Question
To map Earth’s interior, geologists use a network of seismometers to chart seismic waves that originate in the earth’s crust and ricochet around its interior, most rapidly traveling through cold. dense regions and slower through hotter rocks.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
To map Earth’s interior, geologists use a network of instruments to chart some waves. (Please note that I’m deliberately substituting technical words with generic versions since this is how I read, and I have seen that it works)
The sentence then presents additional information about waves. These waves originate in the earth’s crust and ricochet around its interior. The sentence then provides additional information about how the waves ricochet: They travel
- most rapidly through cold, dense regions
- slowly through hotter rocks
The main problem with the sentence is the placement of “most rapidly”. It should appear after “traveling” since “traveling” is common to both “most rapidly” and “slower”.
Also, since we are using an adverb form with ‘ly’ (rapidly) in the first element of the list, it is preferable to use a similar version (slowly) in the second element too. Or we could have used faster and slower in the two elements. Please note that this is just a stylistic preference, not a deterministic error for which alone you can reject an option statement.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the problems listed above.
(B) Incorrect. ‘which’ at the end of a clause cannot refer to the subject of the clause; it refers to the closest noun, which in this case is ‘interior’. However, such a reference will produce illogical meaning.
(C) Correct. Both the problems of the original sentence have been corrected in this option.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- By presenting “travel” on the same level as “originate” and “ricochet”, this option introduces grammatical and logical errors. Grammatically, we have two “and” in the same list. Logically, “traveling” is not parallel to “ricochet”; “travelling” and the corresponding information provides additional information about how the waves ricochet around the earth’s interior.
- The way “cold, dense regions, and slower” is written (first two elements separated by a comma and then comma+and before slower), it seems these three elements are in a list. Clearly, illogical. Also, even if we want to take “slower” parallel to “most rapidly”, we cannot since “travel”, which must be common to both ‘slower’ and ‘most rapidly’, appears after “most rapidly”.
(E) Incorrect. By presenting the information “that travel most rapidly…” as a separate dependent clause, the sentence distorts the original meaning in which this information, quite logically, provides additional information about how the waves ricochet around the earth’s interior. Also, as explained in the sentence analysis, ‘slowly’ is preferred over ‘slower’ in this context.
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Hi CJ,
1. Is usage of “and” before the second “that” correct in option e). I am referring to the “and” in “and that travel most rapidly through cold, dense regions”
2. In the original sentence “its” in “ricochet around its interior” is referring to the crust or the earth? If it is referring to the Earth, then wouldn’t that be incorrect since a possessive noun can not be an antecedent to a pronoun as per my understanding. Please clarify.
In option C of this question, the verb-ing should make sense with subject of the preceding clause. The main subject of the preceding clause is geologists, right? I understand that “THAT” here is also acting as a subject. Travelling should logically refer back to seismic waves/THAT so can that be done in this structure here?
Yes. Traveling modifies “that”, which refers to waves.
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