Golding’s most famous novel

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Golding’s most famous novel

by atulmangal » Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:13 pm
Golding's most famous novel concerns little boys, once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision.

A)once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who then
C)once a well-behaved and civilized group, who
D)once well-civilized and well-behaved, whose
E)behaved and civilized, who
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by AIM GMAT » Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:54 pm
IMO C .

Group is singular and who is correctly modifying group.
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by atulmangal » Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:24 am
AIM GMAT wrote:IMO C .

Group is singular and who is correctly modifying group.
why NOT B ????

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by AIM GMAT » Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:28 am
atulmangal wrote:
AIM GMAT wrote:IMO C .

Group is singular and who is correctly modifying group.
why NOT B ????
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who then

Because of use of then , then -- after what then ?? Is there any sequence of events going ?? No .

Also who is modifying boys in B.
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by Fatehdeep Singh » Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:09 am
Also who is modifying boys in B.
I have a doubt here.

Shouldn't who refer to boys rather than group because in sentence we have who resort to murder and savagery during their brief time
So i think who should refer to Boys

Group is singular and therefore their incorrectly refers to group.

Also can you please explain which of the two mentioned sentences is correct:

Once a well-behaved and civilized group,little boys,who resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision, are the major point of concern of Golding's most famous novel


Once well-behaved and civilized,little boys,who then resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision, are the major point of concern of Golding's most famous novel
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by vatsalroxy » Sat Mar 26, 2011 3:04 am
I think its E. behaved and civilized modifies boys. And WHO correctly modifies the Boys which is plural.

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by aspirant2011 » Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:33 am
Golding’s most famous novel concerns little boys, once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision.

A)once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who then
C)once a well-behaved and civilized group, who
D)once well-civilized and well-behaved, whose
E)behaved and civilized, who

i would also go for E because in C i find a problem that "once a well behaved and civilized group" is modifying "boys" and usage of "who" is for boys not for the group as for group "which" should have been used......................wats the OA????

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by HSPA » Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:43 am
who /whose can refer to people I guess

Here boys is plural... should nt we use WHO

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by atulmangal » Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:14 am
HSPA wrote:who /whose can refer to people I guess

Here boys is plural... should nt we use WHO
WHO and WHOSE has different functions

WHO is a NOMINATIVE CASE PRONOUN
WHOSE is POSSESSIVE CASE PRONOUN

and moreover, WHO can refer to both singular and plural

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by Target2009 » Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:47 pm
IMO : C
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by Target2009 » Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:50 pm
AIM GMAT wrote:IMO C .

Group is singular and who is correctly modifying group.
@AIM: I learnt, Who can only modify Human, So i believe Who can't modify Group here rather it can modify boys..
You can correct me if I learnt incorrectly.
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by singh181 » Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:22 am
confused between C and E. But I think E is better than C, here is my reasoning:

C)once a well-behaved and civilized group, who

"their" in the second part does not agree with group (singular). Also, sentence talks about "little boys", not a specific group of "little boys"

E)behaved and civilized, who

"who" refers to "little boys" and second part of the sentence tells more about those little boys.

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by ankur.agrawal » Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:57 am
atulmangal wrote:Golding's most famous novel concerns little boys, once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision.

A)once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who then
C)once a well-behaved and civilized group, who
D)once well-civilized and well-behaved, whose
E)behaved and civilized, who
Wat does "once" imply here: that these boys were well behaved & civilized group before the time they were on the tropical island, So the use of once is important to show the sequence of time.

E is missing " once " . so E cannot be correct.

Any thoughts on this .

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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:17 am
atulmangal wrote:Golding's most famous novel concerns little boys, once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision.

A)once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who
C)once a well-behaved and civilized herd, who
D)once civilized and well-behaved, whose
E)behaved and civilized, who
Above is the correct version of this SC. The original post did not reproduce the answer choices correctly.

In A and D, the subject boys lacks a verb, resulting in a sentence fragment. Eliminate A and D.

E changes the meaning. Omitting once implies that the boys are behaved and civilized when they resort to murder. The intended meaning is that the boys were once well-behaved and civilized but are not well-behaved and civilized when they resort to murder. Eliminate E.

In C, the introduction of herd changes the meaning. Also, the referent of who is unclear. Who seems to refer -- incorrectly -- to herd, but the plural pronoun their implies that who refers to boys. If the referent of a pronoun is unclear, and another answer choice avoids the ambiguity, eliminate the answer choice with the ambiguity. Eliminate C.

The correct answer is B.

Please note that the SC above does not have the feel of a real GMAT SC. The differences among the answer choices are too subtle.
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by atulmangal » Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:33 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
atulmangal wrote:Golding's most famous novel concerns little boys, once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose resort to murder and savagery during their brief time on a tropical island without adult supervision.

A)once a well-behaved and civilized group, whose
B)once well-behaved and civilized, who
C)once a well-behaved and civilized herd, who
D)once civilized and well-behaved, whose
E)behaved and civilized, who
Above is the correct version of this SC. The original post did not reproduce the answer choices correctly.

In A and D, the subject boys lacks a verb, resulting in a sentence fragment. Eliminate A and D.

E changes the meaning. Omitting once implies that the boys are behaved and civilized when they resort to murder. The intended meaning is that the boys were once well-behaved and civilized but are not well-behaved and civilized when they resort to murder. Eliminate E.

In C, the introduction of herd changes the meaning. Also, the referent of who is unclear. Who seems to refer -- incorrectly -- to herd, but the plural pronoun their implies that who refers to boys. If the referent of a pronoun is unclear, and another answer choice avoids the ambiguity, eliminate the answer choice with the ambiguity. Eliminate C.

The correct answer is B.

Please note that the SC above does not have the feel of a real GMAT SC. The differences among the answer choices are too subtle.
Thanks Mitch for the correction in question
I still have one confusion if u can please clear....the confusion is regarding the use of THEN in choice B....although many people posted that use of THEN is INCORRECT but i still didn't get that feel
can't we see the structure of the sentence in this way---> the boys were once well behaved and after that (THEN) they turned to Murder etc....??? can u shed some light in this regard...if possible with an example using the word THEN correctly...

Thanks
Atul