Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a r

[Jessie_8112000]

Hi
I know this is old thread. But I didn't get a clear answer about how to eliminate D. I was struggling between D and E.

Prospecting for gold during the California gold rush was a relatively easy task, because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for anybody with a pan or shovel.

A. because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach for
B. because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
C. owing to erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that had thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of
D. since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for
E. since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of

[manjeet.singh]

D has actual few problems

(i)it changes meaning
meaning of the sentence should be since(because) X, Y and Z put gold...
X - erosion, Y - prehistoric glacier movement, Z - gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity
However d says..volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface
(ii) it is using , ing...construction to modify the entire clause which is not required
(iii) reach for is unidiomatic, we need "reach of"

[ppenumarti]

Usage of 'since' requires a present perfect tense for the verb.
Therefore, choice D seems correct to me.

[manjeet.singh]

Since can be used in two ways
1) as you correctly mentioned time reference
2) can also be used in place of because

D is wrong for above mentioned reasons
Answer will be E

[adiagr]

The sentence is in Past Tense, we cannot use Continuous tense here. Hence D is wrong.

Aditya.

[adiagr]

Ignore pls.

[RonPurewal]

in this sort of construction, "since" is a subordinating conjunction that must be followed by a whole clause -- i.e., the words that follow "since" must actually qualify as a complete sentence on their own.

in choice (d):
since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, putting gold literally within reach for...
the green thing is a modifier.
the brown thing is another modifier.
therefore, if we take away these modifiers, we are left with just nouns. that's not a clause; therefore, this is not a properly grammatical sentence.

in choice (e):
since erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity put gold literally within reach of...
the green thing is a modifier.
if you remove this modifier, you have a subject (X, Y, and Z) and a verb (put...). therefore, this is a clause, making the sentence properly grammatical.