SC: A New York City ordinance of 1897

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

Can any instructor explain the following SC?

A New York City ordinance of 1897 regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an hour, required of cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all times, and it granted pedestrians right-of-way.

A. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required of cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and it granted
B. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, granting
C. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars
at all times, and it granted
D. regulating the use of bicycles, mandating a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, requiring of cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on
handlebars at all times, and granted
E. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and granted

[vrajesh.dave]

Ok.. I started to write the answer and have gone back and forth between A, C and D.

I know it a parallelism issue, but I am not able to pin point the give-aways in each answer choice.

Can someone explain this one?

[sunny.jain]

IMO: E


A New York City ordinance of 1897

regulating the use of bicycles ( Modifier, tells us about the ordinance)

mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an hour,
required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all times,
and granted

Parallelism between : Mandated, required, granted

Another parallelism:
keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars

keep feet on pedals
keep hands on handlebars

A. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required of cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and it granted

Ideally "it" should refer to ordinance, but there are so many singular noun in between ordinance and "IT" so ambiguity.

B. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, granting

No parallelism ( missing "and")

C. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars
at all times, and it granted

Again "IT" is ambigous

D. regulating the use of bicycles, mandating a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, mandating of cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on
handlebars at all times, and granted

Lack of parallelism here. ( mandating , mandating and granted)

E. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and granted

Perfect, i found no mistake in it.

[RonPurewal]

A. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required of cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and it granted

not parallel.
you can't have just "mandated" in parallel to "IT granted".

"required of X to do Y" is also unidiomatic.

finally, "regulated the use of bicycles" SHOULD NOT be parallel to the other elements, because the ideas aren't parallel. (all the other ideas in the list are subsumed under "regulated the use of bicycles".)

B. regulated the use of bicycles, mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, granting

you can't have a list without "and" in front of the final element.

as in (a), "regulated the use of bicycles" SHOULD NOT be parallel to the other elements, because the ideas aren't parallel. (all the other ideas in the list are subsumed under "regulated the use of bicycles".)

C. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars
at all times, and it granted

not parallel.
you can't have just "mandated" in parallel to "IT granted".

also, "required X that they do Y" is not idiomatic.

D. regulating the use of bicycles, mandating a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, requiring of cyclists that they keep feet on pedals and hands on
handlebars at all times, and granted

not a sentence. you can't use "-ing" forms as verbs.

also, "granted" is not parallel to the "-ing" forms anyway.

E. regulating the use of bicycles mandated a maximum speed of eight miles an
hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all
times, and granted

correct.

note that "regulating the use of bicycles" is NOT parallel to the other items. this is the way the sentence should be written.

[aman.jboy]

Hi Ron

You have mentioned the following reason for the 'D' option.

you can't use "-ing" forms as verbs.

Could you please elaborate on the same.

Thanks!!!

[agarwalmanoj2000]

-ing forms cannot be used as verb, if they are used as noun or adjective.

Gerund - Verb used as noun, ends with _ing
E.g.
Dancing is a good exercise.
Swimming is my favourite sports.

Participle - Verb used as adjective.
- Present tense - ends with ing
E.g.
He bought a talking bird.

Thus in option D, there no verb before "and granted", so it is wrong.

OA option E also use "regulating" but as it has verb "mandated" and "required" before "and granted", so it does not have same problem as option d and is correct.

[StaceyKoprince]

-ing forms are only part of a verb structure if they have some form of the verb "to be" immediately before.

I was swimming when the alarm went off.
I have been studying for 3 hours.
She will be taking the GMAT in a month.

No form of "to be?" Not a verb. -ing words can also be nouns, adjectives, adverbs... :)

[amit_sharma56]

Hi,
This is my first post on MG and I'm not sure If I'm allowed to open such an old thread.
I'll like to know why option-c isn't preferred for following the subjunctive mood? I understand that a bossy word (require) must be followed by THAT while option-E is missing on this theory.

Kindly explain.

Thanks,
Amit

[RonPurewal]

Hi,
This is my first post on MG and I'm not sure If I'm allowed to open such an old thread.
I'll like to know why option-c isn't preferred for following the subjunctive mood? I understand that a bossy word (require) must be followed by THAT while option-E is missing on this theory.

Kindly explain.

Thanks,
Amit

"That + sentence" is grammatically equivalent to a noun.
See here:
post47979.html#p47979
The principle you're describing deals with the choice of verb form if a verb is present. It is unrelated to the decision of whether a verb will be present in the first place.

[amit_sharma56]

Thanks for the prompt response. Much appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Amit

[RonPurewal]

Thanks for the prompt response. Much appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Amit

You're welcome.

[FA]

Hello,
Happy New Year to all the staff at MGMAT. I have a question regarding the use of COMMA+ING MODIFIER and COMMA+VERB:

I am typing the "correct sentence (option E)" below:

A New York City ordinance of 1897NO-COMMAregulating the use of bicyclesNO-COMMAmandated a maximum speed of eight miles an hour, required cyclists to keep feet on pedals and hands on handlebars at all times, and granted pedestrians right-of-way.

You can see above that COMMAS were not used in the colored spaces/places. Can you please help me understand following questions:

When should/shouldn't an ING-MODIFIER have a COMMA before it?
When should /shouldn't we use a COMMA before the verb?

Kind Regards
FA

[RonPurewal]

the sentence would also be fine with commas in both locations. this is a non-issue, though, because no such option is given.

[RonPurewal]

more generally-- and more importantly-- the difference between "modifier blocked off by commas" and "modifier not blocked off by commas" is not tested on this exam.

[FA]

Ron, Thank you for your response.

The reason why I asked this question was to understand if there is any subtle difference between the COMMA+ING Modifiers and ING Modifiers without comma; whether these two are treated differently on test or not.

From your explanation, it seems that these modifiers have same function and there is no difference.

Regards
FA