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Gmatprep Q

by kuiper » Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:50 pm
Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands.

A. sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
B. sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
C. sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
D. sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
E. sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of

OA - D


I think I understand why D is correct. I had two other questions (for the lack of better examples). I'd appreciate anyone's thought on it

1. In 'A' - can we rule out the incorrect answer based on the fact in the clause - "1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it.." -- (comma) and dated ..... should have had a subject and verb to make that a clause.

2. 'Of The Great Antilles Islands" - Is that ever correct?
Clarification on the usage of 'of' and 'on'?
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:37 am
kuiper wrote:Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands.

A. sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
B. sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
C. sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
D. sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
E. sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of

OA - D


I think I understand why D is correct. I had two other questions (for the lack of better examples). I'd appreciate anyone's thought on it

1. In 'A' - can we rule out the incorrect answer based on the fact in the clause - "1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it.." -- (comma) and dated ..... should have had a subject and verb to make that a clause.

2. 'Of The Great Antilles Islands" - Is that ever correct?
Clarification on the usage of 'of' and 'on'?
The skeleton of the sentence:

Fossils, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands.

The blue part is the non-essential modifier.

Actually the sentence is as follows:

Fossils made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands.

-> It does not have clear reference.

The issues:

1. "And dated........." is not parallel with anything in the sentence.

COMMA + AND is correct in the following cases:

1.1. If " IC+ COMMA + AND + Clause" is used.
1.2. If COMMA + AND + Last item of a list of more than three items is used.

=> So, COMMA + AND in the option A is NOT correct.

2. NOUN + COMMA + Modifier + COMMA + Verb

--> The verb will follow the NOUN at the beginning of the sentence. We can ignore the non-essential modifier set of by commas (,....,).

Then the options B and D looks as follows:

B. Fossils has been dated .........
C. Fossils was dated.............

So, in both B and C there is a subject verb agreement problem.

3. COMMA + Which:

In the GMAT land, COMMA + WHICH is the accepted usage.

Option E has used "sloth which", which has violated the standard rule of GMAT.

Answer is D.
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by rishab1988 » Sun Nov 28, 2010 7:33 am
Answer should be D.

In A,B,C the pronoun it is ambiguous.It could refer to either arm or the sloth.In B who are they? [another pronoun woth no clear antecedent].

In C subject -Fossils and verb was do not agree

In E the relative pronoun which is incorrect.Which can only refer to inanimate objects.It cannot refer to living things.

Even if we assume that which refers to the arm [in this case inanimate],the sentence is still incorrect for the subject and the verb of the sentence make no sense.

The sentence literally says : Fossils made the sloth the earliest known mammal..

Can the fossils do any action? Atleast not on earth.

Also,dating of fossils at 34M years old made it earliest known mammal,not the fossils themselves.
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by rishab1988 » Sun Nov 28, 2010 7:43 am
No ,you can't do that in A,for the Subject is Fossils and the verbs found,and dated are parallel.

Although this rule is ambiguous but I have seen many sentences, in which both sentences are not independent clauses, GMAT does this:

X,and Y.

But this is correct ONLY when X and Y are parallel or Indp.Clauses.Otherwise,it is incorrect.

You can also use this for parallelism for 2 items : X and Y.

But you must ALWAYS use this format for 3 ore more parallel items in the list : X,Y,and Z.You can't omit the comma between Y and Z.

The rule of parallelism is followed.

In "of" vs "on" there is no idiom that allows you to choose one over the other.

Looking at your questions,I get an idea that you are forgetting that GMAT first tests grammar and then concision or awkwardness.

If you have no valid grammatical reason,while first parsing through the answer choices,to eliminate a particular an answer choice,and you are stuck between 2 answer choices,only then do you check for awkwardness,concision etc.

Meaning in a sentence is as important as grammar.A grammatically correct answer that changes the meaing of the original meaning or intent of the sentence is indeed an incorrect one.[GMAT tests for meaning usually in 700+ question]This is main reason why people get confused for why a grammatically correct answer was incorrect

This is a very important thing and almost everyone,who has broken the 700 barrier realizes this.
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