The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information fo

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



• QUICK ANSWER

Split #1: list items must be parallel with understanding
-- the non-underlined portion of the sentence contains the first list item, understanding the dynamics of tree populations
-- list items must be in the same grammatical form and thus must match understanding

Option A uses to determine
Option B uses to determine, [to] develop, and to calculate
Option D uses to calculate

Those infinitives are not parallel with the participle understanding
Eliminate A, B, and D

Split #2: for must be placed only once before the first item (implicitly carrying over to the other items) or before every item

Option E lacks the word for before the second item in the list, determining historical patterns of disturbance, an absence that is fatal because the third and fourth list items are preceded by for.
Eliminate E.

The answer is C

• ANALYSIS

THE PROMPT

• We have a four item list of things that provide critical information about tropical rain forest trees.
The fact that we are dealing with a list is fairly obvious in this question. In hard official questions that involve lists, identifying the latter is not so easy.

• Parallelism: in a list, the items must be in the same grammatical form.
-- an infinitive such as to determine and a participle (verbING) such as developing are not parallel

• What about the preposition for?
-- It "distributes," or "carries over" to each item in the list
-- in a list, a preposition must be written only once before the first list item and tacitly carries over to the other items, or the preposition must be written before every list item

• check the non-underlined portion carefully.
-- it commits us to a list that uses participle phrases (verbING phrases) because the first list item, understanding the dynamics of tree populations, is not underlined.

• WTH does for . . . to determine historical patterns of disturbance mean? Answer: nothing. It's babble.
• to determine is not parallel with understanding, developing, and calculating
ELIMINATE (A)

• same problem as that in A, only worse. These phrases do not exist:
for ... to determine
for ... [to] develop
for ... to calculate
-- we are stuck with "for" because it is in the non-underlined portion
• the three infinitives (to determine, [to] develop, and to calculate) are not parallel with understanding
• even in the list of three infinitives, the word "to" is missing from develop.
-- We can separate verbals such as infinitives by writing "to" before only the first base verb or we write "to" before each one
Correct: I want to exercise, to shower, and to drink coffee before 8 a.m.
Correct: I want to exercise, shower, and drink coffee before 8 a.m.
Wrong: I want to exercise, shower, and to drink coffee before 8 a.m.
ELIMINATE B



• I see no errors
KEEP C


• as in A and B, for ... to calculate is nonsensical
• to calculate is not parallel with understanding, determining, and developing
ELIMINATE D

[/quote]
• the preposition for is placed before the third and fourth items (determining and developing) but is missing from the second item, determining historical patterns
ELIMINATE E

The answer is C

NOTES

Sometimes we have "first words" in a list such as prepositions, verbals, and split verbs that should apply to all list items.
We have two choices.
We can place that word before only the first item or before each and every item.

Prepositions
He learned the steps by watching a video, asking a pro to demonstrate, and practicing the technique every day.
He learned the steps by watching a video, by asking a pro to demonstrate, and by practicing the technique every day.

Split verbals
She wants to learn two more languages, write vignettes and poetry, and travel to distant lands.
She wants to learn two more languages, to write vignettes and poetry, and to travel to distant lands.

Split verbs
By the time the pandemic hit, the leader had bullied his staff into silence, gone on mad tweeting rants, and announced that the virus was his political opponents' "newest hoax."
By the time the pandemic hit, the leader had bullied his staff into silence, had gone on mad tweeting rants, and had announced that the virus was his political opponents' "newest hoax."

I'm using one dimension of this question (the idea that "for" carries over) to segue into similar issues you might see in other questions, namely, that the first word in a split verbal or split verb can also "carry over" to other list items.

(Segue is a great verb. If you don't know how to pronounce it or what it means or both, look it up. Muscular verbs drive good writing in English.)

COMMENTS

I confess: I completely forgot about this question.

I am glad to see new people!
Forum members, I'll repeat my standing invitation: if you've been hesitant to post, come to these threads and post anyway!

