Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the

Question

Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the interior of the earth during the planet’s formation; therefore, all of the water contained in  all layers of the earth are contained solely  in the earth’s surface area.

(A) all layers of the earth are contained solely 
 (B) all layers of the earth are contained 
 (C) all layers of the earth is contained solely 
 (D) all layers of the earth is contained 
 (E) many layers of the earth is contained

mnm21234 · Accepted Answer

Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the interior of the earth during the planet’s formation; therefore, all of the water contained in all layers of the earth are contained solely in the earth’s surface area.

(A) all layers of the earth are contained solely
(B) all layers of the earth are contained
(C) all layers of the earth is contained solely
(D) all layers of the earth is contained
(E) many layers of the earth is contained

There are three splits:
1.all layers/many layers -since we want to consider all the layers that have water and not miss on any layers use of many is wrong.So E eliminated
2.are /is -since water is singular we use is instead of are which is used for plural.So A,B eliminated.
3.contained solely/contained -Since all is given before beginning of underlined portion ,solely is reduntant .C eliminated.

Ans-D

pqhai · Answer

Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the interior of the earth during the planet’s formation; therefore, all of the water contained in  all layers of the earth are contained solely  in the earth’s surface area.

(A) all layers of the earth  are  contained solely 
 Wrong.  "all of the water" is singular --> "are" is wrong.

(B) all layers of the earth  are  contained 
 Wrong.  Same as A. "are" is wrong.

(C) all layers of the earth is contained  solely  
 Wrong.  "solely is redundant because of the phrase "all of the water". 
 For example:  
-  Because of an accident,   all drivers   used solely freeway 101  <-- "solely" modifies "freeway 101". However, "ALL driver used freeway 101" means NO drivers used other freeways. Thus, freeway 101 was the only choice for drivers. --> we don't need solely/only here.

Back to the question.
"all water contained in all layers" also indicates there is no water contained in other layers. "the surface" is the only choice for water to contain. We don't need "solely" anymore.

(D) all layers of the earth is contained 
  Correct.

(E)  many  layers of the earth is contained
 Wrong.  "many layers" is totally different from "all layers".

Hope it helps.

gmatter0913 · Answer

I thought "solely" is required, else it changes the meaning... but I am wrong.

swati007 · Answer

I too selected D. But i am not sure why :shock:

what is the OE?

anirudh777 · Answer

Why not ...contained solely ??? :!:

intheend14 · Answer

Echo the same as a few above--the sentence states "all the water"--so, we don't need to clarify by using the word "solely" to determine how much of the water we're talking about.

All choices with "are" are wrong as we have a singular subject, requiring "is".

b2bt · Answer

I did not get it. 
I think 'all drivers used solely freeway 101' and 'all driver  used freeway 101' both mean the same - No drivers used any other freeway. 
What am I doing wrong?
Also, isn't the sentence a little absurd because it uses 'contained' twice?
All of the water  contained  in all layers of the earth is  contained  solely in the earth’s surface area. 
I'm also confused with the tense - No hydrogen was retained in the interior; therefore water is contained in the earth's surface area

bluetrain · Answer

It is too much to say "solely" is redundant in this sentence.

Nightmare007 · Answer

All of the vodka is solely inside the bottle ?

solely is redundant here
Similarly the solely in above question is also redundant.

StudiosTom · Answer

Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the interior of the earth during the planet’s formation; therefore, all of the water contained in all layers of the earth are contained solely in the earth’s surface area.

(A) all layers of the earth are contained solely
Wrong. "all of the water" is singular --> "are" is wrong.

(B) all layers of the earth are contained
Wrong. Same as A. "are" is wrong.

(C) all layers of the earth is contained solely
Wrong. "solely is redundant because of the phrase "all of the water".
For example:
- Because of an accident, all drivers used solely freeway 101 <-- "solely" modifies "freeway 101". However, "ALL driver used freeway 101" means NO drivers used other freeways. Thus, freeway 101 was the only choice for drivers. --> we don't need solely/only here.

Back to the question.
"all water contained in all layers" also indicates there is no water contained in other layers. "the surface" is the only choice for water to contain. We don't need "solely" anymore.

(D) all layers of the earth is contained
Correct.

(E) many layers of the earth is contained
Wrong. "many layers" is totally different from "all layers".

Hope it helps.

abhishekmayank · Answer

Somehow, I didn't like this sentence fragment :

all of the water contained in all layers of the earth are contained solely in the earth’s surface area.

It looks like that all of water is still present in all layers, along with at the earth's surface area

Should not it be more precise to frame the sentence in this way :

all of the water  that was contained  in all layers of the earth are contained solely in the earth’s surface area

wenlong · Answer

Actually, I think solely equals all of...
annually, each year
it is likely that, maybe

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Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the

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Since hydrogen has very little mass, no hydrogen was retained in the

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