Sentence Correction

Hello, in the following question

I know why (A) (C) (D) are wrong, but I don't kown why (B) is wrong.

As I understand it, "scholars base it on ..." is right?

Thank you very much.

==================================================================

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

this is very famous question i encountered no of time E is correct

using is correct word to use

When you have a modifying phrase at the beginning of a sentence, it must modify the thing that follows immediately. In this sentence, the opening phrase must modify "scholars". The only alternative that does that is E.

D further compounds the problem by using the unclear preposition "they". We cannot tell whether "they" refers to the scholars or to the ancient writers.

oO7Oo wrote:Hello, in the following question

I know why (A) (C) (D) are wrong, but I don't kown why (B) is wrong.

As I understand it, "scholars base it on ..." is right?

Thank you very much.

==================================================================

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

E is better than B because in B the pronoun it has no antecedent. In B, it refers to picture, but the pronoun (it) comes before the noun (picture). Generally, a pronoun should come after the noun that is being replaced.

B is wrong because of the ambiguous pronoun, it. It is in my understanding that the only time "it" can be used as placeholder is when it is followed by that-clause, or infinitive clause, otherwise "it" has to have an antecedent or "it" is ambiguous.

Also I believe "basing" is not the best choice of verbal to be used for this context either.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

oO7Oo wrote:Hello, in the following question

I know why (A) (C) (D) are wrong, but I don't kown why (B) is wrong.

As I understand it, "scholars base it on ..." is right?

Thank you very much.

==================================================================

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

E is better than B because in B the pronoun it has no antecedent. In B, it refers to picture, but the pronoun (it) comes before the noun (picture). Generally, a pronoun should come after the noun that is being replaced.

Hi ,
In sentence below a pronoun HIS comes before a noun... however its correct...So could you please tell the difference between the construction in option B and a sentence below.... Am I missing sth?

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas

(A) in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas
(B) in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas
(C) when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate
(D) when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas
(E) when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate

Onell, in your example

"His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas"

interchange the pronoun and the subject's name. The construction would become:

"Louis Agassiz's studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led him in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas" - which is grammatically correct.

For the original question in this thread, as per the official GMAT guide explanation, option B is Choice B is awkward and imprecise in that the referent for the pronoun it is not immediately clear. In other words, E is a clearer option, and thus better.

Onell wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote:

oO7Oo wrote:Hello, in the following question

I know why (A) (C) (D) are wrong, but I don't kown why (B) is wrong.

As I understand it, "scholars base it on ..." is right?

Thank you very much.

==================================================================

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

E is better than B because in B the pronoun it has no antecedent. In B, it refers to picture, but the pronoun (it) comes before the noun (picture). Generally, a pronoun should come after the noun that is being replaced.

Hi ,
In sentence below a pronoun HIS comes before a noun... however its correct...So could you please tell the difference between the construction in option B and a sentence below.... Am I missing sth?

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas

(A) in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas
(B) in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas
(C) when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate
(D) when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas
(E) when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate

Salman Ghaffar wrote:Onell, in your example

"His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas"

interchange the pronoun and the subject's name. The construction would become:

"Louis Agassiz's studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led him in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas" - which is grammatically correct.

For the original question in this thread, as per the official GMAT guide explanation, option B is Choice B is awkward and imprecise in that the referent for the pronoun it is not immediately clear. In other words, E is a clearer option, and thus better.

Careful! The pronoun and the noun cannot be switched as you are suggesting. An object pronoun (such as him) cannot be used to refer to a possessive construction (such as Louis Agassiz'), which is functioning not as a noun but as an adjective.

There are several reasons that answer choice B above (Basing it on accounts...) is not the correct answer:

-- There is another answer choice that avoids the ambiguity presented by the pronoun it.

-- The introductory modifying phrase (Basing it...) has not just one unknown but two: who or what was basing and which noun is being replaced by the pronoun it. The two unknowns make the modifying phrase harder to follow.

-- The pronoun it is an object pronoun; the pronoun his is a possessive pronoun, which, as an adjective, is less crucial to the meaning of the sentence.

The first reason listed is the most important:

If an answer choice contains an ambiguous pronoun, and another answer choice that is free of errors avoids this ambiguity, eliminate the answer choice with the ambiguous pronoun and choose the other answer choice.

Right.... makes sense.

Try this:

John's depression made him sad.

Is the above sentence incorrect? How would you fix it?

Salman Ghaffar wrote:Right.... makes sense.

Try this:

John's depression made him sad.

Is the above sentence incorrect? How would you fix it?

The sentence above is incorrect: an object pronoun (him) cannot be used to refer to a possessive construction (John's), which is functioning not as a noun but as an adjective. There are many possible ways to rewrite the sentence:

Depression made John sad.
John was made sad by his depression.
etc.

But you're asking yourself the wrong question. We should never try to "fix" an incorrect answer choice, because there are limitless ways that the GMAT writers might choose to phrase the correct answer, and we might never find what we think should be the correct phrasing. Instead, we should look for concrete -- primarily grammatical -- reasons to eliminate four answer choices. Once we have eliminated four answer choices, we should confirm that the remaining answer choice is free of errors. If the remaining answer choice is error-free, we should choose it and move onto the next question.

You are right. GMAT's quite a stickler for this.

So instead of saying "Mary's jealousy got the better of her",

one should say "Jealousy got the better of Mary"