Clear my doubt, please!

**Tho** · 09-12-2002, 11:24 PM

Hi, all!
I hope you'll help me to clear my doubt in this sentence.
________, the hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.
A. Has a brilliant color
B. The brilliant color
C. Which is brilliantly colored
D. Brilliantly colored
I know the answer is D but why not A?
Thanks for your help.

**chaiyachoti** · 09-12-2002, 11:48 PM

Hi,

I think the answer is D too because it is a reduced form of adj clause.

The hummingbird which is brilliantly colored gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

The reduced form is

The hummingbird brilliantly colored gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

We can move adj clause to the head of sentence.

Brilliantly colored, The hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

If the answer is A.

The hummingbird which has a brilliant color gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

The reduced form is

The hummingbird having a brilliant color gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

We can move adj clause to the head of sentence.

Having a brilliant color, the hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

HTH.

**Erin** · 09-12-2002, 11:59 PM

Originally posted by chaiyachoti

Hi,

I think the answer is D too because it is a reduced form:

The hummingbird, which is brilliantly colored~~, the hummingbird~~ gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

The reduced form is

Brilliantly colored, the hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

If the answer is A:

The hummingbird has a brilliant color, the hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

The reduced form is

Having a brilliant color, the hummingbird gets its name from the sound that its wings make during flight.

HTH.

Nice work, chaiyachoti. Please see my minor corrections above.

BTW, A is "very" wrong--it has a verb in it. Most correct answer choice like this on the TOEFL are participles, infinitives, or whatever, but NOT verbs.