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Ambiguous Appositive

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by FightWithGMAT » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:36 am
3)Unlike Edgar Allan Poe,whose works were ignored in his native country,the works of Hawthrone were read and appreciated by the public and by contemporary critics.

a.Edgar Allan Poe, whose works were ignored in his native country,the
b.Edgar Allan Poe whose native country ignored his work,the
c.the works of Edgar Allan Poe,ignored in his native country,the
d.the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which were ignored in his native country,the
e.the works of Edgar Allan Poe having been ignored in his native country,the

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by kvcpk » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:38 am
Please underline the incorrect part of sentence to make it easy for readers..

I made the same mistake earlier. so letting oothers not do it.. :)
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by blaster » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:43 am
to me OA is D

3)Unlike Edgar Allan Poe,whose works were ignored in his native country,the works of Hawthrone were read and appreciated by the public and by contemporary critics.

a.Edgar Allan Poe, whose works were ignored in his native country,the
The sentence must be parallel to "the works of Hawthrone" . that's why works cannot be compared to human

b.Edgar Allan Poe whose native country ignored his work,the
incorrect. same reason for A

c.the works of Edgar Allan Poe,ignored in his native country,the
which needed
d.the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which were ignored in his native country,the
correct comparision

e.the works of Edgar Allan Poe having been ignored in his native country,the
some kind of awkward
Last edited by blaster on Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by kvcpk » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:44 am
IMO D.

non underlined portion of the sentence says "works of Hawthrone were read"
SO to maintain like comparison, we need to have "works of Edgar Allan "
So A,B are out..

In C, "ignored" is not clear on "Edgar Allan Poe" or his works
In E, having been is present perfect tense.. but non underlined portion tells us that the sentence shud be in Past..

So we need to have "were" instead of "having beeen"

That brings us to D
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by sumanr84 » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:56 am
+1 for D
I am on a break !!
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by FightWithGMAT » Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:08 am
kvcpk wrote:IMO D.

non underlined portion of the sentence says "works of Hawthrone were read"
SO to maintain like comparison, we need to have "works of Edgar Allan "
So A,B are out..

In C, "ignored" is not clear on "Edgar Allan Poe" or his works
In E, having been is present perfect tense.. but non underlined portion tells us that the sentence shud be in Past..

So we need to have "were" instead of "having beeen"

That brings us to D
The reason I posted this question is to know how we can conclude the ambiguity in the appositive.
Should not "ignored" modify the subject before comma? And the subject here is "works" not Allan Poe.
What is the best way to deal with such issues??

Ron, if you could explain what GMAT thinks about this.
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by kvcpk » Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:30 am
FightWithGMAT wrote: The reason I posted this question is to know how we can conclude the ambiguity in the appositive.
Should not "ignored" modify the subject before comma? And the subject here is "works" not Allan Poe.
What is the best way to deal with such issues??
I think in the statement, "unlike the works of Edgar Allan Poe", the subject is Edgar Allan Poe. (let me know if i am wrong)

In that case, "ignored" should be referring to Edgar Allan Poe which is wrong.
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by martin.jonson007 » Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:44 am
ABC -> obviously wrong....!

D and E too have their own set of problems...

in D , before starting 2nd sentence some sort of conjunction like and , but or whereas needed otherwise it is absolutly incorrect...!

In E option, having been... were make sentence not only not parallel but also awkward too...

but wud like 2 knw more comments abt E option...

but it is very clear that D have it own sets of PROBLEMS...
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by reply2spg » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:41 am
I think E is correct here. However, I am confused regarding the use of 'which' in D. what is the OA?
FightWithGMAT wrote:3)Unlike Edgar Allan Poe,whose works were ignored in his native country,the works of Hawthrone were read and appreciated by the public and by contemporary critics.

a.Edgar Allan Poe, whose works were ignored in his native country,the
b.Edgar Allan Poe whose native country ignored his work,the
c.the works of Edgar Allan Poe,ignored in his native country,the
d.the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which were ignored in his native country,the
e.the works of Edgar Allan Poe having been ignored in his native country,the

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by jube » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:53 am
+1 for D - comparison has to be b/w similar things, hence A & B are out. Of the remaining D is the best choice,
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by ansumania » Sat Jun 19, 2010 8:41 am
IMO D......
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by mohit11 » Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:00 am
Unlike Edgar Allan Poe,whose works were ignored in his native country,the works of Hawthrone were read and appreciated by the public and by contemporary critics.

a.Edgar Allan Poe, whose works were ignored in his native country,the
b.Edgar Allan Poe whose native country ignored his work,the
c.the works of Edgar Allan Poe,ignored in his native country,the
d.the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which were ignored in his native country,the
e.the works of Edgar Allan Poe having been ignored in his native country,the

Non underline part refers to Works of Hawthrone, therefore to avoid comparison error (comparing apples to oranges) we need to refer to works of Edgar. We are down to C, D and E.

