The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which

Dear Friends,

Choice A: This answer choice features a subject-verb disagreement between the verb "was" and the noun "local times". This answer choice also fails to maintain parallelism between the phrases "which was determined..." and "differing from city to city". Remember, all elements within a list must be parallel. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice repeats the subject-verb disagreement seen in Option A. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C: This answer choice repeats the parallelism error found in Option A. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between the phrases “determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian” and "differed from city to city", as the former is a "verb+ed" modifier phrase and the latter is a verb phrase. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E: This answer choice maintains proper subject-verb agreement and parallelism; the phrase "determined by when..." and "differing from city to city" are verb-based modifying phrases that act upon the noun "local time", making them parallel. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Can we slightly change option (C) to make it right?
For example, "which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and which were differing..." ?

Reading the (C) option made me think that "which were" was related to both "determined by..." and "differing..."

GMATNinja and other experts
Can you please guide me here...

Comma + Verb-ed modifier modifies the immediately preceding noun or the whole clause?

I have a lot of confusion regarding that.

Also, Differing will modify local times? How? Verb-ing should modify the whole clause, right?

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SAm, Your main doubt--- What is the previous clause you are referring to as modified by the comma plus verbing(, differing)? I hope you are not mistaking the main clause at the beginning of the sentence as the previous clause. The previous clause is the local times, which were determined by (This is not an IC but nevertheless a relative clause)

The other doubts --- Which were determined is a clause and differing is a phrase. Therefore both are not //.
Determined by is a participle( the V-3 form) and differed is an active voice verb( the V-2 verb) and hence are not parallel

Only a participle is parallel to another participle

HTH

SAm, Your main doubt--- What is the previous clause you are referring to as modified by the comma plus verbing(, differing)? I hope you are not mistaking the main clause at the beginning of the sentence as the previous clause. The previous clause is the local times, which were determined by (This is not an IC but nevertheless a relative clause)

The other doubts --- Which were determined is a clause and differing is a phrase. Therefore both are not //.
Determined by is a participle( the V-3 form) and differed is an active voice verb( the V-2 verb) and hence are not parallel

Only a participle is parallel to another participle

HTH

Dear GMATNinja

Could you explain what is wrong with (C)?

(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing

(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing

I think that (C) and (E) pretty much convey the same meaning, but (C) is a little bit wordier using "which + were" + determing // + differing. Am I right?

Thanks!

Hi Experts, daagh egmat VeritasKarishma

I have a car, which is red and old.

Here, "which is" is applicable to both a) red
b) old

Why cant option (C) be interpreted in a similar way. Please let me know why the following interpretation is invalid.

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which were a) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and b) differing from city to city,, and to the establishment of regional times.

So, local times, which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian
and local times, which were differing from city to city,

egmat

Quick Doubt in this.

Although I choose E, going by the meaning that "times differing" would be a continuous action (although differing is not a verb here, as it doesn't have any helping verb with it).

My doubt is, in D, leaving the meaning aside, how could we say that "differed from city to city" is a verb phrase rather than a modifier like "determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian".

Because in my initial analysis for "differing" and "differed" were acting like a modifier, I choose E just because of the meaning.

Please help in this part.

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed

(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing

Hi AndrewN sir

There is lot of discussion above w.r.t. parallelism between determined vs differing /differed. I am confused with these below points:

Reasons for choosing E over D:
1. determined by vs differing/differed from
differed is not parallel to determined by because determined by - passive and differed from -active?- is it?
2. differed from vs differing from - are these both modifiers? why in some posts, it is mentioned "differed" is past verb but not verb-ed modifier. is it?
3. E wins over D because of meaning issue. Differing makes sense over differed from .is it?

In which above numbers reasoning is wrong? Please suggest.
I am little confused with lot of different explanations in above posts.

Please suggest AndrewN sir

i have a doubt ... "determined" (verb-ed participle) after comma should ideally modify the entire clause right.

According to the rule that comma + ed/ing modifier modifies entire clause...

but here we are trying to modify only preceding noun "local times". so why is "determined" better than "which" (as which does modify its nearby noun)