I just finished reading Kaplan GMAT 800 Score 2006~2007 Edition. The same question as Q985 has different answer.

985.        Those who have visited the Grand Canyon have typically seen layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, with different colors that mark the passage of time like the rings in a tree trunk.

(A) seen layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, with different colors that mark

(B) see layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, whose different colors mark

(C) been seeing layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, whose different colors are markers of

(D) been able to see layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, with different colors marking

(E) seen layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, marking by different colors

Answer should be A, while Daquan's is D

我想选C

 markers of  the passage of time 是不是和 rings in a tree trunk  更平行呢 ？

大全的解释：

985, 天山-02

Kaplan gmat 800上答案是A

解释抄录如下：

The key to getting the right answer for this question is recognizing that the underlined portion of the sentence should not contain pronoun. The answer choices give you the option of replacing with different colors with whose different colors but the second option is wrong because, if you added whose, it could refer to thelayers or the Canon, and whenever a pronoun has more than one possible antecedent (the thing it refer to), it's used incorrectly. Eliminate (B) and (C). (A) is correct.

Eliminate (E) as well because the subject of "marking" is similarly unclear; is it the layer or the Canyon this is marking the passage of time? And (A) is better than (D) because, once again, see is better than the wordier alternative been able to see. (A) is correct

A中“,with different colors that mark”感觉应该理解成状语修饰主句或者说就是修饰前面的动词seen。参考og113或大全915。

B, C的whose修饰不清。

D的able to多余; 如果with different colors marking是个独立主格结构表原因, 将这个结构还原 because different colors mark the passage of time like the rings, those who have visited the Grand Canyon have typically

been able to see layers of sediment in the gaping canyon, 但mark和be able to see没有明显的因果关系; 如果

because layers’ colors marking the passage of time like the rings is different, those…been able to see….意思上可能合理。

E中marking修饰不清。