Ignored does not clearly refer to Works of Edgar, there is ambiguity as to whether Ignored refers to Edgar or his works. C out.

E is just awful. usage of "having" is incorrect.

Reason why most people rule out D is that we have learned that comma which construction refers to the noun just before the comma. However, this understanding is only correct to an extent. comma which construction refers to the legitimate noun before the comma.

How do we decide which is the legitimate noun? The hint lies in the verb in the non underlined part. Here the verb is "were" A plural verb, hence which cannot refer to Edgar and refers to Works of Edgar. Answer D. Hope it helps.
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jun 21, 2010 2:22 pm
Received a PM asking me to respond and explain options C and D.

I'm looking for a source up above and can't find one. Can someone please cite the source (author) of the problem so that I can respond fully?

I'll discuss very generally:

"Unlike Mr. Smith, whose films were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

This sentence says that Mr. Smith's films were ignored in his native country.

"Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, ignored in his native country, the films of..."

What was ignored in this sentence? The films? Or Mr. Smith? I'm not sure. I know it's supposed to be the films, because that's what the original sentence said. Is there another option that is completely grammatically correct AND does not have this ambiguity?

Yes! "Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, which were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

The verb "were" is plural; it must match with "films," not "Mr. Smith." So the films were ignored... and that's what I want the sentence to say. There's nothing else wrong with this one, so this one is better than the other one that did have ambiguity.
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by Erfun_GMATCompass » Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:28 pm
An important point to take away from Stacey's great explanation is that a relative pronoun (such as "who" and "which") does not ALWAYS have to modify the noun immediately preceding it. If there's a noun + prepositional phrase + relative clause, the relative clause could modify either the original noun or a noun in the prepositional phrase, depending on what logically makes sense.

For example: "The letters of Emily Dickinson, which are well-known for their eloquence..." Here, the relative clause "which are well-known" could only logically modify LETTERS, not EMILY DICKINSON. So, even though the noun immediately before "which" is "Emily Dickinson," it's obvious that the relative clause is modifying LETTERS and the sentence is thus not incorrect.
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond and explain options C and D.

I'm looking for a source up above and can't find one. Can someone please cite the source (author) of the problem so that I can respond fully?

I'll discuss very generally:

"Unlike Mr. Smith, whose films were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

This sentence says that Mr. Smith's films were ignored in his native country.

"Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, ignored in his native country, the films of..."

What was ignored in this sentence? The films? Or Mr. Smith? I'm not sure. I know it's supposed to be the films, because that's what the original sentence said. Is there another option that is completely grammatically correct AND does not have this ambiguity?

Yes! "Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, which were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

The verb "were" is plural; it must match with "films," not "Mr. Smith." So the films were ignored... and that's what I want the sentence to say. There's nothing else wrong with this one, so this one is better than the other one that did have ambiguity.
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by Erfun_GMATCompass » Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:35 pm
An important point to take away from Stacey's great explanation is that a relative pronoun (such as "who" and "which") does not ALWAYS have to modify the noun immediately preceding it. If there's a noun + prepositional phrase + relative clause, the relative clause could modify either the original noun or a noun in the prepositional phrase, depending on what logically makes sense.

For example: "The letters of Emily Dickinson, which are well-known for their eloquence..." Here, the relative clause "which are well-known" could only logically modify LETTERS, not EMILY DICKINSON. So, even though the noun immediately before "which" is "Emily Dickinson," it's obvious that the relative clause is modifying LETTERS and the sentence is thus not incorrect.
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond and explain options C and D.

I'm looking for a source up above and can't find one. Can someone please cite the source (author) of the problem so that I can respond fully?

I'll discuss very generally:

"Unlike Mr. Smith, whose films were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

This sentence says that Mr. Smith's films were ignored in his native country.

"Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, ignored in his native country, the films of..."

What was ignored in this sentence? The films? Or Mr. Smith? I'm not sure. I know it's supposed to be the films, because that's what the original sentence said. Is there another option that is completely grammatically correct AND does not have this ambiguity?

Yes! "Unlike the films of Mr. Smith, which were ignored in his native country, the films of..."

The verb "were" is plural; it must match with "films," not "Mr. Smith." So the films were ignored... and that's what I want the sentence to say. There's nothing else wrong with this one, so this one is better than the other one that did have ambiguity.
Erfun Geula
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gmattutornyc.com/
gretutornyc.com/

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