Hi to everyone,

I would like to ask a question about the Participle Phrases. Sometimes, these phrases occur in the form of Verb+ing and sometimes they occur in Verb+ed form. Do they have any difference in the meaning?

for example in (OG 10, q210) in the explanation ETS writes that "spawned and extending" are parallel since they are participal phrases. In the first look, they seem to be quiet different in nature and I would prefer "spawing and extending" or "spawned and extended". What would change in the meaning? Would you mind explaining it?

Thank you very much..

Participial phrases are essentially modifiers with a verb form in them. Thus, they do convey some information about the timeline, even though they are not verbs in a tense. By the way, participial phrases can also indicate something about voice, even though they aren't the verb: "The house painted red and dripping with excess paint will dry eventually." Painted = passive voice, dripping = active voice.

The point in OG 10th, SC#210 is that "spawned...and extending" are logically and grammatically parallel, even though they are not exactly the same form. Both are participles and describe the "filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles" (how was it formed? where is it?).

The words "10,000 years ago" (clearly indicating past) require that the sentence use "spawned" instead of "spawning." The words "recently discovered...living organism...is" (clearly indicating present) require that the sentence use "extending" instead of "extended."