Concept Question

[Elita]

Before he was assassinated by his brother in 1828, King Shaka built a Zulu empire extending over hundreds of thousands of square miles and that contained some two million inhabitants.

(A) extending over hundreds of thousands of square miles and that contained
(B) extensive over hundreds of thousands of square miles, and it contained
(C) that extended over hundreds of thousands of square miles and containing
(D)that extended over hundreds of thousands of square miles and contained
(E)which was extending over thousands of square miles and containing

This question was discussed yesterday; the answer is D. However, I got it wrong.


Now, how about this sentence:

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times,determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differingfrom city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

The above sentence is correct! I used the sme logic from the above sentence to determine the correct form of the modifiers in the first problem for the Zulu empire.
Obviously the reasoning IS WRONG!
Therefore, I am totally confused.

Please, elaborate why we choose [that extended..and contained..] in 1case
and [determined..and differing..] in second sentence.

[FZanjani]

Look at the series of events -

in the first sentence everything happened before king shaka was asssinated thus both past tenses -

in the 2nd sentence the time was determined .....however still differs (differed would imply time does not differ btween the cities now).

[Elita]

Hi Fzanjani,

thank you for the reply
But I don't think the reason is the tense. Here is a quote I found, its' from Erin:

[I know some of you have learned that we should only use the -ing form only for actions that are ongoing/in progress in the present, but that's simply not true. We do occasionally use them correctly for past actions that were ongoing/in progress.]

What do you think about that?
The tense is not the reason for choosing [contained] over [containing]..
What, what, what is the reason??

I am still very confused for the 2 sentences.

[800Bob]

The difference is that, in the first sentence, the Zulu Empire did both things--it extended and it contained--whereas in the second sentence the local times did only one thing--they differed--and they had one thing done to them--they were determined.

So in the first sentence you have a choice. You could use a clause beginning with "that" and containing two past tense verbs:

Before he was assassinated by his brother in 1828, King Shaka built a Zulu empire that extended over hundreds of thousands of square miles and contained some two million inhabitants.

Or you could use two present participles:

Before he was assassinated by his brother in 1828, King Shaka built a Zulu empire extending over hundreds of thousands of square miles and containing some two million inhabitants.

In the second sentence you have a similar choice. You could use a clause beginning with "which" and containing two past tense verbs--but the first would have to be the passive form:


The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

Or you could use a past participle and a present partciple:

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differing from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times.

[Elita]

Exactly!
Awesome explanation. Thank you, 800Bob. You cleared up my confusion.

[maybeanoop]

Wouldn't it be good to have some online reference for grammer. This will help in sentence correction. Like , saw a subjuctive error while practicing and wanted to learn more about it > switch to grammer help > read through specific topic and delve into the practice back.

Anybody doing this and has some online reference material/link/etc. Kindly respond.

Other suggestions are also welcome.

[dipaksingh]

The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which were determined by when the sun reached the observer's meridian and differed from city to city, and to the establishment of regional times

800bob i doubt the validity of this sentence.

which were determined--------- and which were differed------
comment on this