News From Science 1

– Is “every 17 years” grammatically correct?
 
We usually use every with singular nouns.
 
Every student must attend the event.
Every students must attend the event. (wrong)
 
We can use every with a number and a plural noun to refer to regular intervals of time.
 
There are buses into town every ten minutes.
There are buses into town every ten minute. (wrong)
 
He travels to Japan every two weeks.
He travels to Japan every two week. (wrong)
 
They organize the event every three years.
They organize the event every three year. (wrong)
 
– There is an -ing form (providing) in the sentence, but there isn’t any verb be. Is this correct?
 
“Providing an all-you-can-eat buffet for their predators” is a present participle clause.
 
We can use present participle clause:
– to give the result of an action
– to give the reason for an action
– to talk about an action that happened at the same time as another action
– to add information about the subject of the main clause
 
In this sentence, the present participle clause indicates the result of an action.
 
Every 17 years, billions of cicadas emerge in the eastern United States, providing an all-you-can-eat buffet for their predators.
= Every 17 years, billions of cicadas emerge in the eastern United States. As a result, they provide an all-you-can-eat buffet for their predators.
 
The bomb exploded, destroying the building.
= The bomb exploded and destroyed the building.
 
 
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