Recently documented examples of neurogenesis

[herogmat]

Ron,
is this a rule that when + PAST PARTICIPLE should always applie to the SUBJECT. I can think of examples where it can easily be applied to the OBJECT.
e.g : He likes the taste of chicken when roasted.

"easily", hmm.

nope, that's wrong -- that sentence would mean that this man likes the taste of chicken when he is roasted.
i suppose that's not altogether implausible if this man really likes to go out in the sun and get a tan, but that's clearly not your intended meaning.

It should depend on the context.

...but it doesn't.

you are making a really serious mistake: the mistake of confusing SPOKEN-language conventions with WRITTEN-language conventions.
in spoken language, there are very few hard and fast rules, and "common sense" and "context" rule the day, because people have sufficient intuition to overcome bad grammar in interpreting sentences.
in a written language, on the other hand, modifiers have extremely narrowly circumscribed rules that determine their usage. to determine whether a written modifier is correct, you compare its contextual meaning (which is discoverable by "common sense") with the meaning that it is assigned by the grammatical rules. if those two meanings clash -- as in the sentence "he likes the taste of chicken when roasted" -- then the sentence is incorrect, even though it would be totally fine in spoken language.

I have to disagree with you that "when placed in ... environment" is referring to "Recently documented examples of neurogenesis". I believe it is correctly associated with mice but have other problems as suggested by Stacey at the top.
Your view please.

you already know my view; it's the post to which you were responding!

in any case, you are certainly welcome to disagree with me, but gmac is going to be on my side of this one. proceed accordingly.

Thanks :-)

[maildeependra]

Tough one. "examples of neurogenesis include" - so the examples should lead off with whatever the actual thing is that indicated neurogenesis. The mice aren't the example - the example is the brain growth. That eliminates B and C. A also breaks parallelism.

And the other thing wrong with A, B, C and D is "when placed in a stimulating environment" - it sounds like they are referring only to the time that the mice are in the stimulating environment - but the brain growth is permanent. It doesn't shrink back down once the mice are no longer in the stimulating environment. Ditto for the increase in neurons in the canaries.

Neat explanation Stacey ! I also faced the exact same problem while attempting this question. The concept is crystal-clear now, thanks to you :)

[RonPurewal]

Neat explanation Stacey ! I also faced the exact same problem while attempting this question. The concept is crystal-clear now, thanks to you :)

glad stacey's explanation helped.

[pradeepchandy]

Does'nt option E change meaning of the sentence. Maybe the author meant to say brain growth only when placed in a stimulating environment .

Also Stacey's explanation says that "And the other thing wrong with A, B, C and D is "when placed in a stimulating environment" - it sounds like they are referring only to the time that the mice are in the stimulating environment - but the brain growth is permanent. It doesn't shrink back down once the mice are no longer in the stimulating environment. Ditto for the increase in neurons in the canaries."

My response to the explanation:-
while brain may not shrink - it can remain constant in size when removed from a stimulating environment .and then grow again when placed in a stimulating environment .

I am sorry but after doing so many CRs I feel there is some thing wrong in the reasoning here


I chose D because I thought it does not change the meaning as E does

[mschwrtz]

1) D doesn't change the meaning. "Growth" is an action noun here, it refers to the process, not the result, though of course "growth" can be a concrete noun in other circumstances.

2) Don't even worry about preserving the original meaning of the sentence until you've sorted out all the grammatical issues.

3) And even then don't try to preserve an incoherent or even an ambiguous meaning.

[mschwrtz]

That should read "E doesn't change the meaning...."

Of course neither does D, but that's beside the point.

[phuonglink]

is D wrong because "the brain growth in mice" and "the increase in canaries' neurons" are not paralel?

[tim]

no, because the correct answer (E) makes the same comparison. D is wrong for other reasons..

[phuonglink]

no, because the correct answer (E) makes the same comparison. D is wrong for other reasons..

After studying the sc again and again, i think D is wrong because:
- We dont need "the" to talk about non-particular "brain growth" or "increase" here, both are just examples of "production of new brain cells".
- "...mice when placed" is wrongly used, it should be "..when it is placed'
- "canaries' neurons when...": when modifies neurons --> wrong
Please correct me if i am wrong. I'm appreciated your straight forward explantions.

[jnelson0612]

no, because the correct answer (E) makes the same comparison. D is wrong for other reasons..

After studying the sc again and again, i think D is wrong because:
- We dont need "the" to talk about non-particular "brain growth" or "increase" here, both are just examples of "production of new brain cells".
- "...mice when placed" is wrongly used, it should be "..when it is placed'
- "canaries' neurons when...": when modifies neurons --> wrong
Please correct me if i am wrong. I'm appreciated your straight forward explantions.

phuong, please go back and read the older posts about answer choice D. Some of your reasons why it is incorrect are included in those posts.

[phuonglink]

thank you Nelson, I understand what you are trying to show me. Maybe i should carefully re read all the explantions to avoid saying or asking something which have already been said :-).

[jnelson0612]

thank you Nelson, I understand what you are trying to show me. Maybe i should carefully re read all the explantions to avoid saying or asking something which have already been said :-).

No problem! I hope the older explanations helped you. :-)

[ankitp]

Why does A break parallelism ?

the brain growing............neurons increasing - they look parallel.

[jnelson0612]

Why does A break parallelism ?

the brain growing............neurons increasing - they look parallel.

Please go back and read Stacey's explanation on the first page.

[AmunaGmat]

Why does A break parallelism ?

the brain growing............neurons increasing - they look parallel.

Please go back and read Stacey's explanation on the first page.

Apology to open the old thread, i have the same question too, Why is A not parallel. Stacy said A breaks parallelism, can someone please explain how?

Thanks