Sentence Correction

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates




















OA is D

why is C wrong? The OE says There is no antecedent for it because touch is a verb.

But in C, I think we can treat 'it' as the pronoun of the Virtual Leonardo Project.

the Virtual Leonardo Project, ........., encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, and it will activate

It does make sense too and according to the principal of parallelism, 'it' would refer to its main subject(the Virtual Leonardo Project) unambiguously.

Can anyone help me explain it?

rx_11 wrote:why is C wrong? The OE says There is no antecedent for it because touch is a verb.

But in C, I think we can treat 'it' as the pronoun of the Virtual Leonardo Project.

the Virtual Leonardo Project, ........., encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, and it will activate

It does make sense too and according to the principal of parallelism, 'it' would refer to its main subject(the Virtual Leonardo Project) unambiguously.

Can anyone help me explain it?

Ok, but will the Virtual Leonardo Project activate the animated functions or does the touch activate those functions?

Second issue with C (not consistently followed by GMAT, but nevertheless true) is that since and is a coordinating conjunction joining two Independent clauses, D seems to suggest that "Virtual Leonardo Project" will do two things:

1. Encourage visitors to touch each exhibit
2. Activate animated functions of the piece

Again, the cause and effect between 1 and 2 above (the touch activating the animated functions) is not coming out well.

C has two problems.

1.it has no referent. - Even if we consider the Virtual Leonardo Project the referent of it, it would illogically suggest that the Project rather than touching activates the animated functions.

2. presence of will in the latter part of the sentence creates a verb mismatch leading to parallelism error.
...encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, and it will activate

niksworth wrote:C has two problems.

1.it has no referent. - Even if we consider the Virtual Leonardo Project the referent of it, it would illogically suggest that the Project rather than touching activates the animated functions.

2. presence of will in the latter part of the sentence creates a verb mismatch leading to parallelism error.
...encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, and it will activate

Hi niksworth !

Thank you for your reply and I now understand that IT is ambiguous. But I got another problem with your 2nd issue. Is the following structure correct or false?X does .... and X will .....

I mean should we always keep the tenses in the two clause linked by AND the same??? I think it is not sure because what if the second clause wants to express an opinion about the future???Or even the past??? I think "The technology encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit and will activate the animated functions of the piece" also makes sense too.



Moreover, The correct answer:"The project encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit and thereby (to)activate the animated functions of the piece." I think it is ridiculous to say the project ENCOURAGE the visitor to activate the animated functions of the piece. I think it is the project that activate the animated functions of the piece... Am I right?

rx_11 wrote: Hi niksworth !

Thank you for your reply and I now understand that IT is ambiguous. But I got another problem with your 2nd issue. Is the following structure correct or false?X does .... and X will .....

I mean should we always keep the tenses in the two clause linked by AND the same??? I think it is not sure because what if the second clause wants to express an opinion about the future???Or even the past??? I think "The technology encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit and will activate the animated functions of the piece" also makes sense too.

Well, whether the tenses in the two clauses are same or different is dictated by the logic of the sentence.

I think we need to understand the logic clearly to arrive at a decision. This sentence is trying to say that -
1. There is something called the Virtual Leonardo Project,.
2. This project is an online version of a museum.
3. This project encourages the online visitors to "touch" (so to say) each exhibit.
4. This "touching" activates animated functions.

If A happens, B happens. And these happen all the time. It is not that A happens all the time while B will happen sometime in the future. That is why use of will is incorrect.

If you are still not clear, consider these examples -
1. I walk briskly, and thus get tired quickly. - Correct
2. I walk briskly, and thus will get tired quickly - Incorrect.

I hope I am making some sense.

rx_11 wrote: Moreover, The correct answer:"The project encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit and thereby (to)activate the animated functions of the piece." I think it is ridiculous to say the project ENCOURAGE the visitor to activate the animated functions of the piece. I think it is the project that activate the animated functions of the piece... Am I right?

Again, I think you did not get the logic clearly. Read my breakdown of the sentence above to understand what it is actually trying to say.