According to scientists who monitored its path,

According to scientists who monitored its path, an expanding cloud of energized particles ejected from the Sun recently triggered a large storm in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth, which brightened the Northern Lights and also possibly knocking out a communications satellite.

4 Explanations

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DINO JOY

Hi Mike.. Is the participle phrase "brightening the Northern lights and possibly knocking" modifying the entire independent clause or any specific noun ?
I have this doubt because you mentioned in Qn.29, the participle (outnumbering) can't modify the entire action, if there are many modifiers in the independent clause,so it modifies adjacent noun.
Can you please clarify. Thank you...

Jan 7, 2017 • Comment

Adam

Hi Dino,

The participle phrase modifies the verb phrase "triggered a large storm in the magnetic field that surrounds Earth." The action of the storm being triggered is the direct cause of the action "brightening the Northern lights and possibly knocking out a communications satellite."

Jan 8, 2017 • Reply

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A&E have parallelism error; D has misplaced noun modifier( 'large storm' away from 'recently triggered' and parallelism error. B has 'and also' construction and is wordy !

Jan 8, 2016 • Comment

Adam

Hi there,

(A) is also wrong because "which" is modifying "Earth" but should modify "storm."

Jan 11, 2016 • Reply

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SAURAV CHAUDHURI

I did not what Mike says about guaranteed GMAT parellelism if there are long sentences?

can we also say that the options D and E are passive so they will not be correct?

Jul 15, 2015 • Comment

Jonathan , Magoosh Tutor

Hi Saurav. With long sentences like this, it is extremely likely that there will be at least one parallelism problem in the answer choices.

The passive voice can be correct, so you should not eliminate answer choices simply because you see the passive voice. (D) and (E) are incorrect because of grammatical errors.

Jul 27, 2015 • Reply

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Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor