Source GMAT Prep
How to chose between b and c?

A study of food resources in the North Pacific between 1989 and 1996 revealed that creatures of the seabed were suffering from dwindling food supplies, possibly resulting from increasing sea surface temperatures during the same period.


a) that creatures of the seabed were suffering from dwindling food supplies, possibly resulting from increasing

b) that creatures of the seabed were suffering because food supplies were dwindling, possibly as a result of an increase in

c) that creatures of the seabed were suffering because of food supplies, which were dwindling possibly as a result of increasing

d) creatures of the seabed that were suffering from food supplies that were dwindling, possibly resulting from an increase in

e) creatures of the seabed that were suffering because food supplies were dwindling, which possibly resulted from increasing

Between (B) and (C), there are two related issues, one of which is the determinant of the correct answer: 1) modifier choice, and 2) meaning.

Choice (C) uses the relative pronoun "which" to introduce the modifying phrase "which were dwindling..." Anytime you see "which," you should check to make sure it is correctly refering to the noun immediately preceding the comma, in this case "food supplies." So, that modifier is OK...it is the food supplies that were dwindling.

Choice (B) uses the modifying phrase "possibly as a result of an increase..." This phrase refers to the entire clause "food supplies were dwindling" (i.e., it gives an explanation for that entire statement). So, that modifier is OK too.

But note that the modifier difference required a meaning difference in the main body of the sentence. Choice (B) reads "creatures..were suffering because food supplies were dwindling," a logical statement, and close to the meaning in the original sentence. Choice (C) reads "creatures..were suffering because of food supplies." Choice (C) is less logical--the creatures were suffering because they had food supplies? or because there was something wrong with the food supplies they had?

What is wrong with choice A ?

The literal interpretation of A is that the food supplies themselves were the result of increasing sea surface temps. Remember, you can't use 'common sense' to patch up incorrect grammar.

Why in option "A" modifier "The study of the food resources.." is not modifying whole phrase "from dwindling food supplies"
Can "A" be fixed by just replacing this modifier "The study of the food resources" with this one "possibly as a result of an increase.."?

Why in option "B" this modifier "possibly as a result of an increase.." is modifying this clause "because food supplies were dwindling".
What are the rules? Pls can you explain with some examples?
Thanks

Sorry for my typing errors in above. Pls read it as below:-

Why in option "A" modifier "possibly resulting from increasing.." is not modifying whole phrase "from dwindling food supplies". Why the interpretation could be that food supply is causing sea temperature to increase?

Can "A" be fixed by just replacing this modifier "possibly resulting from increasing.." with this one "possibly as a result of an increase.."?


Why in option "B" this modifier "possibly as a result of an increase in" is modifying this clause "because food supplies were dwindling".

What are the rules? Pls can you explain with some examples?
Thanks

sorry for the delay; we are currently in the midst of a vigorous discussion of this topic. we will post updates to this thread as soon as there's some sort of consensus among us.

stay tuned.

Bump...

consensus is that you just can't have 'resulting from' after a comma.

you can have it as an adjective modifier, without a comma - as in the following sentence:
the flooding resulting from the abnormally strong storms had left six inches of standing water in the street.
note that the boldface is an adjective modifier, modifying 'flooding'.

it appears that on the gmat, as well as in standard written english in general, 'resulting from' after a comma is generally considered unacceptable.

--

choice b features the standard use of a prepositional phrase as an adverb modifier:
'(possibly) as a result of', like other prepositional phrases that follow commas, serves to modify the action of the preceding clause (i.e., were dwindling). this is totally standard usage, so make sure you know it.

This is not to nit pick , but just to make sure I got the concept(Stacey's rule) right.

the flooding resulting from the abnormally strong storms had left six inches of standing water in the street

is this sentence, you wrote above with two ing in a row, correct.

By Stacey -- The key in the first question is that "Following gradually declining" pairs a participle (which ends in -ing) with a gerund (which also ends in -ing). Two -ing's in a row is a no-no.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/og-sc-10th-12-t1585.html

I had hard time understanding above OG problem, so I had memorized above rule very well so as soon as I saw this sentence above I thought about two ing rule. Ron, This is in no way to nitpick above sentence.

Pathik

hmmm.. ok, well, replace 'flooding' with 'floods' and the point stands.

i'm not sure whether this concept is formalized, or whether it has a name, but 'flooding' seems (to my native-speaker senses) to be more of a pure noun, rather than a gerund, in the above sentence. there are other -ing nouns that do this, as well:
swimming is my favorite sport
etc.