Bird feathers appear to have evolved...

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Can someone please help me understand where the difference lies between the construction of the sentences from 800Score.com and the OG that gives us two different answer for what seems to be the same problem?

HERE IS THE QUESTION FROM 800SCORE.COM:
Bird feathers appear to have evolved from dinosaur scales well over 100 million years ago, Chinese scientists have shown, based on a fossil bird found in the Yixian mountains of northern China.

A. Bird feathers appear to have evolved from dinosaur scales well over 100 million years ago, Chinese scientists have shown, based on a fossil bird found in the Yixian mountains of northern China.

B. Chinese scientists, having shown that bird feathers appear to have evolved from dinosaur scales well over 100 million years ago, based on a fossil bird found in the Yixian mountains of northern China.

C. Based on a fossil bird found in the Yixian mountains of northern China, Chiense scientists showed that bird feathers have appeared to have evolved from dinosaur scales well over 100 million years ago.

D. When a fossil bird in the Yixian mountains of northern China was found well over 100 million years ago, Chinese scientists showed that bird feathers appear to have evolved from dinosaur scales

E. Based on a fossil bird found in the Yixian mountains of northern China, Chinese scientists have shown that bird feathers appear to have evolved from dinosaur scales well over 100 million years ago.


800Score.com's OA: E

While I knew E looked good, I chose A because this SC question reminded me of an OG question from the 12th edition, on page 697:

HERE IS QUESTION 25 FROM OG 12:
Based on accounts of various ancient writers, scholars have painted a sketchy picture of the activities of an all-female cult that, perhaps as early as the sixth century B.C., worshipped a goddess known in Latin as Bona Dea, "the good goddess."

A. Based on accounts of various ancient writers,

B. Basing it on various ancient writers' accounts,

C. With accounts of various ancient writers used for a basis,

D. By the accounts of various ancient writers they used,

E. Using accounts of various ancient writers,


The Official Guide's OA: E
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by rohu27 » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:13 am
E seems to suggest that scientists are based on blah blah..
none of the answer choices look good to me. lets wait for others to pitch in.
i would have gone for A - worst case.

btw Ron has good video on the use of based on...incase anyone wants to get the concept clear.

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by bubbliiiiiiii » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:34 am
@giovanni.gastone

I too remembered exactly the same question when I encountered the word 'Based' in the question from 800score.com.

Anyways, coming back to question.

I chose E because I felt that sentence to be grammatically correct over the other options.

May be some expert or the video which Rohu is talking about could explain us some stuff.

@Rohu27: Can you share the link to video or the video itself?
Regards,

Pranay

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by atulmangal » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:50 am
Hey, @giovanni.gastone

In my opinion, none of the choice in THE QUESTION FROM 800SCORE.COM is correct. for Op E, "WHAT BASED ON a fossil bird...??"...the ans is the information "the birds feathers appear.." not the Chinese...hence Op E is wrong

Moreover, Op A is also, wrong...Misplaced Modifier

Regarding OG question, My technique of solving modifiers question is:

When Modifier start with -ED place "WHAT" before the modifier, and the ans (NOUN) should come first in the preceding clause.

When Modifier start with -ING place "WHO" before the modifier, and the ans (NOUN) should come first in the preceding clause.

That's why in OG question, in Op A, there is a misplaced modifier error, as if u ask question "WHAT BASED on...??" the ans should be sketchy picture not the scholars, while in Op E, "WHO USING...??"....scholars correct.

Thanks

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by aspirant2011 » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:25 am
I would have gone for E because modifier is properly being used..............

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by giovanni.gastone » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:43 am
@atulmangal and @rohu27, I agree with your assessment of 800Score.com's question, that E is wrong. Yup, I have also seen Ron's video. Having learned/remembered from Ron, MGMAT, the OG), I originally chose A too (800Score.com). Here is the official explanation from 800Score.com:

This question tests verb form and tense.

Answer (A) is not a bad option but the phrase 'Chinese scientists have shown,' appears in an awkward place in the sentence unnecessarily breaking it into three parts.

Answer (B) is a fragment. 'Having shown' should be corrected to 'have shown' to avoid this problem.

Choice (C) is wrong because it should be 'have shown' rather than 'showed.'

Answer (D) is incorrect because the Chinese scientists did not find the bird well over 100 million years ago.

Answer (E) uses the correct verb tenses and an uncomplicated structure, and is the correct choice.



@bubbliiiiiiii and @aspirant2011, let me know what you think. I knew E (800Score.com) looks like a good choice but how can Chinese scientists be "based on..."? I wanted to think that 800Score.com is wrong here, but I can't be sure. So, I'm curious what you guys think.

Gio

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by jaymw » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:34 am
I also believe that 800score is wrong here.

In every day English, choice E would do just fine. But hey, this is the GMAT, and sentences have to be not only grammatically but also logically correct here. And that scientists are based on anything is definitely NOT logical!

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by rohu27 » Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:46 am
bubbliiiiiiii wrote:@giovanni.gastone

I too remembered exactly the same question when I encountered the word 'Based' in the question from 800score.com.

Anyways, coming back to question.

I chose E because I felt that sentence to be grammatically correct over the other options.

May be some expert or the video which Rohu is talking about could explain us some stuff.

@Rohu27: Can you share the link to video or the video itself?
sorry pranay missed this.
sept 23 rd thursdays wth ron - u will get it thr.

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