Бросив начатые эксперименты,...

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Dear Community,

Could you please provide your input regarding the following?

... , мой приятель совершенно неожиданно отказался от работы.
1. Бросая начатые эксперименты
2. Бросив начатые эксперименты
3. Бросавший начатые эксперименты
4. Бросающий начатые эксперименты


Which of the above is correct. Why is it correct and why are the others incorrect?

Thank you for your inut.

ФБ

Comments

[scolar.livejournal.com]

Well, this test requires understanding the semantics, not only the grammar.

Let's remove "совершенно неожиданно" for a second. In this case all four sentences are correct:

"1. Бросая начатые эксперименты, мой приятель отказался от работы." - that means that the job is one of my buddy's life experiments, he is now changing his life, that's why he has left the job.

"2. Бросив начатые эксперименты, мой приятель отказался от работы." - in that case experiments are part of his work, they were left unfinished.

"3. Бросавший начатые эксперименты, мой приятель отказался от работы." - ugly, but can be read as "мой приятель, склонный [в то время] бросать начатые эксперименты, отказался от работы". In the past my buddy had been tending to leave things incomplete, that's why he left the job.

"4. Бросающий начатые эксперименты, мой приятель отказался от работы." - the same as #3, with the only difference - it's about the present time: my buddy tends to leave things incomplete, that's explain why he has left his job.

Now let's return to the original test: words "совершенно неожиданно" mean, that the actor ("мой приятель") does not have a tendency to leave things incomplete. All except #2 become incorrect.