Lepenski Vir boulders

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LulaBrazilia: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 116; Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:50 amFollowed by: 1 member

by LulaBrazilia » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:24 pm

Sculpted boulders found at Lepenski Vir, an example of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, includes 15 figures with human features similar to Upper Paleolithic forms and to Middle Eastern Nantufian stone figurines.

(A) Vir, an example of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, includes

(B) Vir, examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, include

(C) Vir, earliest of monumental art known from central and western Europe, include

(D) Vir are examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe and includes

(E) Vir are examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, including

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:24 pm

Patrick_GMATFix: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1052; Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 1:30 amFollowed by: 98 members; Thanked: 335 times

by Patrick_GMATFix » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:42 pm

Subject-Verb agreement ("Boulders...include") is tested. In addition, logical modification is tested (B describes boulders as "examples of art", but C describes them as "earliest of art"). The full solution below is taken from the GMATFix App.

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by [email protected] » Wed Feb 12, 2014 11:40 pm

Hi LulaBrazilia,

The GMAT has a series of grammar rules that are consistently tested, so knowing how those rules will "appear" can help you to realize which rules are tested in each SC. Based on the answer choices that follow this prompt, it certainly appears that Modification rules will be tested (the use of commas is a big clue/part of both Modification and Parallelism rules).

The first part of the sentence references "Sculpted boulders," which is a plural noun, so we'll need to match that with plural terms. Eliminate A (singular) and C (vague, could be singular or plural).

Since the GMAT usually tests Modification "phrases" by offsetting the phrase with commas, answer B appears to fit that "format." We can confirm that answer by ignoring the middle phrase and making sure that the rest of the sentence matches: "Sculpted boulders found at Lepenski Vir.....include 15 figures...." Since both the missing phrase and the following phrase match the opening phrase, we have the correct answer.

Final Answer: B

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Rich

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kaudes11114: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 34; Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:06 am

by kaudes11114 » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:02 am

hi

Why 'including' does not refers to 'Sculpted boulders' in E?

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Patrick_GMATFix: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1052; Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 1:30 amFollowed by: 98 members; Thanked: 335 times

by Patrick_GMATFix » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:40 am

Modifiers that begin with -ing after a comma typically describe the entire clause before the comma. They usually...
(1) explain how the main clause action happened: "John became the best, surpassing all others."
(2) explain the effect of the main clause action: "We found a new moon, bringing to two the number of known moons"
(3) give more info about the main clause action: "The composer can write many types of music, including classical and jazz music"

Now it's true that sometimes, these modifiers will modify a specific noun in the main clause but in that case, the -ing should be placed close to the noun to make the sentence easier to understand (see (3) above). Answer E uses the structure below:

E) Boulders found at LP are examples of the earliest monumental art known from central and western Europe, including 15 figures...

"including" could refer to boulders but they are so far apart that the reference is flimsy. If we wish to refer to just "boulders" with "including", we should restructure the sentence to bring the two closer. Something like...

Boulders found at LP, including 15 figures, are examples of X

Check out my site: GMATFix.com

To prep my students I use this tool >> (screenshots, video)

Ask me about tutoring.

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