Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 187: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine  stalking country after country.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

C) starvation and "desertification" of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine

D) starving children of Ethiopia, "desertifying" the Sahel of Africa, and famine

E) starving Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 187: Sentence Correction (SC1)

• Suppose that I wrote this sentence:

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were emaciated Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

Or this one:

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were dying Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

Starving in this context in answer E is an adjective. it describes the noun children.
-- Almost always, when a present participle (a verbING word) comes before a noun, then the present participle is a modifier of that noun.
-- Almost all of you know this structure (that is, that ___ING words are often adjectives.)
A heartbreaking scene. An expanding waistline. A shrinking forest. A smiling child.
-- Those adjectives are derived from relative clauses. More about that part below.
-- Even the first part of the sentence uses a participial adjective: "Some of the most wrenching images . . ."

Children is a noun.
Desertification is a noun.
Famine is a noun.

• Stand back from the grammar for a moment. What is this sentence talking about? What or whom are you looking at?
Some of the most difficult images from 1985 . . . some of the most heartbreaking images were children who were starving to death.
The list must be parallel. "Famine" in the non-underlined portion of the sentence confines us to a concrete noun.
The most important of those nouns is children.

THE PROMPT

Quote:

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

THE OPTIONS

Quote:

A) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

• On the other side of a linking verbs such as were are subject complements.
Subject complements identify or give more information about the subject. In this case we have a list of three items.
The last item, famine, tells us that our list needs to be composed of nouns that are parallel.'
• starving of children is a verb-like noun. "Starving of" implies that someone or something in the environment is actively keeping food from the children.
"Starving" in this case with this preposition OF is not parallel to famine.
• the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa is ridiculous—a desert is not inherently wrenching.
Yes, "desert" is a noun similar to "famine." But from the other four options we figure out that "desert" is the wrong meaning.
Eliminate A

Quote:

B) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were [the] starvation of Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

• to maintain parallelism, we would need THE starvation of Ethiopian children.
• more importantly, the images are not of starvation (whatever "starvation" means -- not something visual, really). The images are of children.
Eliminate B

Quote:

C) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starvation and "desertification" of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

• The sentence is nonsensical.
Ethiopian children are not "desertified." The word "desertification" means the process by which fertile land becomes desert
Along the same lines, there is no such thing as "starvation of the desert."
• starvation of is not parallel to famine (and the whole sentence is nonsense anyway)
Eliminate C

Quote:

D) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving children of Ethiopia, "desertifying" the Sahel of Africa. and famine stalking country after country.

• D gets the first noun right: the images are images of children. (Whether we say "starving children of Ethiopia" or "starving Ethiopian children" does not matter. Both are correct.)

• desertifying is not parallel to children or famine. In fact, "desertifying" is not a word.
I was 99% certain that "desertifying" was not a word, but I did not have to decide because "desertification" is a word—in the preferred form of a dedicated noun.

Quote:

E) Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were sstarving Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country

• this option is correct. The three nouns are children, desertification, and famine.
• More than 1/4 of people picked this answer.

• NOTES

• Does it matter that the adjectives and nouns are not in the same order? No.
-- It does not matter that the sentence puts the adjectives that describe the nouns in different positions.
-- Sometimes we have choices about adjective placement: Ethiopian children and "children of Ethiopia" will almost always be interchangeable

-- But some constructions are idiomatic: the dying mosquitoes. The bubbling brook. The starving children.
Those constructions come from "reduced relative clauses." That phrase sounds fancy. It isn't. We shorten ("reduce) a relative clause, often to a one-word noun modifier.

To reduce an adjective clause such as
The Ethiopian children who were starving.

1) remove the relative pronoun WHO
2) remove the "to be" verb (WERE)
3) place the adjective (starving) before the noun

See this short article, here.

Native speakers can hear the difference between a participle as an adjective and as something else.
Maybe non-natives will have an easier time if you all see why a participle is an adjective at times.
The little article discusses past participles, too; they, too, are frequently adjectives.

This question is hard. When we deal with parallelism, it is often a good idea to strip the sentence, looking for the main words in your list.

I explained why "desertification" is not an action noun in this post, here.

COMMENTS

These are good efforts.
I like the dedication.

You may not have had time to read my comments to two people.

Whatever is the case, mykrasovski saw my comments, adapted his thinking, and wrote a post about the correct answer.
I hope your popcorn was good.

Kudos to everyone for effort Well done, mykrasovski .

sampriya · Answer

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were (starving of Ethiopian children), (the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa), and (famine stalking country after country).

the parallel elements are the events that took place 1) starvation 2) desertification and 3) famine

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the  “desert”  of the Sahel of Africa, and famine

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine-   Correct!

C) starvation and “ desertification”  of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine- desertification of children creates a meaning error.

D)  starving  children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine

E)  starving  Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

LalitaSiri · Answer

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa. and famine - starving not parallel here

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine - parallel. Thus, correct answer

C) starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine - change the intended meaning: Mix starvation and desertification together

D) starving children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine - Famine not parallel should be famining

E) starving Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine - starving is not parallel

Therefore, B is the correct answer

Posted from my mobile device

exc4libur · Answer

MEANING
The images were of (1) starving children, (2) the desertification of the Sahel, and (3) famine stalking country after country.

