vivek.kapoor83 wrote:A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(D) Mass determines whether a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.

IMO it should be A. but solution of 1000 SC Says D. I doubt D is wrong. What do u say folks

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.
(B) After passing through a red giant stage, depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(C) After passing through a red giant stage, a star�s mass will determine if it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(D) Mass determines whether a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(E) The mass of a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will determine whether it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole


IMO it should be A. but solution of 1000 SC Says D. I doubt D is wrong. What do u say folks

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.
(B) After passing through a red giant stage, depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(C) After passing through a red giant stage, a star�s mass will determine if it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(D) Mass determines whether a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(E) The mass of a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will determine whether it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole


IMO it should be A. but solution of 1000 SC Says D. I doubt D is wrong. What do u say folks

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass. : the phrase depending on mass modifies red giant stage. This phrase should modify the star.
(B) After passing through a red giant stage, depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.: two introductory back-to-back modifier, modifying star
(C) After passing through a red giant stage, a star�s mass will determine if it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.: After passing through a red giant stage modifies mass and not star.
(D) Mass determines whether a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(E) The mass of a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will determine whether it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole: Its not the mass, but the star that passes through red giant phase.


IMO it should be A. but solution of 1000 SC Says D. I doubt D is wrong. What do u say folks

nileshpatil42 wrote:Whats wrong in option B,
Can anybody tell me that ???

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.
(B) After passing through a red giant stage, depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(C) After passing through a red giant stage, a star�s mass will determine if it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(D) Mass determines whether a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.
(E) The mass of a star, after passing through the red giant stage, will determine whether it compresses itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole


IMO it should be A. but solution of 1000 SC Says D. I doubt D is wrong. What do u say folks

paes wrote:I still not convinced why A is wrong.

People are mentioning 2 reasons

(1) 'it' is ambiguous : But I think that 'it' is not ambiguous. 'it' is referring clearly to star.
Even if 'it' is ambiguous, ambiguity is not a strict rule to eliminate a answer choice.

(2) "depending on mass" is modifying to 'giant stage' : But what I think that a comma+ing modifier is a adverbial modifier and so it can modify to the whole clause (or its subject) also.
Hence in this case, it is modifying to 'star'

While on the other hand, D looks like changing the original meaning.
Please share your thoughts.

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

Depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after passing through a red giant stage.

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
D is definitely the correct answer.

The original sentence has one major problem. Let's look at it:

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

The pronoun "it" isn't the big issue. Since the author already used "itself", which clearly refers to "a star", "it" also logically refers back to "a star". If "it" were supposed to refer to another noun, then there would be an ambiguity issue.

The big problem is the phrase at the end, "depending on mass", which doesn't clearly refer to the star's compression.

Depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after passing through a red giant stage.

(I also didn't like "it passes" very much, so I changed it to "passing".)

After predicting, I went to the choices. Only (D) puts the modifiers where I wanted them, so I confidently chose (D).

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

paes wrote:I still not convinced why A is wrong.

People are mentioning 2 reasons

(1) 'it' is ambiguous : But I think that 'it' is not ambiguous. 'it' is referring clearly to star.
Even if 'it' is ambiguous, ambiguity is not a strict rule to eliminate a answer choice.

(2) "depending on mass" is modifying to 'giant stage' : But what I think that a comma+ing modifier is a adverbial modifier and so it can modify to the whole clause (or its subject) also.
Hence in this case, it is modifying to 'star'

While on the other hand, D looks like changing the original meaning.
Please share your thoughts.

D is definitely the correct answer.

The original sentence has one major problem. Let's look at it:

(A) A star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after it passes through a red giant stage, depending on mass.

The pronoun "it" isn't the big issue. Since the author already used "itself", which clearly refers to "a star", "it" also logically refers back to "a star". If "it" were supposed to refer to another noun, then there would be an ambiguity issue.

The big problem is the phrase at the end, "depending on mass", which doesn't clearly refer to the star's compression.

Remember this key rule for modification: a modifying phrase must be placed as close as possible to whatever the phrase is modifying.

When the entire sentence is underlined and the original sounds awkward, rephrasing it before looking at the remaining choices can be very useful. Here was my rephrase:

Depending on its mass, a star will compress itself into a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole after passing through a red giant stage.

(I also didn't like "it passes" very much, so I changed it to "passing".)

After predicting, I went to the choices. Only (D) puts the modifiers where I wanted them, so I confidently chose (D).