A ing is incorrect
B. it are is incorrrect
C.in corrrect place of modifiers
D.same error as in C
E. correct placement and it clearly refers to far from the madding crowd

what is gmax?

Hi Pradeep,

Well i just have a query.it might seem to you as foolish,but please excuse me for that.i am just starting again for my gmat...
well query was,you mentioned that the modifier was wrongly placed in option C and D.The modifier here is and also won Hardy immediate success...correct ?
Actually i am trying to see whether i can point out properly what ever i have studied till now regarding sentence correction.

Hi pradeepkaushal9518,

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GMAT Instructor at GMAX

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Good Job!

gurpreetsingh wrote:

SaraiGMAXonline wrote:Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success, combining both an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone that were to set the theme for his later works.


A. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success, combining both an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone
Combining both x with y and n with m--> should be used
combining both x with y that were set--> is wrong
B. First attributed to George Eliot, Hardy won immediate success upon publishing Far from the Maddening Crowd; in it are combined an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones
the sentence after semi colon is awkward and unnecessarily lengthy.
"are" is wrong....x is combined with y....it should be singular

C. Far from the Maddening Crowd was published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, and also won Hardy immediate success; it combines an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone
", and" should be followed by a clause-> also won hardy.... does not have a subject.
also the use of "it' after ';' is ambiguous. It could refer to either success or far from the maddening crowd.
Sarai please correct me on this use of 'it' whether it is ambiguous or not. As 'it' is placed near to success but since it was separated by semicolon "it" can refer to both.

D. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd, combing an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones, won Hardy immediate success
The sentence construction is wrong...."Far from the Maddening Crowd" seems to modify "Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot"

E. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success; it combines an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones
Modifier, subject + verb ; clause

Sarai I have 2 doubts,

1. Use of 'it' in C and E? Is it ambiguous or not? I m confused just because of the semi colon. Should we take the nearest antecedent only?
2. In D ',' has been used 4 times. ',' is used to separate non essential modifiers , so how to approach D option in your opinion.

Please correct me in my explanations above where ever I m wrong.

Hi gurpreetsingh,

The answer is indeed E, and you've analyzed the answer choices well!

To answer your first question, only for relative pronouns (that, which, who, whom, and whose) does proximity to the referent matter. So ambiguity is not an issue here.

As for your second question, a sentence can have any number of commas; "too many commas" would never be reason to eliminate an answer, so let's analyze the answers again:


Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success, combining both an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone that were to set the theme for his later works.


A. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success, combining both an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone

Idiom: Both A and B. "and" cannot be replaced with any word once you have the word "both".

"that were to set the the theme..."= relative clause referring to "overtone"; but "overtone" is singular, "were" plural.

B. First attributed to George Eliot, Hardy won immediate success upon publishing Far from the Maddening Crowd; in it are combined an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones

Subject modifier: Hardy (subject) cannot be described by the modifier "attributed to George Eliot." The book, not the author, was attributed.

C. Far from the Maddening Crowd was published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, and also won Hardy immediate success; it combines an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtone

There are only two occasions on which a comma appears before the word 'and':

1) Independent clause [,and] Independent clause
Ex. I eat steak, and my brother eats fish.

2) A list: a, b [, and] c
I like steak, fish, and chicken.
There is no other way to punctuate a list on the SC. You can and must use the word 'and' only once!

Again, "overtone" is singular, "that were" plural.


D. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd, combing an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones, won Hardy immediate success

The relative clause, "that were to set the theme," is nowhere near the word "overtones" to which it should refer.


E. Published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, Far from the Maddening Crowd won Hardy immediate success; it combines an architecturally perfect plot with the philosophical overtones


Correct: "Published..." = subject modifier.
"Far from the Maddening Crowd" = subject (the thing that was published)
Idiom: Both A and B
Relative clause, "that were to set...." correctly placed next to plural referent, "overtones"

Hi Sarai,

Thanks for posting this question. I have two questions -

1. In option A had 'and' instead of 'with' will the original sentence be correct?

2. Why cant 'that' , before political overtone' refer to the plural subject 'architecturally perfect plot' and 'political overtone' and NOT only 'political overtone' ?