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

Question on (E) - Comma + Verb'ing CAN modify either

(i) The closest noun (in this case local times) - an example of such was given in the yellow highlight by @GMATNINJA)
or
(ii) The Entire clause.

Question - how to determine if comma+ Differing in option (e) is modifying the closest noun or the entire clause ?

I specifically eliminated (E) because comma+ differing can DO BOTH (modify a noun or the entire clause) -- thus there are 2 plausible interpretations

Hence the use of Comma + Verb'ing CAN NOT BE THE BEST CHOICE of use because Comma+Verb'ing CAN MODIFY EITHER the noun or the clause , resulting in two interpretations of (E)

Given these 2 possible interpretations, i chose to eliminate (E)

'Local times were differing ...' means there was an ongoing activity over a period of time in the past to be different. The verb here is 'were differing.'
That doesn't make sense.

Consider this example, taken from our article about why that “-ing” word probably isn’t a verb:

"The angry politician, frustrated by the opposition’s parliamentary tactics and screaming about the other parties’ unconstitutional behavior, is both a hypocrite and a narcissist." - Both "frustrated" (an -ed modifier) and "screaming" (an -ing modifier) are adjectives that modify "politician" (a noun).

You'll certainly find examples where -ed/-ing modifiers modify an entire clause. But they can also act like adjectives and modify nouns. That makes them more flexible than, say, noun modifiers (which, who, where, etc.).

In this question, both "determined" and "differing" are adjectives that modify "local times".

I hope that helps!

Hi KarishmaB - thank you for your response.

When you say : Local times were differing from city to city

Are you saying that --

IN THE PAST -- there were definitely occassions when local times WERE NOT DIFFERING from city to city.

Thank you s

I specifically said above that 'local times were differing ...' does not make sense. How am I to explain what it means?

Hi KarishmaB - Could you help explain why WHY the blue above does not make sense. Perhaps with some simple exmaples ?

Hi GMATNinja,

In the below example https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-growth-of-the-railroads-led-to-the-abolition-of-local-times-which-75679.html#p544464 I am confused as to why E is acceptable.

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

The ed modifier should be literally connected to the noun of the main clause which in this case can be either growth or the abolition. 'of local time' is just prepositional modifier. is the growth determined by when the sun..? the abolition of local time determined by when the sun..?

Where as in option B we use 'WHICH' to remove that ambiguity and the parallelism seems fine.

B] 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 which differed from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

It is kind of a grammar-based question with easy errors. "Which" is wrong as it is referring to the abolition of local times rather than local times. By this, you can eliminate options A, B, and C. In option D and E, "differing" should be there as local times still differs from city to city and not a past thing.

Am I thinking correctly? Could someone please assist me in evaluating the accuracy of my thought process?

"Which" is wrong as it is referring to the abolition of local times rather than local times. By this, you can eliminate options A, B, and C.

In option D and E, "differing" should be there as local times still differs from city to city and not a past thing

Answer E

The sentence goes like this:
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times and to the establishment of regional times.

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, Modifier 1 and Modifier 2, and to the establishment of regional times.

Modifier 1 = determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian
Modifier 2 = differing from city to city

Sentence with modifier 1 only:
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian, and to the establishment of regional times.

Sentence with modifier 2 only:
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

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

Hi guys,
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.



• The growth of the railroads led to

o the abolition of local times, and
o the establishment of regional times.

• Two characteristics of local times have been mentioned in the sentence:

o they were determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian, and
they differed from city to city.

1. Singular verb “was” does not agree in number with plural subject “local times”. SV must agree in number error.

2. Also “was” seem to be the verb for “abolition of local times”, meaning abolition was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian. This is certainly not the intended logical meaning of the sentence. Meaning error.

3. The two characteristics of “local times” must be parallel to each other. Here, “which was determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian” (a clause) is not parallel to “differing from city to city” ( a verb-ed modifier phrase). Parallelism error.



POE:

(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing: Incorrect. Errors discussed above.

(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and which differed: Incorrect. Same SV number agreement and meaning errors as in A.

(C) which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing: Incorrect. Same parallelism error as in A.

(D) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed: Incorrect. “determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian” (a verb-ed modifier) is not parallel to “differed from city to city” (a verb phrase). Notice here that “determined” is not a verb here. It is a verb-ed modifier that is modifying “local times”. If it were a verb, ther would be no comma before it and the subject and the verb would be connected properly.

(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing: Correct. “determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian” (a verb-ed modifier phrase) is parallel to “differing from city to city” (a verb-ing modifier phrase). Both the modifiers are correctly presenting the characteristics of “local times”. Refer to OG 12#42 to see how verb-ing and verb-ed modifiers can be parallel to each other.



1. SV pair must always agree in number.
2. SV pair must always make sense together.
3. In a list of parallelism, all the entities must be grammatically as well as logically parallel.

The concepts tested in this sentence have been covered in e-gmat concepts:
1. Level 1 - SV - Agree in Number (This concept features in Level 1 Preview Concepts that are available for free. Just register and learn.)
2. Level 2 - SV - Make Sense
3. Level 1 - Parallelism - Identify and Correct
4. Level 1 - Parallelism - Helpful Tips

You can also review our article on this topic by clicking on the following link:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/verb-ed-verb ... 26923.html

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Shraddha

Doesn’t the past participle (in this case “determined”) refer back to the subject of the preceding clause? So it would refer back to the subject , which is growth of the railroads and not to the object (which is the abolition of local times) ??



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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.

(A) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing

(B) which was determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and which differed

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

(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