Sentence Correction

As rainfall began to decrease in the Southwest about the middle of the twelfth century, most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans whose access to water was less limited.

A. whose access to water was less limited
B. where there was access to water that was less limited
C. where they had less limited water access
D. with less limitations on water access
E. having less limitations to water access

[spoiler]OA: A[/spoiler]

I was not convinced with the explanation provided in OG.

Experts, please help.

Thanks.

access to water is better than water access in gmat world....B is unneccessary wordy ..only A wins....

gmat_perfect wrote:As rainfall began to decrease in the Southwest about the middle of the twelfth century, most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans whose access to water was less limited.

A. whose access to water was less limited
B. where there was access to water that was less limited
C. where they had less limited water access
D. with less limitations on water access
E. having less limitations to water access

[spoiler]OA: A[/spoiler]

I was not convinced with the explanation provided in OG.

Experts, please help.

Thanks.

I am not an expert but I try my best.

First:
Well I think this is a very good and tough question.

Second:
You can rule out B and C. Where refers to clan but "where" needs to refer to an place.

So the next point needs to be double checked:
I think you can rule out D and E because limitations seem like a countable noun. Thus less is wrong and you would need fewer instead of less.

For example:
Does Option A have fewer or less advantages than Option B? If the advantages are fewer in number, use fewer. If they are less in degree, then use less.
Source: https://www.llrx.com/columns/grammar2.htm

BastiG - "I'm not an expert"? You could have fooled me...nice explanation!

On this one, I immediately look at the fact that three answer choices use relative pronoun modifiers (whose, where, and where). Those modifiers have to modify the word that comes directly next to them, and you're stuck with the non-underlined "clans". "Clans" is a group of people, so "whose" is okay..."where" is not, so B and C are out.

D is wrong for two reasons - one, as BastiG said, "less" can't modify a plural ("countable") word like "limitations". "Limitations" is plural, so you'd need to use "fewer".

D also has a modifier error. What does "with" modify? Did the Anasazi abandon their homes "...with less limitations"? Or did they join clans that had less limitations? "With" is at best slightly ambiguous in what it refers to, whereas "whose" in choice A is clear.

E makes the same plural "less vs. fewer" mistake, and "having" creates a verb tense/modifier problem. As a modifier, the participle "having" would not only be unclear in its reference to "Anasazi" or "clans", but it may even be a little illogical...it seems to say that they possess or own fewer limitations (as though the limitations were man-made like laws and not natural like a drought). As a verb, "having" is present-tense while all of this happens in the past. Any way you look at it, "having" doesn't fit here, so E is wrong for that reason, as well.

Brian, thanks for your inputs. Always helpful. Just one question, can we eliminate E just by seeing 'having'. Cause number of times having is wrong in GMAT, also 'having' and 'being' are considered 'passive' (not sure though).

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:BastiG - "I'm not an expert"? You could have fooled me...nice explanation!

On this one, I immediately look at the fact that three answer choices use relative pronoun modifiers (whose, where, and where). Those modifiers have to modify the word that comes directly next to them, and you're stuck with the non-underlined "clans". "Clans" is a group of people, so "whose" is okay..."where" is not, so B and C are out.

D is wrong for two reasons - one, as BastiG said, "less" can't modify a plural ("countable") word like "limitations". "Limitations" is plural, so you'd need to use "fewer".

D also has a modifier error. What does "with" modify? Did the Anasazi abandon their homes "...with less limitations"? Or did they join clans that had less limitations? "With" is at best slightly ambiguous in what it refers to, whereas "whose" in choice A is clear.

E makes the same plural "less vs. fewer" mistake, and "having" creates a verb tense/modifier problem. As a modifier, the participle "having" would not only be unclear in its reference to "Anasazi" or "clans", but it may even be a little illogical...it seems to say that they possess or own fewer limitations (as though the limitations were man-made like laws and not natural like a drought). As a verb, "having" is present-tense while all of this happens in the past. Any way you look at it, "having" doesn't fit here, so E is wrong for that reason, as well.

Hey reply,

I'd say this - if you're down to two and don't see a pure grammatical difference between them, then you can use instincts like that "having" and "being" tend to be used in incorrect answer choices. But I wouldn't recommend using that as a general rule. For a while most of the GMAT books out there would even specifically teach that "being" was always wrong...but then the test evolved to include correct usage of "being" in order to trap people who relied specifically on that crutch.

Those words are often used incorrectly for reasons like those in this particular example, but it doesn't mean they're always wrong, so I'd make sure that you prioritize the high-level errors (subject verb agreement, modifiers, etc.) first and use those trends-with-keywords as a last resort. The test is too smart to reward people for leaning on those quick-trigger crutches.