A list must have parallel elements and make sense.

Answer (E)

Abhishek009 · Answer

With (B) as well , a list is presented and only (B) has the parallel strictire.....

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were 
 starvation of Ethiopian children, 
the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and 
famine stalking country after country.

Abhishekrao12 · Answer

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa. and famine
D) starving children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine

Both A & D have same error. The and must be followed by an independent clause. In the above two sentences , it is just followed by a noun (famine) + noun modifier.

C) starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine

'desertification' of ethiopian children doesnt make sense. eliminate C.

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

E) starving Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine

Confused between B &E. According to MGMAT SC , we are not supposed to mix three categories of nouns. Going by that statement, option B looks likely which implies that famine is a action noun. Is it ?

Shishou · Answer

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa. and famine  this answet choice says starving of Ethiopian children is an image. this does not make sense. secondly, the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa- i am not sure what that means

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  this seems the best of the worst. Comapring this to E, we don't get the reading that starving children are pictures.

C) starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  this not only misconstrues the meaning but also illogically states there was some "desertification of children"

D) starving children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine
  desertifying the Sahel of Africa . i honestly don't know what it means. it could be read as the actual process of desertifying the Sahel but we want the noun since these pictures should be of the desertification

E) starving Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  honestly ,this was a contender. the only issue is the illogical comparison of starving children to pictures

Answer is B

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo. B

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa, and famine stalking country after country.

Meaning: Some of the most.....images were X, Y and Z, where X, Y & Z must be parallel.

Usually in GMAT SC, standard noun form is preferred over 
'ing of' form of noun and 'ing' of is preferred over -ing form of noun, unless -ing form mentions as a cause and effect immediately preceded by comma or noun modifier.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa. and famine - some of images... were starving.., the desert... and famine.. distorts meaning of the sentence and breaks parallelism. Here, we're starving function as a verb.

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine - maintains parallel structure elegantly. Hold it.

C) starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine - clubbing of two independent noun forms having different elements destroys the meaning aspect.

D) starving children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine - puntuation error, may be a typo error while posting the question: Full stop in the list of elements, before 3rd element. The same error as option A.

E) starving Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine- the same error as option A.

Posted from my mobile device

kunaldutt15 · Answer

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa, and famine  stalking country after country.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa. and famine
  "Starvation" should be used instead of "starving".
Also, "wrenching images of 1985 were...the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa.. This changes the intended meaning of the sentence.
Incorrect.

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  Correct. Clearly presents the intended meaning and has a parallel list.

C) starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  This option does not make much sense. Also, it has parallelism error.
Incorrect.

D) starving children of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa. and famine
  The list is not parallel.
Incorrect.

E) starving Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
  "Starvation of" should be used instead of just "starving". Parallelism error.
Incorrect.

suchithra · Answer

",and" and verb "were" indicate that its a list that follows and that they have to be parallel. 
Famine indicates the list consists of noun phrases.

A) starving of Ethiopian children, the  “desert”  of the Sahel of Africa, and famine. 
Desert is not the intended meaning
Starving of .. does not sound like a correct Gerund phrase

B) starvation of Ethiopian children, the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
Correct

C) starvation and “desertification” of  Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa , and famine
The parallel list is incorrect

D)  starving children  of Ethiopia, “desertifying” the Sahel of Africa, and famine
Images were starving children? Doesnt make sense.

E)  starving Ethiopian children , the “desertification” of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
Images were starving children? Doesnt make sense

generis · Answer

Abhishekrao12  , you are on the right track because you are paying attention to nouns.

Some hints:
No, famine is  not  an action noun.

Some nouns are quasi-action nouns no matter what you do.
That said, a dedicated noun that is derived from a verb (and is often a process) may not be very active.

Ecological issues discussed were nuclear waste pollution, the deforestation of South America, and floods.  
Deforestation  is a process, but if I want to talk about, say, a "snapshot" in time of the deforestation that has occurred," I can still put that word in that sentence because I have no other way to talk about it.

Famine  is rarely preceded by an article.

As a matter of style, I do not write, "the African Sahel's desertification."
I write, "the desertification of the African Sahel."
As a matter of style, I write the adjectives for another noun in a certain way.

Find three nouns that your five senses can apprehend.

When you look at the images, what or whom do you see?

Hope that helps.

TheNightKing · Answer

I am usually not good at identifying parts of speech ( not that I am doing bad in Sentence Correction) so I had a tough time on this one. Look at the end of the sentence "and famine" and it is fixed. So I really did not have to worry about it. Even though I pick B over D, I really am not sure of what is happening here

generis , Sorry for the tag but option A and option D have "." instead of ",'". Unless it is intended, may be you can edit it

eakabuah · Answer

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving of Ethiopian children, the “desert” of the Sahel of Africa, and famine  stalking country after country.
Meaning: Apparently there were some images of 1985. These images were 1. Starving children, 2. the desert of the Sahel of Africa, and 3. famine stalking country after country. 
These three images have to be parallel; hence this question tests parallelism.

