that v/s which

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eski: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 47; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:36 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 2 times

by eski » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:14 am

Q. A Wall Street Journal report said that the ship, that departed from Long Beach on a seven-day voyage to the Mexican Riviera, is about 200 miles south of San Diego when a fire ignited in the engine room, cutting off power, telephone service and air conditioning

OA is
which departed from Long Beach on a seven-day voyage to the Mexican Riviera, was about 200 miles south of San Diego when a fire ignited in the engine room, cutting off power, telephone service and air conditioning

I selected A , here im confused at that v/s which . I can only correlated that '<comma> which ' are GMAT preference . Is '<comma> that' wrong?

or any other consideration ?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:14 am

eski: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 47; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:36 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 2 times

by eski » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:33 am

any expert reply?

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eski: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 47; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:36 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 2 times

by eski » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:43 am

any expert reply?

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anuprajan5: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 279; Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:56 pmFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 60 times

by anuprajan5 » Wed Sep 26, 2012 8:04 am

Eski,

There is a verb sequence error here. It says the ship is about 200 miles.... when a fire ignited.

Present and then Past tense. Seems illogical.

Should be past and past tense. In the OA that you have given that error has been rectified. Plus a punctuating modifier should not be used when using "that".

Say we remove the modifier - that departed from Long Beach on a seven-day voyage to the Mexican Riviera, the sentence still makes sense. So it isn't a restrictive clause. Hence the usage of that is unnecessary.

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sakshis: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 12:51 am

by sakshis » Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:23 am

Essential modifiers use THAT without COMMA.
Non essential modifiers use WHICH with COMMA.

The problem with the original sentence is use of 'that' after comma, as the modifier (modifying ship) is non essential.
The other problem is the tense.

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eski: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 47; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:36 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 2 times

by eski » Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:14 am

Great got clarity on this .

non-essential modifier comma

essential modifier non comma.

thanx ...

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