<p>ITS FOSSIL RECORD virtually unchanged over 100 million years, the Ginkgo tree is one of the oldest living species of tree.</p>
<p>(A) Its fossil record
(B) Its fossil record was
(C) Its fossil record, which is
(D) Its fossil record exists
(E) Its fossil record, because</p>
<p>Got it down to A and D, but I choose D, why is it A?</p>
<p>or the better question why ISNT it D.</p>
<p>none of the answer choices really make sense, i have a problem with the 2nd part of the sentence. It does not fit with the first part to me</p>
<p>Its A. D doesn’t work because when you stick it in there, it creates 2 complete sentences, which doesnt work because there has to be a conjunction in the middle.</p>
<p>In the sentence Walking down the street, the man got run over by a truck, “walking down the street” is the participial phrase modifying “the man.” If you want to talk about a specific attribute of the man, you could say His eyes wandering away from the moving cars, the man got run over by a truck. “His eyes wandering away from the moving cars” is also a participial phrase, but, rather than modifying “the man,” the participle “wandering” modifies “his eyes,” an attribute of the man. This sentence has the same construction as this one:
</p>
<p>I hope that made sense. If you don’t understand what a participial phrase is, then look up “participial phrase” on Google.</p>
<p>D is incorrect because, like gensis said, it has two independent clauses being separated by a comma, a construction which is not grammatically correct.
Clause 1: Its fossil record exists virtually unchanged over 100 million years.
Clause 2: The Ginkgo tree is one of the oldest living species of tree.
You can’t merge the two independent clauses together into one sentence without a conjunction or a semicolon.
INCORRECT: CLAUSE 1, CLAUSE 2. (Which is answer choice D)
CORRECT: CLAUSE 1; CLAUSE 2.
CORRECT: CLAUSE 1. CLAUSE 2.</p>