Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Atheni

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focusgmat: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 28; Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:05 am

by focusgmat » Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:42 am

Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

A. Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

B. Based on records from ancient Athens, young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which to dress

C. According to records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

D. Records from ancient Athens indicate that each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which they dressed

E. Records from ancient Athens indicate each year young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe for dressing

Please explain as to how I can approach to this question?
[spoiler]oa:d[/spoiler]

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:42 am

Maciek: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 164; Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:26 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 49 times; GMAT Score:710

by Maciek » Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:48 pm

Hi!

'Which' is simply better here than 'that'. We use 'which' if we want to give more information about a noun just before the comma.

When the information provided by the clause is required to identify the person (or thing), then there are no commas with 'which'.

Source: https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/ ... or_not.htm

Thus we should eliminate answers A and C.
Answers B and E include past perfect tense and that changes the meaning of the original sentence.
The clauses in answer B are not parallel: "...had collaborated... to dress..."
Answer D is correct

Hope it helps!
Best,
Maciek

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BastiG: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 146; Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:05 am; Thanked: 7 times

by BastiG » Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:53 pm

Maciek wrote:Hi!

'Which' is simply better here than 'that'. We use 'which' if we want to give more information about a noun just before the comma.
When the information provided by the clause is required to identify the person (or thing), then there are no commas with 'which'.
Source: https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/ ... or_not.htm

Thus we should eliminate answers A and C.
Answers B and E include past perfect tense and that changes the meaning of the original sentence.
The clauses in answer B are not parallel: "...had collaborated... to dress..."
Answer D is correct

Hope it helps!
Best,
Maciek

I am afraid that I have to disagree with you. "which" is in this case the object of the preposition "with". So in this example you don't restrict the sentence with "which".

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ashish2104: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 191; Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 6 times

by ashish2104 » Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:52 pm

After reading posts from Maciek and BastiG, I am now confused I the OA is correct. I was caught between C and D and prefered C over D, because I was not certain of usage of 'which' in D.

Can someone shed more light on this?

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Gurpinder: Legendary Member; Posts: 659; Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:12 amFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 32 times

by Gurpinder » Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:27 pm

focusgmat wrote:Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

C. According to records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

D. Records from ancient Athens indicate that each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which they dressed

See the parallel between the question and choice D. They are clearly parallel to each other whereas (C) is missing that.

So (D).

"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."
- Alfred A. Montapert, Philosopher.

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BastiG: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 146; Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:05 am; Thanked: 7 times

by BastiG » Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:48 pm

focusgmat wrote:Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

A. Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

B. Based on records from ancient Athens, young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which to dress

C. According to records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

D. Records from ancient Athens indicate that each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which they dressed

E. Records from ancient Athens indicate each year young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe for dressing

Please explain as to how I can approach to this question?
[spoiler]oa:d[/spoiler]

This is the way I attacked this question:

First I made a Split between Based on/According to

You can't use "based on" at this sentence because the young Athenian women didn't use the records to collaborate or use the records to weave a robe.

Example for based on:
(base something on) use (something specified) as the foundation or starting point for something:
The film is based on a novel by Pat Conroy.
Source: Oxford Dictionary
--> So you can rule out A/B

Second:
I ruled out C because you can't say:
"a new woolen robe that they used to dress"

This tells you that the Athenians use the robe to do s.th. But it is not really concise.

For Example:

Tom used to dress his son. vs Tom dresses his son.

Third:
I ruled out E because you need the "that" after indicate as Gurbinder pointed out in the previous post.

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