Hi Stacey,
I have typed in the questions - I fail to understand the difference from a modifier point of view.
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey's contribution
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey
Mary Leakey SC
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schumi_gmat
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Stacey,schumi_gmat wrote:Hi Stacey,
I have typed in the questions - I fail to understand the difference from a modifier point of view.
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey's contribution
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey
Can you please help with this ??
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tanviet
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in the first sentence
D is correct because "noun and noun" is better than" noun and gerund as noun"
in the second sentence
E is correct because " gerund as noun and noun " is better than "noun and verb"
but I am not sure
Stancey, pls help us
D is correct because "noun and noun" is better than" noun and gerund as noun"
in the second sentence
E is correct because " gerund as noun and noun " is better than "noun and verb"
but I am not sure
Stancey, pls help us
Is the OA for the second post A?schumi_gmat wrote:Hi Stacey,
I have typed in the questions - I fail to understand the difference from a modifier point of view.
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey's contribution
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of the hominid activity and painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings
In the correct answer, the modifier is modifying Mary leakey
The GMAT is indeed adaptable. Whenever I answer RC, it proficiently 'adapts' itself to mark my 'right' answer 'wrong'.
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I received a PM asking me to discuss the two different (but very similar!) Mary Leakey questions. I'd be happy to, but someone first has to type out the two problems. They are currently listed here as screen shots, and screen shots are not visible in the "prior post" list that is shown when we post replies. I can only see the questions while replying if someone copies / types them directly into a post. (And, just a gentle reminder, we're only supposed to use screen shots when the problem contains a graphic that cannot be shown in plain text.)
Let me know when the problems are typed out and I'll come back to discuss!
Let me know when the problems are typed out and I'll come back to discuss!
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!
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These are two different questions from GMATPREP. IMHO, the meaning of the sentences is identical. However, according to OA, in correct version of sentence (1) the modifier should refer to Mary Leakey's contribution, while in the correct version of sentence (2) it should refer to Mary Leakey herself. Therefore, correct answers indicate that the reference to possessive noun in sentence (1) vs that to subject noun in sentence (2) is not the key issue here. I guess that questions test the use of correct parallel construction of “her discovery …her documentation” in sentence (1) and the same construction in sentence (2), combined with correct idiomatic expression “contributed through” rather than reference of modifier phrase.
Stacey, can you explain the differences in OA?
(1) In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
A. Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
B. Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
C. Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
E. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
OA: D
(2) In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
OA: A
Stacey, can you explain the differences in OA?
(1) In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
A. Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
B. Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
C. Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
E. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
OA: D
(2) In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
OA: A
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I will try to take a stab at each of the sentences.
Since I tend to underline and color the sentences, I have attached a word document with the explanation. I hope I am headed on the right path!
Since I tend to underline and color the sentences, I have attached a word document with the explanation. I hope I am headed on the right path!
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- Response to BeatTheGmat.docx
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The overall lesson here: you can write a sentence correctly in many different ways. The right answer is merely the best of the 5 choices given. Notice that the OA in each one does not appear as a wrong answer in the other problem.
Let's break this down a bit - it's too long and complicated.
Original sentence:
In addition to X, ML contributed to archaeology with Y and Z.
Y (her discovery...) and Z (painstakingly documenting...), at the least, have to be parallel. We'll leave X for later. Y and Z are not parallel in the original sentence, so A is wrong. Scan the others for this same issue. B inserts the preposition "by" but still not parallel - eliminate. E changes Y to "discovering" and Z to "documentation." Not parallel. Eliminate.
C is passive, which is not preferred but not an absolute error. C also says "Leakey was a contributer with her discovery... and with her documentation." Idiom problem - don't use preposition "with" here. She was a contributer based upon Y and Z, or through Y and Z, but not with Y and with Z.
That leaves D. Subject changes to "Leakey's contributions" - is that okay? Yes, in this case, it is. We can interpret the sentence to mean that she made 3 contributions: X (before), Y and Z. Are all three parallel? Yes: her work, her discovery, and her documentation. Done.
On to the 2nd version of the problem. The opener (non-underlined part) is the same, but the rest of it is different (in the original sentence).
In addition to X, ML contributed to archaeology through Y and through Z.
"through" is okay here - we can contribute to something through something else. She contributed three things: X, Y, and Z. Are they parallel? Yep. Things look good so far. Let's look at the other choices.
B. Y (discovery) and Z (documenting) aren't parallel. Same thing in C (Y: discovering, Z: documentation). D also isn't parallel (same as B). E also isn't parallel (same as C).
So really - these are both testing parallelism. The opening modifier thing (ML or ML's contribution) is just a red herring - trying to get us to concentrate on something that doesn't matter. And we're allowed to use the possessive pronoun "her" in the first version of this, because "Mary Leakey's" is also possessive! We just think it sounds weird - but it's fine grammatically.
Let's break this down a bit - it's too long and complicated.
Original sentence:
In addition to X, ML contributed to archaeology with Y and Z.
Y (her discovery...) and Z (painstakingly documenting...), at the least, have to be parallel. We'll leave X for later. Y and Z are not parallel in the original sentence, so A is wrong. Scan the others for this same issue. B inserts the preposition "by" but still not parallel - eliminate. E changes Y to "discovering" and Z to "documentation." Not parallel. Eliminate.
C is passive, which is not preferred but not an absolute error. C also says "Leakey was a contributer with her discovery... and with her documentation." Idiom problem - don't use preposition "with" here. She was a contributer based upon Y and Z, or through Y and Z, but not with Y and with Z.
That leaves D. Subject changes to "Leakey's contributions" - is that okay? Yes, in this case, it is. We can interpret the sentence to mean that she made 3 contributions: X (before), Y and Z. Are all three parallel? Yes: her work, her discovery, and her documentation. Done.
On to the 2nd version of the problem. The opener (non-underlined part) is the same, but the rest of it is different (in the original sentence).
In addition to X, ML contributed to archaeology through Y and through Z.
"through" is okay here - we can contribute to something through something else. She contributed three things: X, Y, and Z. Are they parallel? Yep. Things look good so far. Let's look at the other choices.
B. Y (discovery) and Z (documenting) aren't parallel. Same thing in C (Y: discovering, Z: documentation). D also isn't parallel (same as B). E also isn't parallel (same as C).
So really - these are both testing parallelism. The opening modifier thing (ML or ML's contribution) is just a red herring - trying to get us to concentrate on something that doesn't matter. And we're allowed to use the possessive pronoun "her" in the first version of this, because "Mary Leakey's" is also possessive! We just think it sounds weird - but it's fine grammatically.
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Final solution at one place:
Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong one. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
(D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
(E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
A, B: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
C: uses the wrong idiom 'was a contributor with' ... completely wrong.
D is correct.
Another version of the same question:
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
B, D: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
C, E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
A is correct.
Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong one. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
(D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
(E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
A, B: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
C: uses the wrong idiom 'was a contributor with' ... completely wrong.
D is correct.
Another version of the same question:
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of
B, D: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
C, E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
A is correct.
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