Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2016 2:22 pm
Thanked: 1 times
Followed by:1 members

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on textiles in ancient societies.

A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on

B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

E

User avatar
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:05 am

by AsadAbu » Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:39 am

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

boomgoesthegmat wrote:Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on textiles in ancient societies.

A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on

B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

E
Hi,
As far I know, there must be at least 3 things if we want to use comma (,) before the final 'and'. But, in this question, there are just 2 things in the list (e.g., Prehistoric Textiles and Women's Work)-"a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean" and " a more general account of early cloth manufacture" are not the things that make list; they are just modifier. So, my question is WHY we've used comma (,) before the final 'and'?
Thanks...

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:50 am
Thanked: 1 times
Followed by:1 members

by dustystormy » Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:30 pm

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

@iMyself - It is important to understand the sentence structure and then we can reason the different ambiguity we feel.

Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, (--------), and Women's Work, (-----), is an authority on .......

firstly the portion in (-----) is a modifier to Prehistoric textile and women's work respectively. secondly comma before is necessary to separate modifier with both A & B idiom.

I hope it helps.

User avatar
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:05 am

by AsadAbu » Fri Jan 27, 2017 1:38 pm

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

boomgoesthegmat wrote:Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on textiles in ancient societies.

A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on

B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

E
In this problem, the correct sentence (E) is:
Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on textiles in ancient societies.
On the above sentence, the green part is the modifier. If we remove modifier from this sentence, then the core is:
Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles in ancient societies.
This sentence is something like the following:
Mr. Robert IS an engineer on textiles in ancient societies.
If I say,
Mr. Robert IS an engineer on textiles in USA.
---> He is the engineer on textiles in USA right now. SO,---->OK
If I say,
Mr. Robert WAS an engineer on textiles in USA.
--->He was the engineer once upon a time in USA, but he is not an engineer right now in USA; he is the engineer in another country, may be! So,---->also OK
If I say,
Mr. Robert WAS an engineer on textiles in ancient societies.
--->He was the engineer once upon a time, but he is not an engineer right now, because there is NO existence of 'ancient societies' right now. So,---->also OK
Hi Expert,
My confusion is in RED sentence, which is the correct choice. In this choice, 'ancient societies' indicates the time-frame of past, NOT present. We know that there is NO EXISTENCE of 'ancient societies' right now. So, my question is: why have we used IS in the RED sentence?

GMAT/MBA Expert

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 272
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:11 am
Location: Lahore, Pakistan
Thanked: 87 times
Followed by:204 members

by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:54 pm

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles in ancient societies
My confusion is in RED sentence, which is the correct choice. In this choice, 'ancient societies' indicates the time-frame of past, NOT present. We know that there is NO EXISTENCE of 'ancient societies' right now.
So, my question is: why have we used IS in the RED sentence?
Because the statement is still valid today.

Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles in ancient societies

prep phrase in ancient authorities modifies textiles

Core is "Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles "
which textiles?
which textiles are we talking about?
those in ancient societies

Therefore the red sentence is not different from the following sentence.
Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles that were in vogue in ancient societies
Which textiles?
which textiles are we talking about?
those that were in vogue in ancient societies

in first sentence, prep phrase modifies textiles (noun) and hence serves as an adjectivial
in second sentence, that clause modifies textiles (noun) and hence serves as an adjectivial

In simple terms, is in your red sentence applies to Elizabeth Barber and has nothing to do with the time frame of ancient societies


in the same way as

Elizabeth Barber IS an authority on textiles that were in vogue in ancient societies

were applies to textiles and has nothing to do with time frame of Elizabeth's authority on stated subject matter.
_________________
www.GMAT.pk

Contact for drastic improvement in just a few days.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 186
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:38 am
Thanked: 5 times
Followed by:3 members

by rsarashi » Wed May 10, 2017 9:37 am

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about

Hi Experts ,

Just a quick question.

The uses of ACCOUNT ABOUT and AUTHORITY ABOUT are correct ?

Is this can be a reason to eliminate both the option?

Please help.

Thanks.

GMAT/MBA Expert

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 272
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:11 am
Location: Lahore, Pakistan
Thanked: 87 times
Followed by:204 members

by Ali Tariq » Thu May 11, 2017 1:58 am

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

rsarashi wrote:
Just a quick question.

The uses of ACCOUNT ABOUT and AUTHORITY ABOUT are correct ?

Is this can be a reason to eliminate both the option?

Please help.

Thanks.
Account of is correct and so is authority on (some subject/niche).
Internalize, my friend.
Idioms are best dealt this way.
Further, expert authority is redundant.
_________________
www.GMAT.pk

Contact for drastic improvement in just a few days.

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 181
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:27 pm
Followed by:8 members

by [email protected] » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:01 am

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a quick look over this question and highlight the major differences between the options in orange. That way, we can decide how to best tackle this question and get to the right answer quickly!

Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on textiles in ancient societies.

(A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on
(B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about
(C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on
(D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about
(E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on

After a quick glance over the options, it's clear there are two places we can focus on:

1. How they begin: also of / also / of / none
2. How they end: expert authority on / expert authority about / authority on


Let's start with #1 on our list because it deals with idioms. Whenever we use the word "both" to combine two things, it should be structured like this:

both X and Y

That's it. As long as X and Y are parallel objects, that's all you need to say. So let's take a closer look at each option to see if any of them follow this rule, and toss out the ones that don't:

(A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on --> both X and also of Y = WRONG
(B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about --> both X and also Y = WRONG
(C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on --> both X and of Y = WRONG
(D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about --> both X and of Y = WRONG
(E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on --> both X and Y = CORRECT!

There you go - option E is the ONLY one that follows the idiom's structure correctly!

**********

If you were to tackle #2 on the list first, this is how it would break down:

(A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on
This is INCORRECT because it's redundant to say both "expert" and "authority." They essentially mean the same thing, and using both doesn't add anything to the overall meaning.

(B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about
This is INCORRECT for two reasons. First, it's redundant to use both "expert" and "authority." Second, it's not idiomatically correct to say someone is an "expert about" a topic. They are an "expert ON" a topic.

(C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on
This is OKAY if we only focus on the ending - it doesn't have the redundancy or idiom problems we saw in A & B.
(However, we know this is ultimately INCORRECT because it doesn't use the "both X and Y" idiomatic structure correctly.)

(D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about
This is INCORRECT because it's redundant to say both "expert" and "authority." It also doesn't use the correct idiom "expert on."

(E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on
This is CORRECT! It doesn't use any redundancies, and it uses the correct "expert on" idiomatic structure!

We still end up going with option E as the correct choice! You would still have to choose between options C & E in the end, but since C doesn't use the right idiomatic structure, it's still going be ruled out.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 4:10 am

by rishab0507 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 9:04 am

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

concept of parallelism shown in disguise. we have X ,,,,,,,,,blah blah,,,,,and Y ,,,,,blah blah. . ..
Even if you are not sure to choose correct between About textiles or On textiles, Just this concept will give you right answer.

Elizabeth Barber, the author of both Prehistoric Textiles, a comprehensive work on cloth in the early cultures of the Mediterranean, and also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on textiles in ancient societies.

Marked in purple is just context we don't need to look at. what we need to look :
Part in brown has to be parallel, And use of OF once is necessary enough .

A) also of Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority on : no need of ALSO

B) also Women's Work, a more general account of cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about : No need of ALSO

C) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an authority on : we don't need of

D) of Women's Work, a more general account about early cloth manufacture, is an expert authority about : same as C

E) Women's Work, a more general account of early cloth manufacture, is an authority on : Correct