Concept of Resumptive Modifiers

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ayushiiitm: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 216; Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:35 am; Location: Pune, India; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:700

Concept of Resumptive Modifiers

by ayushiiitm » Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:30 pm

HI

Can anyone shed light on when to use resumptive modifiers and when not to. An example is given below

Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.
(A) wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
(C) wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so
B is the correct answer.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:30 pm

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; Followed by:1906 members; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Sun Jul 25, 2010 4:24 pm

Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.

(A) wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
(C) wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so

A and E: shaped SMOOTHLY
smoothly means performed WITHOUT DIFFICULTY.
Thus, shaped smoothly means shaped WITHOUT DIFFICULTY, implying that the process of shaping the wings is easy.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is not that the shaping PROCESS is smooth but that the WINGS themselves are SMOOTH.
Eliminate A and D.

C: shaped so smooth and perfect
Here, smooth and perfect (two adjectives) incorrectly serve to modify shaped (another adjective).
An adjective cannot modify another adjective.
An adjective must serve to modify a NOUN.
Eliminate C.

D: shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
Like A and E, this option implies that the MANNER of shaping the wings is EASY.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is not that the shaping MANNER is smooth but that the WINGS themselves are SMOOTH.
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is B.

OA: Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.

The portion in red is an example of a RESUMPTIVE MODIFIER.
A resumptive modifier:

-- repeats a key word in the sentence
-- adds additional information about that key word
-- often includes a that-clause
-- usually appears at the end of a sentence.

In the OA, the resumptive modifier serves to make it clear that so smooth and so perfectly shaped refers only to the WINGS, not to the entire airplane.
Check here for another example of a resumptive modifier:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/wasps-t38234.html

Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pm; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:1 members

by paes » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:29 pm

Guru,

Generally -ed- modifiers modify to the nearest noun.
We can find many examples in OG.

So there is nothing wrong if we assume that 'shaped' is modifying to 'wings' in A/D.

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nikhilkatira: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 318; Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:55 am; Thanked: 12 times

by nikhilkatira » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:37 pm

Hi Mitch,
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females-the queen and her sterile female workers.
A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of
B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all

The obove question is from OG

In both questions ( wings and wasps )I selected Option B, Because i knew the pattern. can you help me correlate both questions i.e. what is the take away from both questions ?

Also ayushiiitm, what is the source of this question ?

Best,
Nikhil H. Katira

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ayushiiitm: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 216; Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:35 am; Location: Pune, India; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:700

by ayushiiitm » Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:36 pm

nikhilkatira wrote: Also ayushiiitm, what is the source of this question ?

I took it from Sahil's notes

There are more examples in Sahil's notes. Take a look

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; Followed by:1906 members; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jul 26, 2010 2:07 am

[deleted[

Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pm; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:1 members

by paes » Mon Jul 26, 2010 2:09 am

Thnaks Guru.
It gave some new learning to me.

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; Followed by:1906 members; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jul 26, 2010 2:28 am

nikhilkatira wrote:Hi Mitch,
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females-the queen and her sterile female workers.
A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of
B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all

The obove question is from OG

In both questions ( wings and wasps )I selected Option B, Because i knew the pattern. can you help me correlate both questions i.e. what is the take away from both questions ?

Also ayushiiitm, what is the source of this question ?

The lesson to take away is:

If you don't know what's wrong with an answer choice, hold onto it. Look for common reasons to eliminate answers.

In the wasps question above:

Answer choice B repeats the word wasps. Strange, but is this an error? Not sure, so we'll hold onto B.
In C and D, the pronoun which is ambiguous, so we can eliminate C and D.
In E, the pronoun it is ambiguous, so E can be eliminated.
In A, the pronoun they suggests that the wasps consist almost entirely of females; the intended meaning is that the society consists almost entirely of females. So A is out.
Since A, C, D, and E have clear and definite errors, B must be the correct answer.

Notice that all the errors cited above are very common.

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pm; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:1 members

by paes » Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:22 am

GMATGuruNY wrote:
paes wrote:Guru,

Generally -ed- modifiers modify to the nearest noun.
We can find many examples in OG.

So there is nothing wrong if we assume that 'shaped' is modifying to 'wings' in A/D.
First, we shouldn't assume what an adjective is modifying. If it's unclear what an adjective is modifying, we should eliminate the answer choice.

Second, participles that follow a comma typically do NOT modify the closest preceding noun.

John entered the building covered in snow. (No comma between building and covered. The building was covered in snow.)

John entered the building, covered in snow. (The comma separating covered from building is used to indicate that covered refers NOT to the building but to John: John was covered in snow.)

So in the SC above, we cannot assume that shaped modifies wings in answer choices A and D; hence we can eliminate A and D.

Guru,

Here is a clear contradiction what you explained :

Question 56 from og 12

Many of the earliest known images of the Hindu deities in India date from the time of Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.

explanation given in OG 12 [ Page - 713 ]

empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura
wrong according to the OG: placement of the modifier fashioned ---- suggests that the Empire (the closest noun ), not the images of the deities , was fashioned out of these materials.

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; Followed by:1906 members; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:54 am

paes wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
paes wrote:Guru,

Generally -ed- modifiers modify to the nearest noun.
We can find many examples in OG.

