Plz help analyze these modifiers~

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

(A) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
(B) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
(C) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
(D) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
(E) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each had been

IMO:B

Yup I agree with GMAT Kiss on this...........

So... "with more than..." modifies "scale" ,"of up to..." modifies "structures",and "connected by..." modifies "rooms"?
Sorry, I want to know the rule of modifiers when I encounter a Q, like this one,that has a series of modifiers.In this case:"with(preposition)...,of(preposition)...,connected(V-ed/past participle)..."How to judge what they modify respectively?To the nearest noun or what?
Thanks in advance~

GmatKiss wrote:The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

(A) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
(B) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
(C) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
(D) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
(E) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each had been

IMO:B

to identify the modifiers you first have to understand the meaning of the sentence. Once you do that, the next thing is to find the Subject and the corresponding verb.

You are correct- the modifiers usually modify the nearest noun, but this is not a hard and fast rule. I dont have an example but I have read sentences where this rule does not holds true.

anyways - consider this example -

Roger looked at twenty-five sofas shopping on Saturday. -- this is a case of misplaced modifier.

this sentence is illogically saying that Sofas were shopping on Saturday .

The correct modifier should modify 'Roger'

The correct sentence is-
Shopping on Saturday, Roger looked at twenty-five sofas.

I remember One more example from a site i once used to clear my doubts-

The waiter brought the pancakes to the table drenched in blueberry syrup.

What's drenched according to the sentence? The waiter, the table, or the pancakes?; Actually, the pancakes were drenched:

The waiter brought the pancakes, drenched in blueberry syrup, to the table.

-- Here the information (in bold) betweent the commas is an additional information about the Pancakes being served by the waiter.


PS: You can also PM an expert for more information.

Final solution at one place:

Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong ones. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
(A) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
(B) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
(C) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
(D) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
(E) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each had been

In this construction, ‘scale of’ is the wrong idiom. ‘Scale of’ is correctly used in constructions such as: ‘on a scale of 0-10’. This eliminates C, D, and E.

In A, if we remove the nonessential part between the commas, we are left with:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

In A, we can’t use ‘were’ … ‘were’ without a connecting word (such as ‘and / or / but / that etc. depending upon the meaning’). In this sentence, the ‘structures’ were ‘connected’, so we surely need some connector (preferably ‘that’) between ‘structures’ and ‘were’. Or else, A becomes a run-on sentence. It tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. If you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. UGH!

Similarly, E is a run-on sentence.

In B, if we remove the nonessential part between the commas, we are left with:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, connected by a complex regional system of roads.

In the sentence above, the last part is a non-essential modifier. Perfect.

In C, D, and E, ‘scale of’ is the wrong idiom.
Also, in C, we can’t use the past perfect ('had been') as the events don’t have a time lag.