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

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

Stacey,

Can you please help with this ??

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

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

Is the OA for the second post A?

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

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!

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.