Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.
OG-12 42 Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest. (A) extending (B) extends (C) extended (D) it extended (E) is extending Parallelism; Verb form Th e original sentence is correctly written. Th e giant fungus is described as an interwoven filigree spawned … some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres. Th e present participle extending parallels the past participle spawned. A Correct. Th is sentence has the participles spawned and extending in a correct parallel construction. Spawned refers to something that happened in the past, while extending refers to something that continues into the present. B Extends is a present tense verb, not the participle needed for parallel structure; the ostensible parallel between extends and the distant verb is is superficial and would result in an awkward and unclear sentence. C Extended looks parallel to spawned, but this phrase would mean that the fungus extended only in the past when the fungus clearly lives on in the present. D It extended is not parallel to spawned and indicates an event completed in the past. E Is extending is the progressive form of the present tense verb, not the participle required for parallelism.
选A可以理解没有什么问题,这道题的主干还是第一句话Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth,后面所有的包括一个定语从句,两个分词结构都是用来修饰fungus的,所以只能是修饰的动词表达方式,如果用extends就有了独立的主谓宾结构了,在语法上说不通。 困惑的是OG对于A的解释,明显的是依据主动、被动的关系来确定用extending和spawned的,但是OG却从时态上来解释,这是怎么回事呢?