-
Target Test Prep 20% Off Flash Sale is on! Code: FLASH20
Redeem
Modifiers and Meaning: a GMATPrep Sentence Correction Problem
Weve been examining the issues of modifiers and meaning quite a bit lately because these topics are both so important on the GMAT.
Ive got another one for you today. This problem is from GMATPrep. Set your timer for 1 minute 15 seconds and go for it!
* Recently documented examples of neurogenesis, the production of new brain cells, include the brain growing in mice when placed in a stimulating environment or neurons increasing in canaries that learn new songs.(A) the brain growing in mice when placed in a stimulating environment or neurons increasing in canaries that
(B) mice whose brains grow when they are placed in a stimulating environment or canaries whose neurons increase when they(C) mices brains that grow when they are placed in a stimulating environment or canaries neurons that increase when they
(D) the brain growth in mice when placed in a stimulating environment or the increase in canaries neurons when they
(E) brain growth in mice that are placed in a stimulating environment or an increase in neurons in canaries that
I chose this problem in particular because it illustrated something that I really want to discuss. What did you think of the original sentence?
Some percentage of you will say, It didnt sound great to me. Which part didnt sound so great? Many people will think the part after the word include sounds funny or awkward.
Why?
Its really important to figure out why for two reasons. First, if you know why, then you have a pretty good idea of what needs to be changed or fixed in order for the sentence to work. Second, if you know why, then you also know youre not falling into a trap. Its quite common, on hard questions, for the right answer to sound not so great. You cant know that youre falling into a trap unless and until you can articulate what is actually wrong.
Now, in a real testing situation, we only have a little over a minute to tackle an SC we dont have much time to figure out why something sounds bad. We need to make sure that, while studying, we do take the time to articulate why things sound bad (and how to distinguish between something that sounds bad because its wrong and something that sounds bad because its a trap and its actually right).
Back to our problem. Did you think the original sentence sounded not so great? I agree and, in this case, were not falling into a trap. There really is something wrong with it. What?
What are they trying to say in general? Whats the message? The subject is the word examples and the verb is include. Examples of something include. Okay, they're going to tell me some examples. How many do they give? 2. Examples of NG include A or B.
What do I know now? The first part, examples of NG include, sounds fine and thats good because its not underlined. I cant change it! Theres something funny about example A though. What are they trying to say there, in your own words?
If you take mice and place them in a stimulating environment, then their brains can grow.
The mice are put into a stimulating environment; the brains of the mice then grow.
The original sentence says the brain growing in mice when placed in a stimulating environment. The word when indicates a modifier. What is happening when placed in a stimulating environment? What is being placed in that stimulating environment?
The problem with A is that this when modifier is logically referring to the mice (when the mice are placed in the stimulating environment), but structurally weve got a different story. Structurally, bizarrely enough, its referring to the subject of the sentence, examples. Technically, its really referring to the main clause to which its attached; this clause includes the subject and verb.
I ate mangoes with my sister when hungry.
I ate mangoes on the beach when hungry.
Who was hungry? Not my sister. Not the beach! Me. I ate when I was hungry. The sentence really says:
I ate mangoes on the beach when (I was) hungry.
Try that with our GMAT problem.
Examples include the brain growing in mice when (the examples were) placed
Nope. That doesnt work. Okay, so we have logic pointing us to the mice while structure points us to the examples. Thats ambiguous. Cross off answer A. Do any others repeat this error?
Lets see. D repeats the simple when placed structure. Yep, that does the exact same thing. We know logically that we want to place the mice in the environment, but the structure points to examples. Eliminate D as well.
To summarize that rule: when we have when + past participle (and nothing else in between), then were talking about some action done by the subject of the main clause touching that when modifier. If it doesn't make sense for the subject to have done (or have done to it) whatever the action is, then it's wrong. Answers A and D both have this structure.
B and C switch things up a little. They expand that modifier to read when they are placed. And E changes the structure even more: that are placed. Lets tackle the structure in B and C first.
Adding the pronoun they, as B and C did, should clear things up, shouldnt it? Now we just have to find the antecedent for that pronoun and were fine. Lets see, what plural nouns do we have? B says:
Examples include mice whose brains grow when they are placed
The nouns mice and brains are both plural. Which is it? Logically, they should refer to mice. Structurally it could also easily refer to brains. Are we removing the brains from the mice and placing those brains alone in stimulating environments? I hope not! Poor little mice. :) (Seriously, were talking about an action that promotes brain growth cant do that if you kill the mice and take out their brains!) So the pronoun they is ambiguous in B; eliminate.
What about in C?
Examples include mices brains that grow when they are placed
Do we have the same problem two possible plural nouns that can both substitute in for they? We do have the plural mices and the plural brains but theyre not actually both nouns. Mices is a possessive noun; its functioning as an adjective. Whose brains? The mices brains. The pronoun they is a subject pronoun. It cant use the possessive noun mices as its referent. It doesnt make sense, though, to say that the brains alone are placed in the stimulating environment. Eliminate C.
That leaves us with E. Answer E changes the introduction of the modifier entirely by substituting the word that for the word when. The word that can function in multiple different ways. In this case, its introducing something called an essential noun modifier a modifier that is touching the noun it modifies and that is essential to the meaning of the sentence. The examples include brain growth in mice but not just any mice. The mice that are placed in this environment.
Weve totally been ignoring the later parts of the answer choices, but I want to point out something else. We have two examples, A or B, so we know we need those two examples to be parallel. Thats another path we can use to answer this one; we didnt simply because I really wanted to address the modifier and meaning stuff on this one. But lets just check to make sure that A and B are parallel in answer E, okay?
A = brain growth in mice that <have a certain characteristic>
B = an increase in neurons in canaries that <have a certain characteristic>
Main word in A: growth
Main word in B: an increase
Both are nouns. Both function appropriately as examples of neurogenesis. Both also specify a certain type of animal (in X) with a certain characteristic (that Y). Notice one other thing: brain growth and an increase in neurons might seem as though they are not parallel. Thats one common reason people eliminate E. (Remember my comment at the beginning about figuring out why something sounds bad so that we dont fall into the trap of eliminating a correct answer just because it doesnt sound so great?)
How else would you write them to make them more parallel?
A growth in the brains of mice to match an increase in neurons?
Neuronal increases to match brain growth?
No and no. In the first example, a growth in the brains is first of all much wordier than brain growth and second of all possibly misleading (theres a growth like a cyst in my brain! Ahh!). In the second example, neuronal increases isnt even a real term or phrase I made it up to try to match brain growth and that was the best I could do. :) So the structures given in answer E are as close as were going to get. They are both nouns that appropriately fit the lead in (Examples of neurogenesis include), so were fine. The superficial differences are just there to give people an excuse to (mistakenly) eliminate E.
The correct answer is E.
Key Takeaways for Meaning and Modifiers
(1) When the original sentence either sounds funny / awkward or is outright difficult to understand in the first place, try to figure out why. Which part sounds awkward or is hard to understand? If you arent sure, leave answer choice A in. If you can spot the problem, cross off A and use that issue to launch your path through the problem.
(2) Modifiers often end up being about meaning in the end, as the incorrect placement of a modifier can make a sentence ambiguous or illogical. In this problem, bad modifier placement in A (and D) gave us an illogical meaning.
(3) Dont content yourself with crossing something off just because it sounds terrible or awkward! Ask yourself why first. Make sure to study this in advance. Its very hard to articulate why; if you practice, youll be able to tell the difference between structures that sound bad because they are bad and structures that sound bad because theyre traps.
* GMATPrep questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.
Recent Articles
Archive
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009