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Indian Ocean

by prachich1987 » Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:46 am
In 2004, resulting from the destruction caused by the largest tsunami of the modern era in the Indian Ocean, the entire world rallied in support of the devastated region and helped recovery efforts in the area.

A) resulting from the destruction caused by the largest tsunami of the modern era in the Indian Ocean
B) the destruction caused by the largest tsunami of the modern era in the Indian Ocean resulted and
C) because of the result of the destruction caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the largest of the modern era
D) as a result of the destruction caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the largest of the modern era
E) as a result of the destruction caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era

Source : kaplan
OA : E
I am confused between D & E.
In D, the largest of the modern era can incorrectly refer to the Indian Ocean
In E 1) Isn't WHICH redundant
2) WHICH can refer to the closest noun or noun close.Can which refer to "the tsunami in the Indian Ocean" here?
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by maihuna » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:01 am
you shoudn't confuse with E, in E which refers to immediately preceding noun Indian Ocean, but talks about Tsunami, so they are incorrect.

Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era
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by prachich1987 » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:08 am
maihuna wrote:you shoudn't confuse with E, in E which refers to immediately preceding noun Indian Ocean, but talks about Tsunami, so they are incorrect.

Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era
how can Indian ocean be tsunami??
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by gmat1011 » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:27 am
hi prachich... the use of "which" in e is not problematic... the which here does not refer to the word immediately before the comma...

here we have a noun idea in play. which is actually referring to the tsunami in the Indian Ocean as one composite idea...

check out the post by adamknewton... this concept was discussed recently: https://www.beatthegmat.com/tough-sc-via ... 73588.html
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by maihuna » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:13 am
prachich1987 wrote:
maihuna wrote:you shoudn't confuse with E, in E which refers to immediately preceding noun Indian Ocean, but talks about Tsunami, so they are incorrect.

Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era
how can Indian ocean be tsunami??
i think i was in hurry, thought E is not the OA. this is the problem associated with non std srcs. i think D is definetly incorrect as the expl looks like appositives, while they r not. so whatever justification given for E, I willn' tpay much heed. Yes it is true, that which necessarily shouldn't refer to immediate pronoun, as there are some exceptions allowed, but in such cases OG's do have substantial other clue to choose right option.

You may ask some Kaplan guy for their version of the story, why E is correct.
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by Jim@Grockit » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:09 am
Also note that E re-introduces the referent "tsunami" to make the referent of "which" clear.

You may have noticed that even in the OG, the correct answer is not always the most clear/concise way you could write something, just the most clear/concise of the choices available.
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by KapTeacherEli » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:49 pm
Jim@Grockit wrote:Also note that E re-introduces the referent "tsunami" to make the referent of "which" clear.

You may have noticed that even in the OG, the correct answer is not always the most clear/concise way you could write something, just the most clear/concise of the choices available.
Looks like you beat me to it :-)

Indeed, the rules about 'which' and other modifiers with the nouns the before comma are very important, but as in all things grammatical there are twists within catches wrapped in exceptions. Don't worry--the vast majority of problems, even the advanced ones, test common rules! But occasionally an uncommon rule will show up as well, so it's best to be ready for any eventuality.

The general rule is that a modifying phrase must always refers to the noun before (or after) the comma. This is really important in a case like this:

"I gave a hat to James, which didn't fit his head."

The GMAT would never consider this right; the modifier modifies 'James', not 'hat', so it's garbage.

However, the noun in the above rule doesn't literally have to be a single noun; it can also refer to a short phrase that functions in the sentence as a noun unit. So (D)'s "...tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the largest..." could have the descriptor 'the largest' describe the noun phrase 'the tsunami in the the Indian Ocean.' However, that modifier could describe the noun 'the Indian Ocean' by itself. The problem isn't that the modifier must describe the wrong thing as in the previous example, but rather that it's ambiguous whether it describes the right or wrong thing.

Thus, (E) is correct: since the modifier includes the clarification within it--obviously the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and not the Indian Ocean itself, is 'the largest tsunami'--the ambiguity that plagues the other answer choices is resolved.

Hope this helps!
Eli Meyer
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by prachich1987 » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:51 am
Thanks KapTeacherEli !

But my doubt is something differnt

Option E says

as a result of the destruction caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era

The rule says that WHICH can refer to preceding noun or noun phase
Now in E ,
noun---the Indian Ocean
noun phase--the tsunami in the Indian Ocean
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by hitesh888 » Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am
If you can successful justify the correct answer as E, then answers to many questions in OG might have to be changed :D

I feel E is INCORRECT !

KapTeacher - Can you show a single question in any of the OG (10,11,12) or OG-verbal-review books that uses such kind of 'which' usage ?
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by KapTeacherEli » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:38 am
prachich1987 wrote:Thanks KapTeacherEli !

But my doubt is something differnt

Option E says

as a result of the destruction caused by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which was the largest tsunami of the modern era

The rule says that WHICH can refer to preceding noun or noun phase
Now in E ,
noun---the Indian Ocean
noun phase--the tsunami in the Indian Ocean
Hi prachich,

You've got it right, Prachich. That ambiguity is between noun and noun-phrase preceding the modifier is a major source of error in this problem. However, (E) excplicitly makes clear that the modifier is not just 'the largest in the region' as in (D) but rather 'the largest tsunami in the region'; this excess verbiage serves the sole purpose of correcting this ambiguity!

Hitesh, I've checked the OG and I can't find any cases that rely on this exception to identify the correct answer--but I also couldn't find any that correctly applied this exception to an answer but still ruled that answer incorrect. Our grammar is solid; The GMAT definitely won't consider an answer such as (E) incorrect. However, due to the narrowly applied exception, it's possible they wouldn't include this construction in a correct answer, either, and would simply not include it on the test. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure. Although the GMAT test some concepts very frequently, and our question pools reflect those common issues, every now and again a individual rule pops up on the GMAT that we haven't seen before. Kaplan has one or two problem dealing with this particular setup as a precaution, but if it feels unnatural or confusing to you, don't sweat it! The odds are low you'll see a problem just like this one on the test.

Hope this helps!
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by pesfunk » Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:00 am
A small tip guys, whenever you see options re-introducing referents, pay a lot of attention to it.
It generally ends up being the correct answer as it clears some ambiguity. (
Jim@Grockit wrote:Also note that E re-introduces the referent "tsunami" to make the referent of "which" clear.

You may have noticed that even in the OG, the correct answer is not always the most clear/concise way you could write something, just the most clear/concise of the choices available.
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