Hey GMATMadeEasy,

Great question - and honestly I think you were incredibly close to answering your own question with the title of this thread and your question "what role is the modifier playing".

The modifier here has to describe the noun that immediately follows it. And that noun is "archaeological evidence".

C and D are both modifiers that start with the word "with", suggesting that the noun - "archaeological evidence" - possesses ("with") whatever is in the modifier. But archeological evidence didn't do anything "with shipbuilding traditions". It was the Vikings that possessed those shipbuilding traditions, so "with" is an illogical modifier.

E changes the game - because it has its own subject and verb:

"Although traditions were not different..."

It's not a modifier, but instead its own introductory clause. So E isn't beholden to the fact that its contents must belong to the archaeological evidence. That's how it's different and, therefore, correct.

@Brian@VeritasPrep: Thanks Brian. You told me what I wanted to hear. Feel better. I wanted to be sure of logic I had thought of earlier.

also one more thng, correct me if im wrong.
the sentence needs to introduce some sort of contrast, X is no differnet from Y but still X dis have some advantage.
With is not doing that here, is it?
With would have been right, if it said, With X not different from Y, both were used by Z...so on.

Can someone explain to me why E>C? I must be missing something

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey GMATMadeEasy,

Great question - and honestly I think you were incredibly close to answering your own question with the title of this thread and your question "what role is the modifier playing".

The modifier here has to describe the noun that immediately follows it. And that noun is "archaeological evidence".

C and D are both modifiers that start with the word "with", suggesting that the noun - "archaeological evidence" - possesses ("with") whatever is in the modifier. But archeological evidence didn't do anything "with shipbuilding traditions". It was the Vikings that possessed those shipbuilding traditions, so "with" is an illogical modifier.

E changes the game - because it has its own subject and verb:

"Although traditions were not different..."

It's not a modifier, but instead its own introductory clause. So E isn't beholden to the fact that its contents must belong to the archaeological evidence. That's how it's different and, therefore, correct.

What's wrong with a) ? Any help is greatly appreciated. (I know that GMAT doesnt like Being...but is a) grammatically correct in terms of ".....difference in X from in Y ?"