Sentence Correction

Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why are the wrong options wrong?

Please explain.

gmat_perfect wrote:Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why are the wrong options wrong?

Please explain.

A. The present tense "combining" is incorrect here, since this all took place in the past; the modifier issue for B and C also applies.
B. When using the construction "1765 to 1789, a vantage point..." the underlined portion becomes part of a modifying phrase. But it's unclear exactly what it's modifying. The modifier is immediately next to the time period 1765 to 1789, but that's not enough, by itself, to be a vantage point. This is just awkward.
C. This one has that modifier issue again, plus the pronoun "it" without a single clear antecedent.
D. the use of "which" here makes everything after "vantage point" a modifying phrase, which leaves the subject "vantage point" without a verb.
E. This is the best option. "[T]his vantage point" still isn't crystal-clear, but we can tell that it refers back to the entire preceding phrase. The use of the conjunction makes this flow well, there are no ambiguous pronoun, and the verb tense is correct.

I think that the clear errors in A, C, and D would allow you to narrow this down to B and E, with E winning out because it's just a less awkward construction.

gmat_perfect wrote:Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why are the wrong options wrong?

Please explain.

comma cannot be used to join 2 clauses.A,B,C are out
D says to make her while the event is complete and we need made instead of make.
Hence E

grockit_andrea wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why are the wrong options wrong?

Please explain.

A. The present tense "combining" is incorrect here, since this all took place in the past; the modifier issue for B and C also applies.
B. When using the construction "1765 to 1789, a vantage point..." the underlined portion becomes part of a modifying phrase. But it's unclear exactly what it's modifying. The modifier is immediately next to the time period 1765 to 1789, but that's not enough, by itself, to be a vantage point. This is just awkward.
C. This one has that modifier issue again, plus the pronoun "it" without a single clear antecedent.
D. the use of "which" here makes everything after "vantage point" a modifying phrase, which leaves the subject "vantage point" without a verb.
E. This is the best option. "[T]his vantage point" still isn't crystal-clear, but we can tell that it refers back to the entire preceding phrase. The use of the conjunction makes this flow well, there are no ambiguous pronoun, and the verb tense is correct.

I think that the clear errors in A, C, and D would allow you to narrow this down to B and E, with E winning out because it's just a less awkward construction.

Thanks. You are great.

grockit_andrea wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why are the wrong options wrong?

Please explain.

A. The present tense "combining" is incorrect here, since this all took place in the past; the modifier issue for B and C also applies.
B. When using the construction "1765 to 1789, a vantage point..." the underlined portion becomes part of a modifying phrase. But it's unclear exactly what it's modifying. The modifier is immediately next to the time period 1765 to 1789, but that's not enough, by itself, to be a vantage point. This is just awkward.
C. This one has that modifier issue again, plus the pronoun "it" without a single clear antecedent.
D. the use of "which" here makes everything after "vantage point" a modifying phrase, which leaves the subject "vantage point" without a verb.
E. This is the best option. "[T]his vantage point" still isn't crystal-clear, but we can tell that it refers back to the entire preceding phrase. The use of the conjunction makes this flow well, there are no ambiguous pronoun, and the verb tense is correct.

I think that the clear errors in A, C, and D would allow you to narrow this down to B and E, with E winning out because it's just a less awkward construction.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know if the construction below would be correct

a vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

here i am turning 'a vantage point' into an appositive

Does this works?

No. You would need it to say "that made..." not just "made." Without "that" to show modification, "made..." functions as a verb and "a vantage point" functions as a subject, making "a vantage point..." and everything after it an independent clause and creating a run-on sentence.
And even if that weren't a problem, your construction would have the same awkwardness issues that I referenced for choice B.

@Andrea,

I am unable to understand your explanation
When using the construction "1765 to 1789, a vantage point..." the underlined portion becomes part of a modifying phrase.

But it's unclear exactly what it's modifying. The modifier is immediately next to the time period 1765 to 1789, but that's not enough, by itself, to be a vantage point. Why so?

Actually that is why I suggested the construction (to uses 'a vantage point' as a appositive)

Yes I agree 'that' should be used.

Noun modifiers are used fairly flexibly on the GMAT, and there's not a clear error to using "a vantage point" as a noun modifier here as long as it recognizably refers back to the preceding portion of the sentence; as I said in the explanation to B, I just find its use awkward here for clarity's sake. I think the use of the conjunction makes the sentence's meaning more readily apparent, and given the choice between one construction that is clear and another that seems iffy, I'd go with the clear one.
If you're looking for an easier reason to rule out choice B, though, you can get rid of it for using "when," since there's no clear point of reference for that word.
If your suggested construction had used "that," it wouldn't technically have a grammatical error, but I still wouldn't have chosen it as an answer, myself. E is a clearer construction. However, I seriously doubt if both of those choices would show up on the GMAT, since distinguishing between them would more or less come down to a style issue, and the test usually doesn't make style the only difference between two grammatically acceptable choices.

Thanks Andrea

grockit_andrea wrote:Noun modifiers are used fairly flexibly on the GMAT, and there's not a clear error to using "a vantage point" as a noun modifier here as long as it recognizably refers back to the preceding portion of the sentence; as I said in the explanation to B, I just find its use awkward here for clarity's sake. I think the use of the conjunction makes the sentence's meaning more readily apparent, and given the choice between one construction that is clear and another that seems iffy, I'd go with the clear one.
If you're looking for an easier reason to rule out choice B, though, you can get rid of it for using "when," since there's no clear point of reference for that word.
If your suggested construction had used "that," it wouldn't technically have a grammatical error, but I still wouldn't have chosen it as an answer, myself. E is a clearer construction. However, I seriously doubt if both of those choices would show up on the GMAT, since distinguishing between them would more or less come down to a style issue, and the test usually doesn't make style the only difference between two grammatically acceptable choices.

Andrea,

can you please justify the usage of 'this' in D.

I have read on several places that the usage of 'this' as a pronoun reference is wrong .
Please explain when the usage of this is right and when is wrong ?

Using "this" as a pronoun reference can be a problem, since it often leaves the word without a clear antecedent. For instance, if E had said "...and this, combined with her talent for writing, made...", it would have a problem, because "this" wouldn't have a clear antecedent. But in the context it's used in here, "this" is actually a demonstrative determiner, which is a perfectly acceptable use. A demonstrative determiner modifies a noun, and would be a word like "this," "that," "those," or "these." Basically, this is how you can distinguish:
"This is tasty." = BAD ("This" isn't modifying anything, so it's being used as a demonstrative or reference pronoun.)
"This fruit is tasty." = GOOD ("This" clearly refers to a specific apple, so it's being used as a demonstrative determiner.)

WHY a IS WRONG

in C, "combining" is correct because it takes the tense of main clause "was"

why the active meaning of "combining" is wrong and the passive meaning of "combined" is right?

in the pattern
noun+doing

doing have no time and so is called indefinite form of verb or verbal, which take the time of main clause.

so

why A is wrong?

vietmoi999 wrote:in the pattern
noun+doing

doing have no time and so is called indefinite form of verb or verbal, which take the time of main clause.

so

why A is wrong?

"a vantage point combining........" suggests its the vantage point thats doing the action of combining ....whereas 'a vantage point combined with...X..." is VERBed form and suggests sort of passive form "a combined with b"...who did the action-not our concern