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Researchers in Germany have unearthed 400,000-year-old woode

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by varun289 » Thu May 02, 2013 4:55 am
Researchers in Germany have unearthed 400,000-year-old wooden spears from what it appears was an ancient
lakeshore hunting ground as stunning evidence of human ancestors who systematically hunted big game much
earlier than believed.



(A) it appears was an ancient lakeshore hunting ground as stunning evidence of human ancestors who
(B) it appears had been an ancient lakeshore hunting ground and is stunning evidence that human ancestors
(C) it appears to have been an ancient lakeshore hunting ground and is stunning evidence that human ancestors
(D) appears to be an ancient lakeshore hunting ground, stunning evidence that human ancestors
(E) appears that it is an ancient lakeshore hunting ground, stunning evidence of human ancestors who


my query - how to distinguish ABC with DE?
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by Ben.Miller@ApexGMAT » Thu May 02, 2013 5:42 am
Distinguishing ABC from DE hinges on the "from what [it] appears". The question is whether or not the 'it' is necessary. While there is a grammatical issue, this is very much a word choice/phrasing issue as well and to determine this most easily one could rely on their ear, but only if you're a native speaker.

The easiest way to determine whether the 'it' belongs is simply to ask "What does 'it' refer to?" As a pronoun, it needs to refer to something specific, and usually that preceeds the use of the 'it'. Here, we can't pinpoint the subject of the 'it'. 'It' doesn't refer to Researchers, Germany, or wooden spears.

On the flip side, "what appears" is a functional clause, in the same way that "what looked like" or "what was thought to be" is used. 'what [verb group] [comparison]'.

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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri May 03, 2013 12:29 pm
Adding to what Ben has said...

The GMAT seems to be trying to trick us into thinking that "it appears" is correct, because it's a commonly used expression on its own. "It appears to be raining outside," "it appears that they are running late," etc. We can't use both "what" and "it" in the same expression, though.

In colloquial English expressions, we often use "it" to refer to general states of being: "it's sunny," "it was a shame that you couldn't come," etc. In these examples, "it" doesn't replace a specific noun, but refers to a general situation. Although these are perfectly correct constructions, the GMAT tends not to use "it" in this way. When you see "it" on the GMAT, it should refer to a specific antecedent clearly defined in the sentence. (There may be a handful of exceptions, but this is almost always the case).

The correct idiomatic usage of "appears" is either "something appears to be" or, more colloquially, "it appears that something is/was..." For this reason, A, B, and E are not idiomatically correct.
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by sidmaru123 » Sat May 04, 2013 5:19 am
OA? IMO it's D
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by gmat_for_life » Wed Sep 23, 2015 12:11 pm
Hi Ceilidh,

Could you please explain why 'comma'+-ing is not an issue with option D? Ideally, a comma+ing is used when the action is a result of the part before the comma. Am I missing anything here?

Many thanks,
Amit
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:58 am
gmat_for_life wrote:Hi Ceilidh,

Could you please explain why 'comma'+-ing is not an issue with option D? Ideally, a comma+ing is used when the action is a result of the part before the comma. Am I missing anything here?

Many thanks,
Amit
One definition of to stun is to shock.

D: Researchers in Germany have unearthed 400,000-year-old wooden spears from what appears to be an ancient lakeshore hunting ground, stunning evidence that human ancestors systematically hunted big game much earlier than believed.
Here, stunning is not a COMMA + VERBing modifier serving to refer to the subject of the preceding clause.
Rather, stunning is simply an adjective serving to modify evidence.
What KIND of evidence?
STUNNING evidence.
In other words, evidence that can be described as SHOCKING.
The intended meaning is clear from context.
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