Option A: Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving  of Ethiopian children, the “ desert ” of the Sahel of Africa. and  famine stalking  country after country. Incorrect because of parallelism error. Starving is neither parallel to desert nor parallel to famine stalking. The reason is that starving is a simple gerund, and a simple gerund cannot be parallel to a concrete noun desert or to an action noun famine stalking.

Option B: Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starvation  of Ethiopian children,  the “desertification ” of the Sahel in Africa, and  famine stalking  country after country.
Correct. Option B uses the action noun starvation instead of starving, it also uses the action noun desertification instead of the concrete noun desert and these two are parallel to famine stalking.

Option C: Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starvation and “desertification” of Ethiopian children  and the Sahel in Africa, and famine stalking country after country.
Incorrect. It is nonsensical to say starvation and desertification of Ethiopian children. Eliminate option C.

Option D: Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving  children of Ethiopia, “  desertifying  ” the Sahel of Africa. and  famine stalking  country after country.
Incorrect. This is because  starving  is not parallel to  famine stalking . Is there even a word   desertifying  ?? Eliminate option D.

Option E: Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were  starving  Ethiopian children,  the “desertification ” of the Sahel in Africa, and  famine stalking  country after country.
Incorrect. This is because starving is not parallel to desertification and famine stalking.

generis · Answer

TheNightKing , the quotation marks have been standardized. (

) What is going on here? I'm not sure how to answer that question. I am not sure I understand the question. The obvious answer: you are looking for three nouns that are as parallel as they can be. On the GMAT, the easy lists will look something like this one: A of X, B of Y, and C of Z. On hard questions, you will be asked to identify lists whose parts of speech are similar though perhaps not phrased identically—for good reason. The list items may be structured differently but they must convey the same kind of thought. IF a noun phrase exists in a sentence, what is the noun in that noun phrase? Go back over options B, D, and E. Hope that helps.

As a matter of style, I write the adjectives for another noun in a certain way.

mykrasovski · Answer

I have to confess - I was really confused by this problem, and I do not even remember which option I picked. After reading some hints by  generis , I decided to make a post.
One needs to carefully think about what exactly can be seen in the images. For instance, one can see laughing clowns or tasty donuts. Let's see what we have:

A)   starving  of  Ethiopian children , the "desert" of the Sahel of Africa. and famine
It is impossible to see  starving  of  Ethiopian children .

B)  starvation of Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
It is not possible to see starvation... One can see starving people, hungry people, or people that are very full.

C)  starvation and "desertification" of Ethiopian children and the Sahel in Africa, and famine
Out for the same reasons as (B).

D)  starving children of Ethiopia,  "desertifying"  the Sahel of Africa. and famine
One can indeed see starving children of Ethiopia on the plot, but how can one see  "desertifying" !? This gerund makes no sense...

E)  starving Ethiopian children, the "desertification" of the Sahel in Africa, and famine
Can we see starving Ethiopian children on the image? Sure, why not? Can we see famine that is stalking country after country? Sure. Just imagine the plot is very complex and illustrates several groups of people who presumably live in different countries; then imagine these people starve... Now the question is - can we see desertification of the Sahel in Africa? I would say "yes, we can". If the author of images / plots was very sophisticated, he probably figured the way to show how a certain land is turning into desert, i.e. the author shows desertification.

So, I pick (E) as the correct option. Got myself a bucket of popcorn and look forward to reading the OE.

TheNightKing · Answer

Sorry but I myself couldn't phrase the question otherwise I would have been more precise. I understand what you're saying here. This is what made it tough for me. I couldn't identify the phrasing may be. I am still not sure of the word "famine" and its meaning. I will wait for your OE first. If I have any further questions I will ask. I don't want you to waste any more energy on this now

warrior1991 · Answer

I don't know whether the (.) written before famine is deliberately a choice. All I know is that the list if has more than 2 things should be in the form of X,Y,and Z. Here comma (,) is missing before and famine. Therefore A and D are out. The starvation was only applicable to Ethiopian children . But here the intended meaning comes out as starvation of Ethiopian children and also the Sahel. This option is also incorrect as it twists the original meaning. In between B and E , the only difference is the way first member in the list is addressed. For me " starving Ethiopian children" is not parallel to other members. IMO B generis Your detailed response to this question is much awaited.

generis · Answer

warrior1991 , I will post the OE fairly shortly. I did not see your comments about "no comma before the word famine." It should be a comma, not a period. Some questions on this site are written by speakers of British English or North Americans who don't know how to punctuate lists on the GMAT. You are correct. COMMA + AND famine is correct. The period is a typo. (Despite Herculean efforts to be careful, my eyes do not catch the difference between a comma and a period on a screen. I read too frequently.

) And the typo does make a difference because the correct answer is E.

generis · Answer

Sorry, forgot to post this part: The official explanation is posted  HERE

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Some of the most wrenching images of 1985 were starving of Ethiopia

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