The growth of the railroads led to the

[thanghnvn]

choice C shows the rule CORRECT BUT NOT PREFERED on sc gmat.

we can say that choice C is in parallelism but this parallelism is hard to realize because of the far distance between "which were" and "differing"

[jlucero]

choice C shows the rule CORRECT BUT NOT PREFERED on sc gmat.

we can say that choice C is in parallelism but this parallelism is hard to realize because of the far distance between "which were" and "differing"

As was discussed above (by many people, including you), C is wrong because the word which cannot be used here. So it's not correct and it's not preferred.

And yes, E is correct because of proper parallelism.

[siddy]

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.

OA:determined by when the sun reached the observer’s meridian and differing

Could you please help me in explaining why we used '-ing' participle instead of '-ed' participle for 'Differing'.

How is parallelism maintained in above sentence? It's really difficult for me to identify where to use '-ing' participle and where to use '-ed' participle.

Also, please let me know the difference between the usage of '-ed' verb and past participle.

[velchal_rao]

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.


I tried to understand this way :

a.
IC 1(Independent Clause ) :
The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times,
Subject : Growth
Led : Verb
Rest are all : Prepositional phrases

Which - dint make sense so i scanned to D or E (I picked "D")

b.
determined by --- is a Phrase (Past Participial phrase )
what is it doing ?(I asked myself )

c.
Dependent Clause :
when the sun reached the observer’s meridian
Subject : Sun
Verb : Reached


Here is where i get confused :
Analysis :

1.
I first thought " Differing from city to city " as a modifier
modifying " the establishment of regional times "

2.
Realized this very late after going through forums :
" Differing from city to city " cannot act as modifier for
" the establishment of regional times " because
this is not a CLAUSE ; It is a phrase .

3.
it has to verb :(I mean "Differing " / "Differed")
Is it "Differing " not "Differed" because we are taking about general ongoing FACT ?

4.
Inference:
The establishment of regional times is differing from city to city .

Is my reasoning right ? Please help .

[bimladevi7777]

I am not happy with the explanation of option C.
I believe option C is incorrect because
1) "Local Times" still differ thus the use of past tense "was differing" is incorrect.
2) The past continuous "was differing" cannot be used in isolation. We use past continuous in 2 cases:
CASE 1: When 2 actions happen simultaneously in the past,
Sita was cooking while Ram was teaching.
CASE 2: When a shorter action happens with a longer action,
Tom came in when I was singing.
In the above question "was differing" does not fall in any of the above 2 cases.

[RonPurewal]

1) "Local Times" still differ thus the use of past tense "was differing" is incorrect.

Local times no longer differ from city to city, as described in the sentence, so the past tense would actually make perfect sense here.

In the correct answer, "differing", a modifier, adopts the tense of the sentence to which it's attached. It's attached to a sentence expressed in the past tense, so its meaning is past tense as well. It's equivalent to saying that the local times differed from city to city.

[RonPurewal]

2) The past continuous "was differing" cannot be used in isolation. We use past continuous in 2 cases:
CASE 1: When 2 actions happen simultaneously in the past,
Sita was cooking while Ram was teaching.
CASE 2: When a shorter action happens with a longer action,
Tom came in when I was singing.
In the above question "was differing" does not fall in any of the above 2 cases.

"Was differing" suggests an ongoing action of some sort. (Your 2 examples both fall under this explanation.) So, yes, it's illogical here, because "differing from city to city" is not a process that can be ongoing. It's something that is either true or not true, so the "was __ing" tense doesn't work.