Harley1980 wrote:
The Atlantic Ocean, the second youngest of Earth's five oceans, originated 130 million years ago when the Americas separated from Africa and, as Earth's plates continue to move, has been expanding ever since.
A) originated 130 million years ago when the Americas separated from Africa and, as Earth's plates continue to move, has been expanding
B) originated 130 million years ago with the Americas separating from Africa and, as Earth's plates continue to move, expanding
C) had originated 130 million years ago as the Americas separated from Africa and, with Earth's plates continuing their motion, is expanding
D) had originated 130 million years ago because the Americas separated from Africa and, while Earth's plates continue to move, expanding
E) originated 130 million years ago with the Americas separating from Africa and, as Earth's plates continue their motion, was expanding
OFFICIAL SOLUTION
Split #1: verb parallelism. All five answers begin the underlined phrase with some form of verb, then have the word "and" (after "Africa"), and we need another bonafide verb. Choices (A) & (C) & (E) have an actual verb, but choices (B) & (D) have only the participle "expanding" --- a full verb cannot be parallel to just a participle, so these two are wrong.
Split #2: verb tenses. First of all, verbs of different tenses can be parallel. That is not a violation of parallelism, if two verbs correctly are placed in different tenses. Choice (A) has "originated" in the simple past, and "
has been expanding", the
present perfect, which is correct in this context. Choice (C) begins with the past perfect "had originated", which would be used if we wanted to show that this happened before some other past event --- but the only other past event ("the Americas separated from Africa") was simultaneous, so the past perfect is incorrect. Choice (E) has "originated" in the simple past, and "was expanding" in the past progressive, which sounds a little funny --- if that has been happening "ever since", why isn't it still going on? The words "ever since" suggests that it would continue to this day (which is what the present perfect suggests), but the past progressive implies that it is no longer happening. Choice (A) looks good, Choice (C) is clearly wrong, and we are suspicious of Choice (E).
Split #3: subordinate clause vs. prepositional phrase. Look at the part of the sentence that talks about "the Americas" separating "from Africa." Choices (A) & (C) & (D) have some subordinate conjunction (when/as/because) followed by a bonafide [noun] + [verb] structure: that's correct. Choices (B) & (E) have the structure [preposition] + [noun] + [participial phrase]. The GMAT does not like that. The GMAT doesn't like when you try to cram [noun] + [verb]-style action into a prepositional phrase.
If you want to express action, use a subordinate clause, not a prepositional phrase. For these reasons, (B) & (E) are wrong.
For all these reasons, (A) is the best possible answer.
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