Grockit - Modifier Question - Verb-ing Again

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In October 2001, responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

A: responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, President Bush

B: the devastation of the attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers occurred and, responding, President Bush

C: because of the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, President Bush responded and

D: in response to the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, President Bush

E: New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers were devastatingly attacked, and the response was that President Bush

OA: D. I want to know why A is incorrect. As such I did not find anything wrong in A. Although I must agree that D is better.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by milanproda » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:21 pm
The two choices that seem the most enticing are A and D. I go with D

Responding does makes sense (Pres Bush is responding to the attacks).
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:23 pm
Read the sentence as under,

Option A:
In October 2001, responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

rephrased verison is,

In October 2001, President Bush responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

Option D:

In October 2001, in response to the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

Re-phrased version of option D:

In October 2001, President Bush in response to the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

Option D looks better. Thus, D.

Hope it helps.
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by Frankenstein » Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:32 pm
Hi,
I believe two apostrophes(possessive) one after the other sounds awkward.. This is taken care in D by saying Z, part of X's Y instead of saying X's Y's Z.
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by rveeraga » Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:25 am
also, in the answer choice A, the is missing before New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers. the is necessary because twin towers are unique.

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by mundasingh123 » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:03 am
isnt { modifier,modifier,modifier,subject } a problem ?
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by mundasingh123 » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:05 am
guys are you relying on reasons of awkwardness to eliminate the incorrect answers . Can someone explain whats wrong with each of the options.
I am not very satisfied with bubbly's method of restructuring the sentences
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by deep.amangmat » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:01 pm
I like how @bubliiiiii has re-structured the sentences. In fact I did the same thing and as I said earlier, D looks better than A. But if I read A, I could not spot any error.

Thanks @Frankenstein for pointing out the double possessive error. Yes that definitely is awkward. In fact here is what the official explanation stated:

This choice contains the awkward double possessive mentioned above. Also, the use of the -ing participle 'responding' creates an awkward sense of immediacy and action-in-progress.

I can see why double possessive is awkward but is the verb-ing modifier really incorrect here. Why is it odd to say the following. I think this sentence communicates the meaning.

President Bush responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan...

Any ideas?

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by mundasingh123 » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:14 pm
deep.amangmat wrote:I like how @bubliiiiii has re-structured the sentences. In fact I did the same thing and as I said earlier, D looks better than A. But if I read A, I could not spot any error.

Thanks @Frankenstein for pointing out the double possessive error. Yes that definitely is awkward. In fact here is what the official explanation stated:

This choice contains the awkward double possessive mentioned above. Also, the use of the -ing participle 'responding' creates an awkward sense of immediacy and action-in-progress.

I can see why double possessive is awkward but is the verb-ing modifier really incorrect here. Why is it odd to say the following. I think this sentence communicates the meaning.

President Bush responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan...

Any ideas?
You can always restructure a sentence with a misplaced modifier to show that its correct
And Grookits explanation is like
A)awkward
B)Awkward
C)Awkward
D)Not Awkward
E)Awkward
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by rveeraga » Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:36 pm
mundasingh123 wrote:guys are you relying on reasons of awkwardness to eliminate the incorrect answers . Can someone explain whats wrong with each of the options.
I am not very satisfied with bubbly's method of restructuring the sentences
In October 2001, responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power, destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, and capture Osama bin Laden.

A: responding to the devastating attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers, President Bush (New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers is awkward and missing the)

B: the devastation of the attack on New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers occurred and, responding, President Bush (the devastation can not occur but the attack;and and comma before responding attempted to satisfy both parallelism and -ing modifier roles)

C: because of the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, President Bush responded and (responded and ordered are not logical to be in parallel)

D: in response to the devastating attack on the Twin Towers, part of New York's World Trade Center, President Bush

E: New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers were devastatingly attacked, and the response was that President Bush (New York's World Trade Center's Twin Towers is awkward and missing the)

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