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

Why do we need differing instead of differed as stated in OA : E?

Can an expert throw some light?
Thank you,
Jat

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 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

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

Dear Experts,

I have 2 concerns regarding option 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.

1. The presence of the comma after local times.

The sentence can be broken into 2 as follows:

a. 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. - This is ok.

b. The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times. - The usage of comma + present participle modifies the entire clause as per MGMAT SC. This changes the intended meaning.

I feel the comma must be removed for this sentence to be correct.


2. The usage of present participle.

The sentence begins with "The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times" to state that the local times have been abolished whereas "differing from city to city" implies that the local times are differing in the present. The sentence seems to illogically suggest that the abolished (past) local times are differing from city to city (present).

Experts, please let me know if there are any errors in my reasoning?

Thanking you in advance.

I knew the reason that determined is a modifier and should be parallel with modifier not with verb .but I was not not able to guess "differed from" is a verb. How to check that ?
the test I used to check it is a verb is place" differed from" closer to local times and see if any action is done. in my understanding there was no action and just a modifier. Went with D and my answer was wrong.

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..."

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.

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)

Will "(E) determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing" not be a modifier and modify the subject of. the proceeding clause?

For options D and E- does the part after the comma -modifiers determined by and differed/differing not modify the subject 'The growth of the railroads' rather than local times? Do we not require 'which' to specifically have the modifiers refer to 'local times'? I did understand the explanation of the options but I am wondering if there is a conceptual gap regarding modifiers because while attempting the question I had straightaway rejected D and E because of the above-mentioned confusion.

can we say then that meaning superseds grammer ?

.........yes indeed, otherwise what is the point of language if we cant convey the right information!

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.



In option D and E, don't we have a clause without a subject?

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:
verb-ed-verb-ing-can-be-parallel-126923.html

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

The increased popularity and availability of televisions has led to the decline of regional dialects, language variations which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated by geographic isolation.

A. which originate from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
B. that originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
C. originated from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
D. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuated
E. originating from diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and perpetuating