Dare to be wrong.
For that matter, dare to be right.
Learning is not a spectator sport.
It doesn't matter whether others have posted answers.
No one writes in your voice.

I have tried non-verbal "hints" to say: you must explain your answers.
Here's your litmus test: could someone who was a little or a lot confused replicate your work on a similar question?
Highlighting without explanation is not helpful.
I will give kudos to everyone this time, but not again.
Doing so is not fair to people who do explain their answers.

Be safe.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few key differences we can focus on:

1. to determine / determining (Parallelism)
2. developing / develop / for developing (Parallelism)
3. calculating / to calculate / for calculating (Parallelism)

Since all 3 list items have to do with parallelism, that’s going to be our focus! To determine what all 3 of these verbs should look like, we need to take a closer look at the non-underlined portion:

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

ALL verbs we use in the underlined list need to match up with our non-underlined verb “understanding!” Let’s see how our options handle this:

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

Well there you have it - option C is our winner! It’s the only option that uses parallel verb forms throughout the list! Remember - if you see a list on the GMAT, parallelism is a great place to start! It’s often the quickest way to narrow down your options!

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.
_________________

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

This is a straight-forward question of Parallelism.
understanding
determining
developing
calculating

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

A. The list is not parallel. First item is to+infinitive, the other two are verbing modifier.
B. The second item in the list misses a to.
C. Correct . All 4 items are parallel.
D. To calculate should be calculating.
E. If we repeat for, we have to do that for all the 4 items.
C is correct

Correct Choice is C option.
Area Tested- Parallelism

1) To Conveys Intention and Moreover it is an Infinitive Verb. Eliminate A and B

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating- CORRECT

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating :- The ages of tropical forest provide info for three things, and since non underline part of list is ing- modifier all other elements of list must be modifier. Here to determine is not parallel with other elements

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate :- to determine is not parallel, also develop and to calculate is not parallel

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating :- determining, developing and calculating is parallel to understanding -correct

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate:- to calculate is not parallel

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating :-"for" is not needed in other elements of list , parallelism error

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

POE:
Parallelism
we have to convert the verb in 'ing' form as 'understanding' is in the non-underlined part to make the sentence parallel.
'understanding...... , determining...... , developing.... , calculating' is the right form.
Eliminate the options which are not parallel.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating - CORRECT

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

Decision marker: In this question we are telling that ages provide us info. which is used for understanding..., determining patterns, developing...,and calculating... Thus parallelism is the issue here

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating Incorrect

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate Incorrect

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating Correct

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate Incorrect

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating Incorrect

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating - parallelism error

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate - parallelism error

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating - CORRECT

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate - parallelism error

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating - parallelism error, 'for determining' should have been used for this to be correct

The way you've written the sentence does not help to convey that idea that you speak of.

"...for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, determining historical patterns of disturbance" There's a disconnect between the two clauses.

You could for example write:
"The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, which, in turn, enables the historical patterns of disturbance to be determined."

Then, the rest of the sentence can be separated and placed into a new sentence (because otherwise you are just trying to jam too much into one sentence).

Simply, what you're suggesting changes the structure of the sentence and overcomplicated things. There is a simple list here, keep it parallel.
_________________

The official explanation is here.

PARALLELISM, ADVERBS



The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.
"
A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating ---- "TO DETERMINE" DOESN´T MAKE SENSE. Infinitive adverbs usually give "purpose", and in this case we don´t want that. Besides, THERE WOULD BE TWO MODIFIERS IN A ROW "to determine" and "developing", which is also wrong.

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate ----- WRONG PARALLELISM, as "develop" is a base verb, not an infinitive as the other two ("to determine and to calculate"). Besides, "TO DETERMINE" DOESN´T MAKE SENSE. Infinitive adverbs usually give "purpose", and in this case we don´t want that.

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating --- CORRECT

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate ---- Wrong parallelism. Infinitives are not parallel to present participles (,ing).

