Sentence Correction

One of the usage of "that" is : that" is usually used in a way similar to the way "which" is used, but there's more of a tolerance for inserting intervening constructions, such as small clauses, between the noun and "that".

* a chemical has been discovered that will revolutionize the petroleum-processing industry.
* the chemists have discovered a way of processing crude oil into useful petroleum extracts that has the potential to revolutionize the industry.


Recently, I came across a sentence that violates the above rule :

(E) Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals in her home that featured the preparation of great quantities of ceremonial food, the wearing of many layers of colorful clothing adorned with silver, and the recounting of traditional tribal jokes and stories. --- This sentence is incorrect, because "that" is referring to home. Why can't that refer to festivals here. Aren't we allowed to have phrases in between ? [/u]

As far I know the Use of That and Which on GMAT is pretty specific, it should refer to the first preceding noun.

This is a case of modifiers .

Remember the rule that in case of noun modifiers the NOUN and its MODIFIER must touch each other.

Now Which , That , who , whose etc are called relative pronouns and are often used as noun modifiers .

Ex : The dog THAT you see is a German Shepard.

Now here the noun is DOG and this noun is modified by the relative pronoun THAT.

So it agrees to the rule .

Similarly in this sentence :

Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals in her home THAT featured the preparation of great quantities of ceremonial food, the wearing of many layers of colorful clothing adorned with silver, and the recounting of traditional tribal jokes and stories

The relative pronoun THAT is touching the noun HOME and not festivals and hence the explanation is correct as per the rule.

But there are exceptions to this rule , as you have rightly mentioned in the examples :

1.Some times a small phrase falls in between the noun and the modifier .

Ex: a chemical has been discovered that will revolutionize the petroleum-processing industry.

The italic phrase in between the noun (chemical) and modifier that just pushes the modifier a little bit , but the sentence still makes sense and THAT in this case is still modifying the noun CHEMICALS.


An alternative construction can be

Ex : A chemical THAT has been discovered will revolutionize the petroleum-processing industry.

Still the sentence makes sense and follows the touch rule.

2.Some times the noun and modifier is separated by an -Of prepositional phrase.

Ex: the chemists have discovered a way of processing crude oil into useful petroleum extracts THAT has the potential to revolutionize the industry.


Again the italic phrase separates the NOUN and its MODIFIER . But this phrase is essential in order to show or provide information about the noun WAY so we can not eliminate this phrase , but THAT here still modifies the noun WAY .

So to summarize mostly nouns follow the touch rule that is noun and its modifier touch each other. But some time the exceptions occur as mentioned above , in such a case we need to use common sense i guess to check if sentence makes sense or not. Rest assured no GMAT question will have just one error in answer options that will be the ultimate decider .

I hope I have answered your query .

Thanks rockeyb. It was damn good

pink_08 wrote:Thanks rockeyb. It was damn good

Thanks mate any time