Athenian!!

This topic has expert replies
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1083
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:38 pm
Thanked: 127 times
Followed by:14 members

Athenian!!

by gmat_perfect » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:23 am
Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collaborated 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 collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress
(B) Based on records from ancient Athens, each year 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
=>what is the problem in this option?

(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
=> Awkward.

My question:

What is the difference between C and D?

Thanks.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:41 am
Thanked: 7 times

by gmat1011 » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:35 am
I think D --- that follows the reporting verb indicate

In C --- 'that' seems a bit ambiguous (but in spoken english I may well have used it...); but D seems better and a bit more concise....

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1893
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 11:48 pm
Thanked: 215 times
Followed by:7 members

by kvcpk » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:44 am
I am not sure about the that vs which usage here.. but once again I see a parallelism issue here..

The un-underlined portion of the sentence has "and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle "
So there should be "that" before the "and" also.

Which is correctly present only in D - "indicate that each year young Athenian "

Hope this helps!!

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 392
Joined: Sun May 16, 2010 2:42 am
Location: Bangalore, India
Thanked: 116 times
Followed by:10 members
GMAT Score:770

by albatross86 » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:54 am
gmat1011 wrote:I think D --- that follows the reporting verb indicate

In C --- 'that' seems a bit ambiguous (but in spoken english I may well have used it...); but D seems better and a bit more concise....
Exactly, I agree.

In C, we have the form "... a new woolen robe that they used to dress.... and that this robe...."

This seems to suggest " a robe that this robe..."

In D we have "indicates that ... and that..." which makes much more sense, and is parallel.
~Abhay

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. -- Andre Gide

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1052
Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 1:30 am
Thanked: 335 times
Followed by:98 members

by Patrick_GMATFix » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:30 pm
"Based" is an adjective and adjectives modify nouns. Any modifier introduced with an adjective must be a noun modifier. Problem in this case is that the modifier "Based on records" is not placed next to any valid target. A & B are incorrect.

E is incorrect because we need "that" (used here as a conjunction) after 'indicate' to introduce the subordinate clause that tells us what the records indicate.

D is better than C because as others have pointed out, we need a parallel structure to explain list the two things that records show: "that each year women collaborated...and that this robe depicted scenes"

The OA is D. A much more detailed explanation can be seen at GMATPrep question 2179

-Patrick
  • Ask me about tutoring.

• Page 1 of 1