Sentence Correction

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities
in India date from the time of the Kushan Empire,
fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of
Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
(A) Empire, fashioned either from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or
(B) Empire, fashioned from either the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or from
(C) Empire, either fashioned from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or
(D) Empire and either fashioned from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or from
(E) Empire and were fashioned either from the
spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

There are 2 things:
1 - the images date from the time of Kushan Empire
2 - they are fashioned from sandstone and schist

Here the parallel structure will be something like : "from X and from Y"

This will narrow our focus to option D & E
of which answer is E (date || were fashioned)

In the construction either X or Y, EITHER and OR are sometimes called SEESAW conjunctions.
The reason is that -- like two people on a seesaw -- X and Y must BALANCE EACH OTHER.

(A) either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Ganharan grey schist.
(B) either the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from Gandharan grey schist.
(C) either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
(D) either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from Gandharan grey schist.
(E) either FROM THE SPOTTED SANDSTONE OF MATHURA or FROM GANDHARAN GREY SCHIST.

Only E offers the required parallelism.

The correct answer is E.

Hi,

Can you please explain a nagging issue:

1) If there is a comma separating two clauses, don't the two clauses need some sort of coordinating conjunction such as "and or but" and don't the two clauses need to be independent?

2) I eliminated A and B because the second part of the clause because it's not independent. Was that wrong?

3) What is the general rule when we have a comma with a coordinating conjunction. Conversely, what is the general rule when we have a comma without a coordinating conjunction?

Thanks!

Hi,

Can you please explain a nagging issue:

1) If there is a comma separating two clauses, don't the two clauses need some sort of coordinating conjunction such as "and or but" and don't the two clauses need to be independent?

A comma always joins one independent and one dependent clause
Independent clause + Independent clause - use the semicolon
Independent clause + Dependent clause - use the comma
Dependent clause + Independent clause - use the comma


2) I eliminated A and B because the second part of the clause because it's not independent. Was that wrong?
A and B were wrong because of incorrect idiom usage

Russ9,

Just to clarify things:

The structure of the sentence:
A) A clause (independent) + ED-modifier
B) A clause (independent) + ED-modifier
C) A clause (independent) + ED-modifier
D) A clause [many of images date] + AND + ED-modifier [fashioned from] ---- completely wrong structure
E) A clause [many of images date and were fashioned]
"date" and "were fashioned" are parallel verbs

2) I eliminated A and B because the second part of the clause because it's not independent. Was that wrong?
A and B were wrong because of incorrect idiom usage

Incorrect idiom usage is one reason for elimination.
The second reason is ED-modifier that seems to modify the noun immediately preceding it: "the Kushan Empire".
On the GMAT COMMA + ED-modifiers tend to modify nouns/noun-phrases immediately preceding the structure.


In my understanding:
INDEPENDENT CLAUSE:
Coordinating conjunction (not mandatory; a clause without a coordinating conjunction is still an independent clause) + noun + verb
*coordinating conjunction: FANBOYS - for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

DEPENDENT CLAUSE:
Subordinating conjunction (mandatory) + noun + verb
* Subordinating conjunctions: there are a lot of them.
https://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/conjunctions.htm --- a nice article to read on this matter

psm12se wrote:Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities
in India date from the time of the Kushan Empire,
fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of
Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
(A) Empire, fashioned either from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or
(B) Empire, fashioned from either the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or from
(C) Empire, either fashioned from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or
(D) Empire and either fashioned from the spotted
sandstone of Mathura or from
(E) Empire and were fashioned either from the
spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

I went for the meaning in order to solve this.

The modifier fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist incorrectly modifies Kushan Empire in A, B and C
Option D lacks a verb.
E describes the meaning correctly and maintains parallelism.