OG 61

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OG 61

by aaggar7 » Wed May 08, 2013 6:53 pm
Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement, the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang,
China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete.

(A) the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's fi rst emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete

(B) Qin Shi Huang, China's fi rst emperor, was protected in his afterlife by an army of terracotta warriors that was created more than 2,000 years ago by 700,000 artisans who took more than 36 years to complete it

(C) it took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriors more than 2,000 years ago that would protect Qin Shi Huang, China's fi rst emperor, in his afterlife

(D) more than 2,000 years ago, 700,000 artisans worked more than 36 years to create an army of terra-cotta warriors to protect Qin Shi Huang,China's fi rst emperor, in his afterlife

(E) more than 36 years were needed to complete the army of terra-cotta warriors that 700,000 artisans created 2,000 years ago to protect Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, in his afterlife

The OA is A but the phrase "emperor, in his afterlife
is more than 2,000 years old" looks very awkward,Can anyone please clarify.Also please summarize the rules of using Commas.If you know any link please direct me to the link.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by rohanberi » Wed May 08, 2013 9:33 pm
This question checks for the parallelism.

Non-underlined part should be parallel to the underlined part(both phrases).
Non-underlined part states Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement. Now do a vertical check on all the options to look out for non-parallel options

(A) the army of terra-cotta warriors .... is rivalling with the pyramids. CORRECT OPTION.
(B) Qin Shi Huang .... is not rivalling the pyramids. WRONG OPTION.
(C) it took 700,000 .... is not rivalling the pyramids. WRONG OPTION.
(D) more than 2,000 .... is not rivalling the pyramids. WRONG OPTION.
(E) more than 36 years .... is not rivalling the pyramids. WRONG OPTION.

Hence, A is the OA.

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by EducationAisle » Thu May 09, 2013 2:15 am
Actually the phrase China's first emperor is just describing Qin Shi Huang (it is called appositive in English grammar). So, the core of the sentence is:

Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an achievement, the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete.

See, comma is gone : )
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