this sentence doesn't require present continuous as the initial part of the sentence has got past tense "helped"................the action has already been completed earlier................

shoot4greatness wrote:59. The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

Can anyone explain why "world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival" is better than "world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month"?

I chose B because the "proclaiming" modified the subject and the verb of the previous clause. I understand "for a sacred truce" does make sense, but I just can't grasp how it is better than a -ing modifier.

(B) is wrong b/c the Olympic Games cannot proclaim a sacred truce, a person proclaims...

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the
pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred
truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the
festival's month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for
the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during
the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred

shoot4greatness wrote:59. The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

Can anyone explain why "world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival" is better than "world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month"?

I chose B because the "proclaiming" modified the subject and the verb of the previous clause. I understand "for a sacred truce" does make sense, but I just can't grasp how it is better than a -ing modifier.

The issues with this sentence:

1. When we make possessive of inanimate object, we should follow the following rule:

X of Y, when both X and Y are inanimate objects.

Example:

We say:

Karim's book..........
John's house...........
Boys' school..............

We don't say:

Table's legs.........
Books pages.........

Rather we say:

Legs of the table............
Pages of the book.............

SO, "festival's month" should be replaced by "month of festival".
-> This kills A and B.

2. COMMA + Verbing:

--COMMA + VERBING modifies the clause before COMMA, and a clause MUST have a subject and a verb. The VERBING retains the subject of the clause before COMMA.

Example:
The doctor helped the poor, giving advices and medicine.

-> The doctor gave the advice.

Now, think about the option B:

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month

--> it means that "the proclamation has been done by GAMES". Can the game announce? NO. It is the organizers of the game who can do this. So, B is changing the intended meaning of the sentence.

3. The pronoun MUST have clear antecedent:

Think about "they" in the option C. Does it have a clear reference? There are two plural nouns preceding "they".

4. by + verbing/NOUN form of verb:

"By + Verbing/NOUN form of the verb" retains the subject of the preceding clause.

Example:

They have rejected the proposal by saying NO.

--> They have done the task of saying NO.

The doctor helped the poor by free prescriptions.

--> Free prescription has been done by the doctor.

==> The same rule can be applied in case of E, and the option E means that the proclamation has been done by GAME. It changes the meaning of the sentence.

The remaining option D is the best option, which is free from errors.

Advanced:

For can be used as "because".

Because + clause is correct, and "for+clause" is also correct.

Example:

They could not come to office, for they were ill.

Thanks.

@GMAT_Perfect :

1. When we make possessive of inanimate object, we should follow the following rule:
X of Y, when both X and Y are inanimate objects.
Example: Karim's book..........
We don't say:
Table's legs.........
Books pages.........

Rather we say:

Legs of the table............
Pages of the book.............

SO, "festival's month" should be replaced by "month of festival".
-> This kills A and B.

DO you some more rules related to usage of apostrophy ? example from OG :

The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming ,a phenomenon that most scientists agree is
caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels, bla bla

GMATMadeEasy wrote:@GMAT_Perfect :

1. When we make possessive of inanimate object, we should follow the following rule:
X of Y, when both X and Y are inanimate objects.
Example: Karim's book..........
We don't say:
Table's legs.........
Books pages.........

Rather we say:

Legs of the table............
Pages of the book.............

SO, "festival's month" should be replaced by "month of festival".
-> This kills A and B.

DO you some more rules related to usage of apostrophy ? example from OG :

The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming ,a phenomenon that most scientists agree is
caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels, bla bla

Human beings' burning---is okay because "human being" refers to mankind. This is not inanimate object.

"NOUN + Apostrophe" is correct if the noun IS ANIMATE. I have found this rule from official guide and GMATPREP.

Thanks.