So there is nothing wrong if we assume that 'shaped' is modifying to 'wings' in A/D.
First, we shouldn't assume what an adjective is modifying. If it's unclear what an adjective is modifying, we should eliminate the answer choice.

Second, participles that follow a comma typically do NOT modify the closest preceding noun.

John entered the building covered in snow. (No comma between building and covered. The building was covered in snow.)

John entered the building, covered in snow. (The comma separating covered from building is used to indicate that covered refers NOT to the building but to John: John was covered in snow.)

So in the SC above, we cannot assume that shaped modifies wings in answer choices A and D; hence we can eliminate A and D.
Guru,

Here is a clear contradiction what you explained :

Question 56 from og 12

Many of the earliest known images of the Hindu deities in India date from the time of Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.

explanation given in OG 12 [ Page - 713 ]

empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura
wrong according to the OG: placement of the modifier fashioned ---- suggests that the Empire (the closest noun ), not the images of the deities , was fashioned out of these materials.

Please remember that our job is choose the "best" answer; we cannot determine which answer is best by looking at only one of the five choices.

Here is the complete question SC:

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the
Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan
grey schist.
A. empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or
B. empire, fashioned from either the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from
C. empire, either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or
D. empire and either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from
E. empire and were fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

The most compelling reason to eliminate A, B, C and D is a lack of parallelism.

In A, the answer choice that you cited: fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan should be fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from Gandharan schist.

I do agree that E makes it clearer what it is being fashioned, so in this respect E is better than A. In this particular sentence, there are many nouns between many and fashioned (images, deities, India, time, empire), so it becomes less clear what is being modified by fashioned.

But please be advised that an -ed word doesn't always modify the closest noun:

John left the testing center, excited that he had just aced the GMAT.

In the sentence above, there is no doubt that excited is describing John.

Here's how you should handle modifiers, of any kind:

If it's unclear what a modifier is modifying -- or if a modifier could be modifying more than one thing -- eliminate the answer choice. Ideally, a modifier should be as close as possible to what it's modifying.

Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pm; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:1 members

by paes » Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:26 am

Thanks Guru.

Finally my pick is :

an -ed word doesn't always modify the closest noun:

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shivraj: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:32 am

by shivraj » Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:57 am

Really ! I loved this discussion and finally convinced with takeaways

Thanks Guru and Paes..

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; Followed by:1906 members; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:40 am

I received a PM asking me to clarify the error in A:

Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.

If the sentence wanted shaped to modify wings, the comma would be left out, as follows:

Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings shaped so smoothly and perfectly that...

The inclusion of the comma in A suggests that shaped is modifying not wings -- otherwise, why include the comma? -- but another noun in the sentence. Since it's unclear what is being modified by shaped, we must eliminate A.

Perhaps a simpler and clearer error is the lack of parallelism: so smoothly and perfectly should be so smoothly and so perfectly.

Hope this helps!

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siddus: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 87; Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:36 am; Thanked: 3 times; Followed by:1 members

by siddus » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:30 pm

Just to add to the discussion the following two sentences are different in that 1 has a verb modifier and 2 has a noun modifier. Let me try and explain -

1) John left the building, excited that he had just aced the GMAT
- "Excited.." is a verb that is modifying the verb "left" in the verb clause "John left the building". It is describing how John left the building.

2) Many of the earliest known images of the Hindu deities in India date from the time of Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
- In this sentence, the verb "fashioned" is modifying the noun "images of Hindu dieties". Since "empire" is also a noun there is an ambiguity in the sentence as to whether the images were fashioned or the empire was fashioned, and hence it is wrong.

In the correct answer, with the introduction of the conjunction "AND" the ambiguity is cleared.

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan empire and were fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

"Images of X DATE from the time of K and WERE FASHIONED.."
The modifiers "were fashioned.." and "date from the time.." clearly refer to Images of X.

Hope this makes sense.

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nafiul9090: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 226; Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:19 am; Thanked: 3 times; Followed by:2 members

by nafiul9090 » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:01 am

siddus wrote:Just to add to the discussion the following two sentences are different in that 1 has a verb modifier and 2 has a noun modifier. Let me try and explain -

1) John left the building, excited that he had just aced the GMAT
- "Excited.." is a verb that is modifying the verb "left" in the verb clause "John left the building". It is describing how John left the building.

2) Many of the earliest known images of the Hindu deities in India date from the time of Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
- In this sentence, the verb "fashioned" is modifying the noun "images of Hindu dieties". Since "empire" is also a noun there is an ambiguity in the sentence as to whether the images were fashioned or the empire was fashioned, and hence it is wrong.

In the correct answer, with the introduction of the conjunction "AND" the ambiguity is cleared.

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan empire and were fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

"Images of X DATE from the time of K and WERE FASHIONED.."
The modifiers "were fashioned.." and "date from the time.." clearly refer to Images of X.

Hope this makes sense.

hello bro

"John left the building, excited that he had just aced the GMAT" here excited is an adjective and it describes how was john when he left the building and certainly "EXCITED" modifies John

and the other question, our GURU has critically judged that and we certainly have learnt many critical points from GURU's posts

regards nafi