ‘put’ for the subject “erosion, prehistoric glacier movement and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity”. The phrase “thrust to the surface by volcanic activity” modifies the noun, ‘riverbeds’. The idiomatic error in Options A and D has also been corrected in this option. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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CrackverbalGMAT
I don't understand why you need a "that" in Choice A but not in Choice E.
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 30 Dec 2022, 19:06
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woohoo921

A and E have very different structures. BECAUSE OF in A introduces a list of nouns: erosion, movement, and riverbeds. THRUST then creates a modifier for riverbeds. But then PUT has no function. There's no subject to match with this verb. It would be like saying "I won because of the shortcut put me ahead of the others." I can cut OF ("I won because the shortcut put me ahead") or I need to put THAT. "I won because of the shortcut." What shortcut? "The shortcut that put me ahead." As it is, we're mixing and matching. Prospecting was easy because of this list of things, but then we're trying to turn one of the things into a clause (with a verb).

E, on the other hand, uses SINCE to introduce a clause. (It could just as well have said BECAUSE, just not BECAUSE OF). Prospecting was easy. Why? Because erosion, movement, and riverbeds put gold within reach. Since this is a clause, it would be wrong to use THAT and turn our verb into a modifier.
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 12 Feb 2023, 23:57
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Hi can someone explain me the real meaning of this sentence, how is anciet, gold bearing riverbed and erosion are comparable? in my view erosion and glacier movement are still comparable to volcanic activity. really having a hard time
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively 13 Feb 2023, 21:27
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Hi can someone explain me the real meaning of this sentence, how is anciet, gold bearing riverbed and erosion are comparable? in my view erosion and glacier movement are still comparable to volcanic activity. really having a hard time
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Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of anybody with a pan or shovel.

'Prospecting for gold' means looking for gold. Normally, mineral natural resources are dug out from deep within the Earth. You and me cannot look for gold, silver, mica etc on barren land and hope to find it.
But during the California gold rush time, finding gold was easy. It was almost on the surface so anybody with a shovel could dig out gold from the soil.
How did it come to the surface? Because erosion (top layer of the Earth was eroded), glacier movements and gold bearing river beds present on the surface caused the gold to be easily accessible.

The volcanic activities caused ancient gold bearing river beds to be thrust to the surface. Normally you would expect river beds to be quite deep.

The parallel elements:
erosion put gold literally within reach of anybody...
prehistoric glacier movement put gold literally within reach of anybody...
ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of anybody...

The 3 highlighted are in parallel.
'thrust to the surface by volcanic activity' modifies 'ancient gold-bearing riverbeds'

e.g.
The kindness of the server, the dance movements and the song written by my sister made my evening very pleasant.

The highlighted are nouns in parallel. The nouns have modifiers before or after them.
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