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The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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18 Jan 2011, 11:14
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A
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E
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85% (hard)
Question Stats:
49% (01:27) correct 51% (01:30) wrong based on 1332 sessions
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The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers. (B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers. (D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Source: WinningPrep Verbal QuestionBank
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This is a test of participial usage. ‘Increasing wages’ is present participle, while ‘expanded police budget ’ is past participle. As per the tenets of llism, it is acceptable to use present and past participles in the same sentence
E.g. This year we are witnessing ‘unexpected surge’ in IT projects especially from Europe and increasing recruitments both on campus and off campus
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Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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12 Apr 2012, 10:56
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To kind of clarify the questions on why "one" is needed.
The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
My interpretation is that the "one" refers to the "gradual decrease." The decrease is caused by expanded police budget, increasing wages, and improved federal workers.
Without the one, the meaning of the sentences changes. If you left out the one, you would be saying that the problem areas occurred because of the police budget, wages, etc.
(A) one curtailed by ‘an expanded’ police budget, ‘increasing wages’ in rural towns, and ‘improved monitoring’ by federal workers……… In terms of pure llism, Only A can befit as the right answer, all three factors represented by participial adjectives. Correct llism
(B) one curtailed by ‘an expanded’ police budget,wages that have increased’ ]in rural towns, and ‘federal workers improving’ .-- unparallel
(C) one curtailed by ‘an expanded['police budget, ‘rural towns that have increased their wages, and ‘monitoring improvements’ by federal workers.--------- unparallel
(D) curtailed by ‘an expanded’ police budget, wages increasing. in rural towns, and federal workers improvig’ their monitoring. ----- unparallel
(E) curtailed by ‘an expanded’ police budget, ‘increasing wages’ in rural towns, and federal workers improving’ their monitoring.---- last one unparallel.
One doubt in A persists. What is the resumptive pronoun one trying to refer to? Three problems areas is plural and can ‘one’ represent a plural noun? I would prefer a choice without the ‘one’, but choices D and E are grammatically wrong
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Originally posted by daagh on 18 Jan 2011, 22:04.
Last edited by daagh on 26 Jan 2011, 06:51, edited 1 time in total.
i am lost here.i somehow feel A should have "increasED wages" instead of "increasING wages" to complete the parallelism.
daagh a little help here please!!. how do you say "increasING wages" is parallel to "an expandED police budget" and "improvED monitoring.
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The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers. (B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers. (D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Source: WinningPrep Verbal QuestionBank
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This is a tough one. D and E are out because they lack "one". A is so right because it conforms parallelism.
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I had a same question, Why One is required? Also, regarding parallelism I was also having the same question of increasing versus increased. Kudos to daagh.
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Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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16 Apr 2012, 19:45
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@Swoosh617
Quote:
The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
My interpretation is that the "one" refers to the "gradual decrease”. The decrease is caused by expanded police budget, increasing wages, and improved federal workers.
It is really tempting to think that one refers to the decrease. But on a deeper perusal, the word '‘curtailed” is a problem.
Actually when we say that the decrease is curtailed, (two negatives canceling each other to make a positive) we in effect mean that the problem areas have increased in severity, curtailed by factors A, B and C. Isn't this antithetical?
But the appositive ’one’ can very well refer to the severity, the object of the preposition ‘in’ to mean that the severity has been curtailed. All said and done, still the indefinite pronoun 'one’ is a source of trouble.
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Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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21 Apr 2012, 21:13
No. It can not refer to one of the three problems. If only one problem is curtailed, what is happening to the other two? Are they not being curtailed?
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Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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24 Apr 2012, 01:23
This problem is not about PARTICIPLES but about PARALLELISM. Participles are verbals that can be formed by removing the be form of the verb from sentences in active/passive voice. Curtailed itself is a participle (past-participle) used in the question. Correct answer is one that puts all the NOUN PHRASES in PARALLEL. All option have NOUN PHRASES so grammatically all are || but only A has all noun phrases that are logically ||
(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers. (B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers. (D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Problem with B,C,D,E -Severity CANNOT be curtailed by wages, federal workers, rural towns A says Severity curtailed by expanded police budget, increasing wages and improved monitoring
Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease
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07 May 2012, 23:40
vikram4689 wrote:
This problem is not about PARTICIPLES but about PARALLELISM. Participles are verbals that can be formed by removing the be form of the verb from sentences in active/passive voice. Curtailed itself is a participle (past-participle) used in the question. Correct answer is one that puts all the NOUN PHRASES in PARALLEL. All option have NOUN PHRASES so grammatically all are || but only A has all noun phrases that are logically ||
(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers. (B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers. (D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. (E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Problem with B,C,D,E -[highlight]Severity CANNOT be curtailed by wages, federal workers, rural towns A says Severity curtailed by expanded police budget, increasing wages and improved monitoring[/highlight]
Nicely explained. Earlier i went with B, but now it is clear that A is correct.
The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers. CORRECT. Parallelism: Three areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity.............., increasing wages......, and improved monitoring..... <== Blue parts are parallel. The three parts are all NOUN phrases ==> keep Parallel.
Modifier: "one curtailed by an expanded police budget" <-- is appositive modifier. "One" refers to "severity" clearly. Remember: Verb+ed modifier always modifies preceding noun. However, the sentence uses appositive modifier to eliminate ambiguity. If you remove "one" --> Readers will be confused. "curtailed" modifies "a gradual decrease" or "severity"?
(B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. Wrong. Parallelism problem. Three areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity.............., wages that have increased......, and federal workers monitoring.....<== NOT parallel, noun phrase vs clause vs noun phrase.
(C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers. Wrong. Same as B. Not parallel. We need three NOUN Phrases. However, in C, the structure is: Noun phrase vs Clause vs Noun phrase --> Not parallel.
(D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. Wrong. Modifier problem. If you remove "one" --> Ambiguous (see explanation in A above).
(E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring. Wrong. Modifier problem. If you remove "one" --> Ambiguous (see explanation in A above).
Hope it helps.
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Re: The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease &nbs
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09 Sep 2013, 15:19
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49% (01:27) correct 
