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Raxit85
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia 06 Nov 2019, 02:22
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generis
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 187: Sentence Correction (SC1)


• Suppose that I wrote this sentence:

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were emaciated Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

Or this one:

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were dying Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

Starving in this context is an adjective.
-- Almost always, when a present participle (a verbING word) comes before a noun, then the present participle is a modifier of that noun.
-- Almost all of you know this structure (that is, that ___ING words are often adjectives.
A heartbreaking scene. An expanding waistline. A shrinking forest. A smiling child.
-- Those adjectives are derived from relative clauses. More about that part below.
-- Even the first part of the sentence uses a participial adjective: "Some of the most wrenching images . . ."

Children is a noun.
Desertification is a noun.
Famine is a noun.

THE PROMPT
Quote:
Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

THE OPTIONS

Quote:
A) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.
• On the other side of a linking verbs such as were are subject complements.
Subject complements identify or give more information about the subject. In this case we have a list of three items.
The last item, famine, tells us that our list needs to be composed of nouns that are parallel.'
• starving of children is a verb-like noun. "Starving of" implies that someone or something in the environment is actively keeping food from the children.
"Starving" in this case with this preposition OF is not parallel to famine.
• the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa is ridiculous—a desert is not inherently wrenching.
Yes, "desert" is a noun similar to "famine." But from the other four options we figure out that "desert" is the wrong meaning.
Eliminate A

Quote:
B) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were [the] starvation of Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.
• to maintain parallelism, we would need THE starvation of Ethiopian children.
• more importantly, the images are not of starvation (whatever "starvation" means -- not something visual, really). The images are of children.
Eliminate B

Quote:
C) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starvation and "desertification" of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.
• The sentence is nonsensical.
Ethiopian children are not "desertified." The word "desertification" means the process by which fertile land becomes desert
Along the same lines, there is no such thing as "starvation of the desert."
• starvation of is not parallel to famine (and the whole sentence is nonsense anyway)
Eliminate C

Quote:
D) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving children of Ethiopia, "desertifying" the Sahel of Africa. and famine stalking country after country.
• D gets the first noun right: the images are images of children. (Whether we say "starving children of Ethiopia" or "starving Ethiopian children" does not matter. Both are correct.)

• desertifying is not parallel to children or famine. In fact, "desertifying" is not a word.
I was 99% certain that "desertifying" was not a word, but I did not have to decide because "desertification" is a word—in the preferred form of a dedicated noun.

Quote:
E) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were sstarving Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country
• this option is correct. The three nouns are children, desertification, and famine.
• More than 1/4 of people picked this answer.

• NOTES

• Does it matter that the adjectives and nouns are not in the same order? No.
-- It does not matter that the sentence puts the adjectives that describe the nouns in different positions.
-- Sometimes we have choices about adjective placement: Ethiopian children and "children of Ethiopia" will almost always be interchangeable

-- But some constructions are idiomatic: the dying mosquitoes. The bubbling brook. The starving children.
Those constructions come from "reduced relative clauses." That phrase sounds fancy. It isn't. We shorten ("reduce) a relative clause, often to a one-word noun modifier.

To reduce an adjective clause such as
The Ethiopian children who were starving.

1) remove the relative pronoun WHO
2) remove the "to be" verb (WERE)
3) place the adjective (starving) before the noun

See this short article, here.

Native speakers can hear the difference between a participle as an adjective and as something else.
Maybe non-natives will have an easier time if you all see why a participle is an adjective at times.
The little article discusses past participles, too; they, too, are frequently adjectives.

This question is hard. When we deal with parallelism, it is often a good idea to strip the sentence, looking for the main words in your list.

I explained why "desertification" is not an action noun in this post, here.

COMMENTS

These are good efforts.
I like the dedication.

You may not have had time to read my comments to two people.

Whatever is the case, mykrasovski saw my comments, adapted his thinking, and wrote a post about the correct answer.
I hope your popcorn was good. :lol:

Kudos to everyone for effort Well done, mykrasovski .
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Thank generis for such a comprehensive solution. I want to know the purpose of quotation marks for desertification. What does it indicates in terms of rule or meaning? Kindly shed some lights.

Regards
Raxit.
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia 06 Nov 2019, 08:06
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The easiest way to look at this question is to look from the perspective of the question. That is, the question or the sentence is trying to show some things or events "happening"in the pictures.
The starving children is a depiction of a wrenching image.
The desertification is a longer process and when depicted in a picture it must be assumed that the process had started some time in the past. So desertification is correct.
Stalking famine country after country is a process which seems to be still going on.
So, Answer E is correct.
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia 24 Mar 2020, 10:35
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Project SC Butler: Day 187: Sentence Correction (SC1)


For SC butler Questions Click Here

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.


A) starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

C) starvation and "desertification" of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine

D) starving children of Ethiopia, "desertifying" the Sahel of Africa, and famine

E) starving Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
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generis :- I was hoping you could clear my doubt here.

I understand that simple gerunds can not be parallel to complex gerunds or action nouns. But in this sentence,
"starving children" - a simple gerund; "the desertification of" - a complex gerund; and "famine stalking" - a simple gerund
are in parallel.

i) Am I right to say starving children and famine stalking are simple gerunds here? And that "the desertification" is a complex gerund?
ii) If so, are there some exceptions to the rule I mentioned?
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia 12 Apr 2020, 10:55
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hi Experts, In option E, images are starving children ---- doesn't it mean children are images. Shouldn't it be -- those of starving children ??

When do i need to use, those/that of and when is it not required?
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia 06 Nov 2025, 21:59
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