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Manhattan Book Modifier Doubts

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Manhattan Book Modifier Doubts

by goelmohit2002 » Wed May 13, 2009 1:01 pm
Hi All,

Can some one please help in clarifying the following doubts.

Doubt#1
==========
In the chapter Modifier:

Manhattan explains that for the following sentence, modifier "like all her friends" should be placed adjacent to noun been modified i.e. Kendra.

Wrong: "Kendra is happy, like all her friends, to be on vacation."
Correct:"Kendra, like all her friends, is happy to be on vacation."

But as per my understanding, modifiers (without the Relative pronouns like which, that etc...) modifies the subject of the preceding clause. Here the subject of the preceding clause is Kendra. So why the above sentence is wrong. Yes surely the corrected sentence looks better. But why the original sentence is wrong. Is there something that I am missing ?

Doubt#2
========
In the below sentence in Manhattan Modifier chapter, Manhattan says that "which" is ambiguous. It can refer to either colors or Cars. But as per my understanding, relative pronoun hooks to the first available noun. So "which" should clearly refer to colors here. Can some one please help me in clearing this doubt. Please tell what I am missing here ?

Avoidable sentence: Cars come in many colors, which can be very cool or very ugly.

Thanks
Mohit
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by Jose Ferreira » Wed May 13, 2009 4:46 pm
Mohit -- You are raising some really interesting points. Here's my take on your first Doubt.

Wrong: "Kendra is happy, like all her friends, to be on vacation."

It seems to me that to make this type of construction correct, we would need to add a verb to that modifier in order to make things parallel. Something like:

"Kendra is happy, as are all of her friends."

Without the verb "are," we are comparing Kendra, who IS something, and her friends, who are DESCRIBED AS something. Those are not parallel.

But...

Correct: "Kendra, like all her friends, is happy to be on vacation."

Now, both Kendra and her friends are DESCRIBED AS happy. Hope that makes some sense to you!
Last edited by Jose Ferreira on Mon May 18, 2009 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Jose Ferreira » Wed May 13, 2009 4:54 pm
For Doubt #2 in this thread, the word "which" is in fact a relative pronoun, and should hook back to what immediately precedes it. However, sometimes, what immediately precedes the relative pronoun is a group of words. For example:

"I interviewed the members of the team that won the championship."

"That" is our relative pronoun. Am I referring to the "team that won the championship" or the "members that won the championship"? It's ambiguous. It should not affect your understanding of the sentence too much, but there is a slight lack of clarity.

Basically, on the GMAT, you will never have such a lack of clarity in a correct answer. If there is the slightest hint of ambiguity, look for an answer that shifts the syntax a bit to eliminate the ambiguity. Something like:

"I interviewed the team members who won the championship."
"I interviewed the members whose team won the championship."
Last edited by Jose Ferreira on Mon May 18, 2009 6:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed May 13, 2009 8:39 pm
Jose Ferreira wrote:For Doubt #2 in this thread, the word "which" is in fact a relative pronoun, and should hook back to what immediately precedes it. However, sometimes, what immediately precedes the relative pronoun is a group of words. For example:

"I interviewed the members of the team that won the championship."

"That" is our relative pronoun. Am I referring to the "team that won the championship" or the "members that won the championship"? It's ambiguous. It should not affect your understanding of the sentence too much, but there is a slight lack of clarity.

Basically, on the GMAT, you will never have such a lack of clarity in a correct answer. If there is the slightest hint of ambiguity, look for an answer that shifts the syntax a bit to eliminate the ambiguity. Something like:

"I interviewed the team members who won the championship."
"I interviewed the members whose team won the championship."
But if this is the case, then please refer to following correct answer of Q15 of OG-10. Why which is unambiguous here ? Why can't which refer to "research paper" here. How it can ambiguosly refer to "mood swings" ? Both can be potential referrant to "which"......please tell what I am missing here.


========================================
In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitney Clinic, distinguishes between mood swings, which may be violent without being grounded in mental disease, and genuine manic-depressive psychosis.
======================================
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by anshulseth » Wed May 13, 2009 11:12 pm
'which' modifies the nearest noun, or to say it better the one that touches it. So, no ambiguity in the sentence that you have given.
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by goelmohit2002 » Thu May 14, 2009 2:04 am
anshulseth wrote:'which' modifies the nearest noun, or to say it better the one that touches it. So, no ambiguity in the sentence that you have given.
Then why it is ambiguous in "Cars come in many colors, which can be very cool or very ugly. "

as Manhattan says in its Modifier chapter and as I originally asked in doubt#2 in this thread ?

Can you please help me in clarifying this doubt of mine....
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by goelmohit2002 » Thu May 14, 2009 2:15 am
Jose Ferreira wrote:Mohit -- You are raising some really interesting points. Here's my take on your first Doubt.

Wrong: "Kendra is happy, like all her friends, to be on vacation."

It seems to me that to make this type of construction correct, we would need to add a verb to that modifier in order to make things parallel. Something like:

"Kendra is happy, as are all of her friends."

Without the verb "are", then we are comparing Kendra, who IS something, and friends, who are DESCRIBED AS something. Those are not parallel.

But...

Correct:"Kendra, like all her friends, is happy to be on vacation."

Now, both Kendra and her friends are DESCRIBED AS happy. Hope that makes some sense to you!
Thanks. Can you please help me understand a bit more....For e.g. in the below Q119 of OG 10....

=================================
Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already cost business of more than $100 billion a year.
===========================================

Can you please help me understand the role of this "significantly compounding .....abuse" ...modifier in the above sentence....IMO over here it is modifying usage.... Basically I am really confused about in what circumstances a modifier:

1. Modifies the subject of the preceding clause.
2. Modifies the most nearest noun of the preceding clause.
3. Modifies the verb of the preceding clause.
4. Modifies something else....

Thanks
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by goelmohit2002 » Fri May 15, 2009 9:30 am
Experts Kindly share your thoughts!!!

Thanks
Mohit
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