Since the start of space age, more and more littering has occured in orbits near Earth, often because of the intentional discarding of lens caps, packing material , fuel tanks and payload covers.

a) same
b) orbits near Earth have become more and more littered , often from
c) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from
d) there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of
e) there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with

I was able to get rid of E (had been), D (littering of orbits), C (no have/has form). Can you explain why A is out? And also if there's other errors I missed from the other sentences.

Thanks

Does anyone know the solution to this question?

i think littering "occurred from" is better than "littering because of"
i have no fixed logic in saying so but thats what my mind says. :D

Choice A doesn't convey the right meaning. If I say that littering occurred 'because of' the intentional discarding of those items, that implies that the intentional discarding WASN'T the actual littering. Instead, it means that the intentional discarding set into motion a chain of events that LED to the littering.

For instance:
'The U.S. entered World War II because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.' -- Correct: the bombing was an event that then LED to the U.S. decision to enter the war, but did not constitute the war itself.

'The U.S. destroyed Hiroshima because of dropping a nuclear bomb.' -- Incorrect: this sentence wrongly implies that the dropping of the bomb LED to some future event in which the U.S. destroyed Hiroshima, rather than that the dropping of the bomb WAS the actual event that destroyed Hiroshima.

In #C there's no NOUN that serves as the focus of the modifier 'resulting from...' (an adjective-type modifier). It's intended to modify the general idea that the orbits have become littered, but there's no NOUN that signifies the littering.

#D has the same problem as #A ('because' is wrong).

Hi Ron,

Can you please also explain what is the modifier in answer choice B modifying.

is "often from" an adverbial modifier and "often resulting from" and adjectival modifier ??

Also

orbits near Earth became littered more and more - is this correct construction on its own ?? ... Somehow sounds awkward ..

thanks in advance,
Anon

Bump

when a prepositional phrase follows a comma, as does '...from the intentional discarding' here, yes, it functions as an adverbial modifier. therefore, the modifier in question modifies the action of the preceding clause (have become more and more littered).

yes, 'resulting from' is an adjective modifier, and can only be used in describing nouns (or noun phrases).




1, you can't use 'more and more' on its own, because it describes a gradual process that needs to be framed in some sort of context. i.e., you have to say when, or while what else was happening, the increase occurred.
while there is nothing strictly ungrammatical about this structure occurring alone, it doesn't make rhetorical sense.

2,
(a) became more and more littered
and
(b) became littered more and more
are actually different.
(a) means that the degree of littering in the orbits has increased - i.e., there isn't necessarily littering more often than before, but in the orbits that are littered, the littering is getting worse.
(b) implies that the littering is happening with increasing frequency.

Is it OK to say there have been more and more littering? or there has been more and more littering?

You would need to say "there has been more and more littering." Note that "littering" is the subject of that verb "has been" in this case. The word "there" is just a placeholder, if you will. "More and more" does not indicate a plural noun; instead, this phrase simply details that there is an acceleration in the amount of litter being dumped into space.

Sentences where the subject follows the verb can be tricky. However, they are worth noting, as they are not incorrect.

Think of Spiderman's uncle in the original Tobey Maguirre version: "With great power comes great responsibility." The subject of this sentence is "responsibility." The verb, meanwhile, is "comes." We can often have sentences where the subject follows the verb when we begin with a prepositional phrase or the word "there," etc.

Hi Jonathan

c) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from

In C), can we consider ", often resulting from " adv phrase that modify "orbits near Earth became littered more and more" ??

OK I see

Ron's lecture here =>
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the ... t3012.html

heh, "lecture".
i'm glad you searched the forum. that makes me feel all warm and wonderful inside.

Hi Ron.
I did not understand your explanation about the differences between "from", "resulting from" and "because of".
I did not catch the idea.

"X because of Y" means that action Y was the cause of action X, but IS NOT THE SAME THING as action X.

for instance,
more littering has occurred because of the lax enforcement of laws against littering --> this makes sense.
more littering has occurred because people have been throwing bottles along the side of the road --> doesn't make sense (these are two descriptions of the SAME action - they are not cause and effect).

"resulting from" can only be used to describe nouns. it can't be used as an adverbial modifiers.

Thanks.
What is the OA for this question?
Can you summarize what are the mistakes in each answer choice?
I am confused with so much information.