Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the

Question

Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use .

a) Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use.

b) Covered with low shrubs, the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agriculture.

c) The land along the seashore, covered with low shrubs, is sandy and has a quality unsuitable for agricultural use.

d) The land along the seashore is covered with low shrubs, sandy, and is unsuitable for agriculture.

e) The quality of the land along the seashore, covered with low shrubs, is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use.

Please, post your answer along with youe reasing. Thanks!!:)

rajeevrks27 · Answer

IMO B
  Covered with low shrubs   ( past participle) is correctly modifying the land (subject).
sandy and unsuitable are two problems and are parallel.
though E is shown the correct choice, however   Covered with low shrubs   ( past participle) is incorrectly modifying "The quality" ( which should have been THE LAND) ..
Qualities can't be covered
correct me if i am wrong.

ankitranjan · Answer

In my opinion also B should be the answer.

smoothie2003 · Answer

I also agree that the answer should be B. Given that with E the low shrubs are modifying the quality I don't understand why B is not the correct answer.

eybrj2 · Answer

I also picked b, but OA is e. Why~~~~~~~~~~~ :cry:

nilaybadavne · Answer

Covered with low shrubs  incorrectly modifies  the quality .
B) Corrects the modifier error (correctly modifies  the land ). Concise.
C) Grammatically correct but awkward construction.
D) Parallelism error when describing the land. ... is covered with low shrubs,  is  sandy, and is unsuitable...
E) Incorrectly modifies  the seashore ; when the main subject is  the land .

On my first attempt, I selected B as my answer. But after pondering awhile, I think E should be the answer. The main subject is  the quality ;  covered with low shrubs  can also modify  the seashore . Furthermore, Original sentence is discussing about  the quality of the land  and I think we cannot simply assume that in B.
What is the actual explanation of the OA?

eybrj2 · Answer

Unfortunately, there is no official explanation for this Q.
That's why I posted here.
But your reasoning makes sense. still don't get why b is not the answer though
Based on your explanation, I think that the reason that b is not the answer is that b changes focus into the land while the focus is the quality in the original sentence like e.

abhi47 · Answer

The correct answer is B as the low shrubs is correctly modifying the land.

newdawn · Answer

I think B is correct.

The quality is sandy .. looks awkward (E)
The land is sandy .. makes sense (B)

B. the land  (along the seashore)  is sandy and unsuitable
E. The quality  of the land along the seashore, covered with low shrubs,  is sandy and unsuitable

DaenerysStormborn · Answer

Experts please help in this question.

How is E better than B?

sayantanc2k · Answer

E is NOT the correct answer. The quality of the land is not sandy, neither the quality is unsuitable for agriculture. The land itself is sandy and unsuitable for agriculture. Hence B is better than E.

law258 · Answer

We're talking about the  land  here, not the  quality of land  that is considered "unsuitable for agricultural uses" --> B gives us this.

pratyush86 · Answer

Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use.

a) - quality is being modified by covered with low shrubs. - eliminate

b) Covered with low shrubs, the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agriculture. - Best option

c) The land along the seashore, covered with low shrubs, is sandy and has a quality unsuitable for agricultural use.quality should modify land and therefore be placed as close to it as possible. - eliminate.

d) The land along the seashore is covered with low shrubs, sandy, and is unsuitable for agriculture. - is it covered with sandy ?? - no. This is an error so eliminate.

e) The quality o the land along the seashore, covered with low shrubs, is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use. - same as A

Hoozan · Answer

Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the seashore is sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use.

Meaning Analysis:  The land along the seashore is covered with low shrubs, is sandy and is unsuitable for agriculture.

Sentence structure:  
Covered with low shrubs,  (Noun modifier) 
the quality  (subject) (seems to be modified by the previous noun modifier) 
of the land  (prepositional phrase modifying the subject "the quality" 
along the seashore  (additional information about the land) 
is sandy  (verb) 
and  (parallel marker) 
unsuitable  (verb) ("is" unsuitable is understood) 
for agricultural use  (prepositional phrase)

We have a modifier error out here. The noun modifier "covered with low shrubs" seems to modify the "quality of land" instead of the "land" itself.

There is also a SV error out here. The subject "quality of land" does not make sense with the verb "is sandy" and "unsuitable for agricultural use.

Note - I believe "Is sandy" is correctly parallel to "unsuitable for agricultural use". Here the  is  before "unsuitable" is understood.

Correct. This choice rectifies the modifier and the SV errors sited in the original sentence.

The sentence structure of this choice makes it inferior. Why say "has a quality unsuitable for agricultural use" when we can simply say "is unsuitable for agricultural use"

This choice rectifies the modifier error but now introduces a parallelism error. "Is covered" and "is unsuitable" are verbs while "sandy" is simply a modifier.

This choice repeats the SV error in choice (A). How can "the quality" be covered with low shrubs, or be sandy and unsuitable for agricultural use?

Correct choice:  (B)

Please could someone edit this post and present it the way it is supposed to be.

manikantanutakki · Answer

IMO B

(A) has modifier error
(C) covered is modifying the wrong entity.
(D) wrong parallelism
(E) Meaning error - quality is not sandy

VerbalBot · Answer

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Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the

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Covered with low shrubs, the quality of the land along the

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