jabhatta2 wrote:
MartyTargetTestPrep wrote:
......
Yes, the two elements could be considered parallel. So, there's not, strictly speaking an issue with parallism.
The issue is with the tense of "were differing."
To see this issue more clearly, consider this version of the (C) version of the sentence.
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which were ... differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.
We see that the sentence illogically uses the past continuous "were differing" when the simple past "differed" would make more sense,
The meaning conveyed by the past continuous suggest the illogical idea that "local times" had the ability to start and stop "differing." On the other hand, the simple past "differed" serves to communicate the logical idea that a characteristic of "local times" was that they "differed from city to city."
Hi
MartyTargetTestPrep -
Thank you so much - i am struggling to understand the bit in yellow.
Could you provide a simpler example ?
let me try a simple example
Quote:
(a) The dogs, which were killing hyenas, are pink
vs
(b) The dogs, which killed hyenas, are pink
Too me - (A) and (B) are the same. I know there is a difference but struggling to enunciate.
In my 2nd example - (b) - the red indicates a general characteristic about EVERY pink dogs. Every pink dog killed hyenas (in the past)
(a) is NOT a general characteristic ? so there are pink dogs THAT DONT kill hyenas and there are pink dogs THAT DO kill hyenas ...
Is that whats going on ...
Hi.
Your examples don't work because both sentences convey logical meanings.
Here are two examples that illustrate the key contrast.
Sharks, which differ from other fish in many ways, can be found in all oceans.
Sharks, which are differing from other fish in many ways, can be found in all oceans.
The first one is correct. The second suggests the illogical meaning that sharks are currently choosing to differ from other fish but may not do so at all time.
The verb "differ" is fairly unique in that, when things differ, they often differ intrinsically or permanently. So, saying "are differing," which suggests that the things don't differ all the time, is often illogical.
In contrast, something can choose to kill sometimes and not other times. So, "are killing" is logical.
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