<p>Around 230 million years ago, the west coast of what is now Europe and the bulge of northwestern Africa began to collide slowly with the east coast of North America, the coming together of the landmasses to form the supercontinent Pangea. </p>
<p>(A)the coming together of the landmasses to form the supercontinent Pangea
(B)the landmasses coming together to form the supercontinent Pangea
(C)and with the landmasses coming together to form the supercontinent Pangea
(D)the supercontinent Pangea to be formed from the coming together of the landmasses
(E)forming the supercontinent Pangea by the landmasses coming together</p>
<p>I'm having trouble with this question. the correct answer is B, but I don't know how or why. the official explanation: Choice (B) is correct because it properly constructs an absolute phrase (or nominative absolute) with a noun and a participial phrase.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take out around 230million years ago and strip the sentence to the bones:
A and B began to collide with C, [error place]</p></li>
<li><p>This is clearly one of those I do , doing structures, so we can expect the second part to come with a gerund. </p></li>
<li><p>POE:</p>
<ul>
<li>E is one of those trick-answers for people who dont bother reading the entire thing; the first part is perfect: forming the supercontinent Pangea, but the latter is notby the landmasses coming together. Its too passive and sounds bad</li>
<li>D Wordy, and also passive</li>
<li>C Its just wrong. Just read it in your mind, and it wont flow at all.</li>
<li>B sounds about okay</li>
<li>A is a liar. If you strip it down, its really just A to form B and needs something to hook it up to the A and B began to collide with C, preferably a gerund: showing the coming together of blah </li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
<p>Going back to B, it is the only non-passive one that doesnt torture the ear too much. Under these conditions, Id say B. </p>
<p>On a similar note, I still dont like B, because frankly Ive never heard something in the following structure:
Two years ago, Donkey and Parrot brought Apple to Jamaica, the three becoming best friends to swim. </p>
<p>Anyway, although B seems wrong, its the least wrong of all of them. So B!</p>
<p>I went with E; I thought the "forming" part makes better sense. This is official CB questions. I have never heard anyone use sentence structure like this either, so it threw me off. </p>
<p>Here's another one.</p>
<p>Last year, the average salary of a first-time teacher was $29,564 annually, increasing 3.2 percent over the previous year.</p>
<p>(A)teacher was $29,564 annually, increasing 3.2 percent over
(B)teacher was $29, 564 annually, an increase of 3.2 percent over that of
your answer
(C)teacher was $29,564, an increase of 3.2 percent from
(D)teacher, $29,564, was an increase of 3.2 percent for
(E)teacher, $29,564, increasing 3.2 percent from that of</p>
<p>The correct answer is C. I know the annually is redundant, but isn't the sentence comparing "salary" to "last year"? I don't know; it just sounded wrong to me. Is there some exception i should be aware of?</p>
<p>It's comparing last yrs salary to this years. If the sentence ended in previous year's, then A or B might be feasible. But since its not, then A is out. D and E just sound weird with a number as an add-in. So I'd be beteen B and C. And B cant work, cause annually would be wrong cause theyre talking about ONE year. So C would be right</p>
<p>cross out A and B for redundancy and you're left with C D E. E doesn't make sense if you read the whole thing because of "increasing". Choice D isn't right because of the "percent for". So you're kind of left with C. I understand how you think it's comparing salary to last year, but with process of elimination, because we know AB and E are wrong, we have to assume that "percent from" will work. Although, it's good you're keeping an eye out for these kinds of errors.</p>