StuartM wrote:Thanks for the preposition tip, Mitch.
I have a question about what is being modified...
To me, E sounds like 'declining values for farm equipment and land' are the collateral, but isn't that nonsensical, as how can declining values be used as collateral?
Hence why I went for D, as i thought the 'which' restricts the phrase to the preceding nouns 'farm and land'.
Where am I going wrong?
Both D and E include
which. In each answer choice,
which refers to
farm equipment and land, the closest preceding nouns. There is no grammatical or semantic reason to think that
which would refer to
declining values.
But Mitch , isn't the meaning conveyed by E nonsensical ?
E seems to say say that the equipment and land are the collateral . This seems to mean that the primary role played by equipment and land is that of a collateral. Equipment and land are something that a farmer uses to cultivate crops.
However they could be used by farmers as collateral in case they need to borrow money.
D says that equipment and land could be used as a collateral.
E does not say or imply that the PRIMARY purpose of the
farm equipment and land is to serve as collateral.
You also said that the preposition needs to be close to the noun that it modifies
But this does not apply in the following sentence
On the couch,the cat took a nap.
The opening phrase modifies the cat
The preposition is placed away from the noun ie:the cat
Let me clarify. Here is the issue in D:
The object of a preposition should directly follow the preposition.
Wrong: This is the
couch that the cat took a nap
on. (The preposition
on is not followed by its object,
the couch).
Correct: The cat took a nap
on this couch. (The preposition
on is followed directly by its object,
the couch).
In D, the preposition
against is not followed by its object,
which. Thus, we should eliminate D and choose E.
Last edited by
GMATGuruNY on Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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