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Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient

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by pnk » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:33 am

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00:00

Answers

A

B

C

D

E

Stats

Difficulty—

Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement, the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete


a) the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete

b) Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, was protected in his afterlife by an army of terracotta that was created more than 2,000 years ago by 700,000 artisans who took more than 36 yrs to complete it

c) it took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriers more than 2,000 years ago that would protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

d) more than 2,000 years ago,700,000 artisans worked more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriors to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

e) more than 36 years were needed to complete the army of terra-cotta warriors that 700,000 artisans created 2,000 years ago to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

[spoiler]Source - OG 12; OA - A; I do not find anything wrong with B[/spoiler]
Last edited by pnk on Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:42 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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by tomada » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:48 am
Are you concerned that you found nothing wrong with the OA?

pnk wrote:Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement, the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete them


a) the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete them

b) Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, was protected in his afterlife by an army of terracotta that was created more than 2,000 years ago by 700,000 artisans who took more than 36 yrs to complte it

c) it took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriers more than 2,000 years ago that would protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

d) more than 2,000 years ago,700,000 artisans worked more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriors to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

e) more than 36 years were needed to complete the army of terra-cotta warriors that 700,000 artisans created 2,000 years ago to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

[spoiler]OA - A; I do not find anything wrong with A[/spoiler]
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by uwhusky » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:55 am
Since the opening clause is a adverbial participle modifier, I would always start off by looking for the subject and use it to form a sentence to see if it makes any sense.

A: the army of terra-cotta warriors is rivaling the pyramids of Egypt. - makes sense.
B: Qin Shi Huang is rivaling the pyramids - not so much, it might make sense if he's being compared to a pharaoh instead of pyramid.
C: it is ambiguous and not comparable.
D: more than 2000 years is not comparable.
E: same as D.

I think when it comes to modifier error, usually the answer can be determined by just that error alone. I might have to dig in OG again and see if I can find some exceptions to such observation.

By the way, D is grammatically correct if the sentence wasn't started with a modifier. But in terms of meaning, D's main focus is on how long ago it was built and the monumental task of building the warriors, not the warriors themselves.
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by tomada » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:08 am
My only issue with statement 'A' was the inclusion of the word "them" as the final word. I'm not suggesting that the statement is grammatically incorrect, but I wonder if "them" is necessary.

uwhusky wrote:Since the opening clause is a adverbial participle modifier, I would always start off by looking for the subject and use it to form a sentence to see if it makes any sense.

A: the army of terra-cotta warriors is rivaling the pyramids of Egypt. - makes sense.
B: Qin Shi Huang is rivaling the pyramids - not so much, it might make sense if he's being compared to a pharaoh instead of pyramid.
C: it is ambiguous and not comparable.
D: more than 2000 years is not comparable.
E: same as D.

I think when it comes to modifier error, usually the answer can be determined by just that error alone. I might have to dig in OG again and see if I can find some exceptions to such observation.

By the way, D is grammatically correct if the sentence wasn't started with a modifier. But in terms of meaning, D's main focus is on how long ago it was built and the monumental task of building the warriors, not the warriors themselves.
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by uwhusky » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:18 am
tomada wrote:My only issue with statement 'A' was the inclusion of the word "them" as the final word. I'm not suggesting that the statement is grammatically incorrect, but I wonder if "them" is necessary.
I just checked the verb type of "complete" and it's a transitive, which means that it must be followed by a noun phrase. So "them" is actually necessary.

Good call on catching this, and I would probably skip using them myself!
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by tomada » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:26 am
Hmm, I'm not convinced that "them" is necessary at the end of the statement, but I guess that'll be my problem when I take the GMAT.

uwhusky wrote:
tomada wrote:My only issue with statement 'A' was the inclusion of the word "them" as the final word. I'm not suggesting that the statement is grammatically incorrect, but I wonder if "them" is necessary.
I just checked the verb type of "complete" and it's a transitive, which means that it must be followed by a noun phrase. So "them" is actually necessary.

Good call on catching this, and I would probably skip using them myself!
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by uwhusky » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:31 am
https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm

"First, some verbs require an object to complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to the church. These verbs are called transitive."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complete

Main Entry: 2complete
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): com·plet·ed; com·plet·ing

Hopefully above reference is sufficient to explain why it is necessary.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:42 am
uwhusky wrote:https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm

"First, some verbs require an object to complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to the church. These verbs are called transitive."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complete

Main Entry: 2complete
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): com·plet·ed; com·plet·ing

Hopefully above reference is sufficient to explain why it is necessary.
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by nikhilkatira » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:05 pm
This question is from OG 12 question no. 61 and option A doesn't have "them ".

Also "them" can't refer to army ( collective noun )
Best,
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by pnk » Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:43 pm
Thanks. Corrected.

Pls explain problem with B
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by nikhilkatira » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:34 pm
nikhilkatira wrote:This question is from OG 12 question no. 61 and option A doesn't have "them ".

Also "them" can't refer to army ( collective noun )
OG says option B has dangling modifier issue but I eliminated Option B because the contruction of sentence is wordy
( passive also )

If you look at Option A and B, you can make out the difference.
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by loveusonu » Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:23 pm
Isn't IT redundant in option B?
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by surajgarg » Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:43 am
The sentence starts with "Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement"

Now ask the question - What is 'rivaling' the pyramids and ancient cities of Maya?

It should be something immediately after the comma.

From the choices the best that fits is 'the army of terra cotta...'

The initial part of the sentence is modifying the subject immediately after the comma.
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by patanjali.purpose » Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:54 pm
Pls explain why "Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement" cannot modify Qin Shi Huang.

Secondly, if 'Qin Shi Huang' is not a human being - then is the usage of 'china's first emperor' correct in A
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by pras4gmat » Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:11 am
This question is from GMAT prep and correct answer is C
From concision perspective "it" is not required
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