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating ---- Wrong parallelism. "Determining" is not parallel to "for developing" or to "for calculating".



_________________

C is the answer.

The remaining choices all suffer from issues of parallelism.

Here's the part of the sentence that carries over to each item in the list: "The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for".

Notice how it conflicts with all elements in A B D and E.
e.g. The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for to determine historical patterns...

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates.

A) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating X

B) to determine historical patterns of disturbance, develop sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate X

C) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating Correct

D) determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and to calculate X

E) determining historical patterns of disturbance, for developing sustainable forestry practices, and for calculating X
_________________

in case of option E,

The ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information
for understanding the dynamics of tree populations, determining historical patterns of disturbance,
for developing sustainable forestry practices, and
for calculating carbon recycling rates.

what if from the sentence we get the idea that
understanding the dynamics of tree population helps us to determine the historical patterns of disturbance ?

'determining' here is acting as a verb-ing modifier, modifying the previous phrase.

e-gmat, gmatninja, genesis please help

We use a present participle with comma to show a cause and effect relationship. Present participle with comma modifies the previous clause. IN the given example author says the ages of tropical rain forest trees provide critical information for understanding the dynamics of tree populations. This fact helps determining historical patterns of disturbance, developing sustainable forestry practices, and calculating carbon recycling rates. Only option C uses the correct participle modifiers here for all the items. Hope this helps.

• the preposition for is placed before the third and fourth items (determining and developing) but is missing from the second item, determining historical patterns
ELIMINATE E

The answer is C

NOTES

Sometimes we have "first words" in a list such as prepositions, verbals, and split verbs that should apply to all list items.
We have two choices.
We can place that word before only the first item or before each and every item.

Prepositions
He learned the steps by watching a video, asking a pro to demonstrate, and practicing the technique every day.
He learned the steps by watching a video, by asking a pro to demonstrate, and by practicing the technique every day.

Split verbals
She wants to learn two more languages, write vignettes and poetry, and travel to distant lands.
She wants to learn two more languages, to write vignettes and poetry, and to travel to distant lands.

Split verbs
By the time the pandemic hit, the leader had bullied his staff into silence, gone on mad tweeting rants, and announced that the virus was his political opponents' "newest hoax."
By the time the pandemic hit, the leader had bullied his staff into silence, had gone on mad tweeting rants, and had announced that the virus was his political opponents' "newest hoax."

I'm using one dimension of this question (the idea that "for" carries over) to segue into similar issues you might see in other questions, namely, that the first word in a split verbal or split verb can also "carry over" to other list items.

(Segue is a great verb. If you don't know how to pronounce it or what it means or both, look it up. Muscular verbs drive good writing in English.)

COMMENTS

I confess: I completely forgot about this question.

I am glad to see new people!
Forum members, I'll repeat my standing invitation: if you've been hesitant to post, come to these threads and post anyway!

Dare to be wrong.
For that matter, dare to be right.
Learning is not a spectator sport.
It doesn't matter whether others have posted answers.
No one writes in your voice.

I have tried non-verbal "hints" to say: you must explain your answers.
Here's your litmus test: could someone who was a little or a lot confused replicate your work on a similar question?
Highlighting without explanation is not helpful.
I will give kudos to everyone this time, but not again.
Doing so is not fair to people who do explain their answers.

Be safe.[/quote]

I probably incorrectly overthought this question- I thought the question cant be this straightforward and thus maybe overcomplicated it. Kindly help me streamline my thinking process and how I can prevent unnecessarily overthinking/ underthinking a problem-
I thought that in Option A, 'to determine historical patterns of disturbance' gives more information about 'understanding the dynamics of tree populations' and the rest- 'developing sustainable forestry practices' and 'calculating carbon recycling rates' are standalone elements like 'understanding tree populations'. With this thought I eliminated C thinking 'determining historical patterns' cannot modify 'understanding the dynamics'.

Can you help me straighten this thought and tell me how I could have reasoned against this thought grammatically?