welcome to eg matt my name is stacy trapanier thank you for stopping by i'm going to be working
with you today on this question about some pine trees we're going to be using the egmp three-step
approach to tackle this question so let's get to it utilizing the sentence structure we're going
to start our meaning analysis by extracting the meaning as we begin reading we see in some types
of pine tree so we know we're dealing with a type of pine tree we're going to keep reading and find
out what's going on with this type of pine tree we read a thick layer of needles protects the butt so
immediately i get this picture of this really thick layer and this layer is made of these
needles and we get all of these needles these needles are protects these buds so kind of
surrounding these buds and as we keep reading we find that from which new growth proceeds so we get
new growth from these buds so this growth proceeds from these buds okay that's making sense
as we keep reading we read consequently they are able to withstand forest fires relatively well
okay so i'm going to pull the key aspects of the sentence and what i mean by key aspects here is i
mean the main ideas of the sentence i like to keep track of what's going on make sure everything is
logically correct i love when a sentence is straightforward but we always want to make
sure that we pay attention to the meaning so we avoid silly mistakes and we want to make sure we
extract that meaning and it's logical so we know the sentence discusses some species of pine tree
and that's being talked about right up here that's our first main idea or key aspect the second
thing we get is that a thick layer of needles protects the buds so this is our second piece
at this thick layer of needles like you said all those needles covering those buds to protect them
and then the third aspect is the buds regenerate growth for the tree so we get this regeneration of
this growth this new growth proceeds so that growth is what we get is going to probably
regenerate that tree and that fourth piece is as a result of this protection of the buds
this can withstand the forest fires relatively well so this is that fourth piece okay so we get
all of this making sense we have this type of pine tree some types not all types but in some types
this thick layer of needles protects the buds from which new growth proceeds consequently they
are able to withstand forest fires relatively well meaning seems pretty straightforward so let's move
into that second step of analysis which is that error analysis now first i like to start with my
foundational building blocks which are going to be my subject verb pairs and i have those highlighted
subjects are in blue verbs are in green for you so we have a thick layer protects growth proceeds
they are able so all of these are a green in number and they're making logical sense all right
the verb tenses are in present tense properly express information about the pine tree now let's
talk about this pronoun they that's sitting right here now when i was doing the meaning analysis
i said as a result of this protection the buds can withstand forest fires relatively well
but is this pronoun they what is this referring to is it referring to some type some pine trees or
could we logically say that these pine trees are able to withstand forest fires relatively well
i mean we were talking about that these needles protect the buds and from these buds new growth
proceeds and consequently is it some pine trees are able to withstand forest fires relatively well
i mean logically i might be able to make that argument or does they refer to the buds are we
saying that this thick layer of needle protects the buds and therefore the buds are able to
withstand forest fires relatively well now i'm going to make the argument here that this thick
layer of needles protects the buds and because these buds are protected even if the tree burns
because these buds are protected consequently the buds are able to withstand the forest fire
relatively well because they're the ones that are protected and then the new growth comes
from the buds so it's actually the buds so i'm going to write buds right here that are able
to withstand those forest fires relatively well that's making logical sense it agrees in number
the plural they agrees with the plural but so that checks that pronoun it's logical it's making sense
agrees a number so no worries there now we have the modifier from which sitting right here and
this is properly referring to the buds as we've talked about this communicates the growth comes
from these buds so that works out there's no parallelism comparison or idiom errors so the
original sentence looks to be free from errors however we have to work through our answer choices
and make sure we can reject those on solid ground and confidently accept option a so we're going
to go ahead and we're going to put choice a on reserve and we're going to take a look at choice b
now i want you to take a look at this expression that's sitting right here a thick needle layer and
get a visual of that is that communicating the same thing as we saw in option a up here
of a thick layer of needles now when i think of a thick layer of needles i'm thinking of
a lot of needles surrounding the buds but when i read a thick needle layer
that to me communicates just a single possible layer maybe the layer's made of needle
not necessarily a good number of needles that provide protection so this is an expression
error this usage doesn't precisely communicate the same meaning that we get from that thick
layer of needles also take a look at the modifier from where in this option so the use of wear is
used to communicate something comes from a place or a location so we have the use of wear here in
addition to the use of from so it's almost like we have a roll of doubles here because together these
are both communicating that they're coming from a location so we definitely have redundancy so we
can go ahead and reject option b here let's take a look at choice c now you'll notice right away it's
choice c that we have the singular subject a thick layer and the plural verb protect so right away we
have that deterministic subject verb must agree in number error so we can reject choice c right
away for that subject verb error in addition to that take a look at this structure that we have
any forest fires is separated from withstand we have this adverbial phrase sitting in the middle
and these two entities any forest with any forest fires withstands should be closer together they
shouldn't be separated by this adverb this creates an awkward construction so we really
need something that avoids that kind of awkward construction now choice d if you read through this
since the buds from which new growth proceeds are protected by a thick needle layer consequently
they can therefore hello redundancy we have since consequently and therefore
all expressing causation in this sentence a whole lot of redundancy going on in addition to the use
of thick needle layer again which we discussed in option b is an expression error so we can reject
choice d now choice e again lots of words used in choice e to express causation because consequently
therefore and it's sitting at the end of the sentence as a result
so we only need one word to express causation and here we have four expressions so we can reject
choice e for the use of redundancy and again that usage of the expression a thick needle layer
not giving that precise visual communication that option a gives us of a thick layer of
needles giving us that visualization of all of those needles protecting those buds so we can
reject choice e and choice a is indeed our correct answer our meaning analysis worked for us from the
beginning so our key takeaways here always make sure that your subject verb pairs agree in number
double check your modifiers and make sure they properly communicate the intended meaning
words that communicate the same thing like causation can create redundancy in a sentence you
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