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655-705 Level|   Parallelism|   Verb Tense/Form|                     
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ExpertsGlobal5
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 04 Sep 2022, 04:25
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himanshu0077
Although explanation for correct answer is absolutely clear, but it appears as if subject "A giant fungus" is not having any verb to follow. In many sentences similar to this one where a noun is followed by "That" relative pronoun has a verb for the noun stated before "that".

Ex: A book that is best seller is exceptional. (In this A book has a verb "is exceptional")

Please clarify where I am wrong. And any correct method to come to the conclusion whether a verb is missing for the subject or not.

Due Regards.
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Hello himanshu0077,

We hope this finds you well.

To clarify, the subject of this sentence is actually "Scientists"; the main clause is "Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth", and what follows the comma - "a giant fungus..." - is an appositive modifier that refers to the noun phrase "the largest and oldest living organism on Earth".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 06 Mar 2023, 01:59
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DmitryFarber
manishk30 What do you mean? The sentence indicates that it is a currently living organism.

In any case, even if we imagined that the fungus used to extend further than it does now, there's no option for that in the answer choices. We'd need something like "which extended." Otherwise we are saying that someone or something "extended" it, and that doesn't make sense.
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But how do we rationalise that spawned is acting as a modifier and not a verb, and extended is acting as a verb and not a modifier?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 07 Mar 2023, 01:00
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DmitryFarber
manishk30 What do you mean? The sentence indicates that it is a currently living organism.

In any case, even if we imagined that the fungus used to extend further than it does now, there's no option for that in the answer choices. We'd need something like "which extended." Otherwise we are saying that someone or something "extended" it, and that doesn't make sense.

But how do we rationalise that spawned is acting as a modifier and not a verb, and extended is acting as a verb and not a modifier?
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Hello rezalotif,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of "extended" as a past participle to modify a noun implies that the noun was the object of the verb "extend", in other words, that some other entity extended the noun; in this case, this meaning is illogical, as it is highly unlikely that someone else extended the size of the world's oldest living organism.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 07 Mar 2023, 02:06
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rezalotif
DmitryFarber
manishk30 What do you mean? The sentence indicates that it is a currently living organism.

In any case, even if we imagined that the fungus used to extend further than it does now, there's no option for that in the answer choices. We'd need something like "which extended." Otherwise we are saying that someone or something "extended" it, and that doesn't make sense.

But how do we rationalise that spawned is acting as a modifier and not a verb, and extended is acting as a verb and not a modifier?
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When the verb acts as a past participle modifier, it does so in the passive sense.

A spawned B.
spawned - Verb
Active. A did the spawning.

A, spawned by B, is huge.
spawned - modifier (tells us something about A. The action of spawning was not done by A. It is in passive sense.)

It is a filigree spawned by B and extended for more than 30 acres.

spawned by B - Passive sense. Filigree did not do the spawning. Modifier
extended - Active sense. The filigree is the one that extends for more than 30 acres. Then extended acts as a verb.
Hence incorrect.

With present participle modifier, this distinction is much easier. When it acts as a verb, it uses a helping verb. When it acts as a modifier, it doesn't use a helping verb.

It is a filigree spawned by B and extending for more than 30 acres.

'extending' doesn't have a helping verb so it is a modifier. Correct.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 14 Mar 2023, 13:16
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rezalotif
DmitryFarber
manishk30 What do you mean? The sentence indicates that it is a currently living organism.

In any case, even if we imagined that the fungus used to extend further than it does now, there's no option for that in the answer choices. We'd need something like "which extended." Otherwise we are saying that someone or something "extended" it, and that doesn't make sense.

But how do we rationalise that spawned is acting as a modifier and not a verb, and extended is acting as a verb and not a modifier?

When the verb acts as a past participle modifier, it does so in the passive sense.

A spawned B.
spawned - Verb
Active. A did the spawning.

A, spawned by B, is huge.
spawned - modifier (tells us something about A. The action of spawning was not done by A. It is in passive sense.)

It is a filigree spawned by B and extended for more than 30 acres.

spawned by B - Passive sense. Filigree did not do the spawning. Modifier
extended - Active sense. The filigree is the one that extends for more than 30 acres. Then extended acts as a verb.
Hence incorrect.

With present participle modifier, this distinction is much easier. When it acts as a verb, it uses a helping verb. When it acts as a modifier, it doesn't use a helping verb.

It is a filigree spawned by B and extending for more than 30 acres.

'extending' doesn't have a helping verb so it is a modifier. Correct.
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Thank you to both you and Experts global. I spent a couple hours trying to find the answer to this and your answers have made it a lot clearer.

So just to confirm, theoretically speaking, if we had 'extended by b' would that make it passive and a modifier and hence it could work in terms of parallelism?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 14 Mar 2023, 20:55
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rezalotif

So just to confirm, theoretically speaking, if we had 'extended by b' would that make it passive and a modifier and hence it could work in terms of parallelism?
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Yes, theoretically that would work.

A, spawned by B and extended by C, is ....
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 04 Oct 2023, 01:29
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Although I have not figured why A is the correct answer, here is a question that is similar to this one.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-the-search-for-alien-life-astronomers-have-recently-157793.html#p1256000
I got both questions wrong, but comparing these two questions may provide some insights.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 05 May 2025, 11:00
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