Sentence Correction

In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect

having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect

Since this question lists a few items, you need to look more closely on the issue of PARALLELISM. Are the items listed grammatically and logically parallel?

It was the interiors that were overcrowded so a b and c are out.

D is out because you need 'that' after interior.

Keep an eye out for the little clues.

tough one..testing Parallelism ..and I came out with C..is this correct..OA PLS?

Jim@StratusPrep wrote:It was the interiors that were overcrowded so a b and c are out.

"whose interiors were overcrowded" means "interiors" only.

D is out because you need 'that' after interior.

Keep an eye out for the little clues.

"having inhumanly overcrowded interiors" and "having interiors inhumanly overcrowded"..are both different in meaning.

All A, B, C & D has parallelism issues, only E passes that.

Jim@StratusPrep wrote:It was the interiors that were overcrowded so a b and c are out.

D is out because you need 'that' after interior.

Keep an eye out for the little clues.

Can you explain how 'whose interiors were overcrowded' is different from 'having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded' with example ??

I would also choose E, because if we use a pronoun (whose ) in one clause, we have to use it in all clauses to maintain parallelism. " whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, whose (and not their) floors were often serving as beds, and whose (and not their) walls were often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

Good and tough question. I am between B and E but the use of "were serving" is perhaps not right in B.

What is the OA?

[quote="jaiswalamrita"]All A, B, C & D has parallelism issues, only E passes that.[/quote]

How B has parallelism issue? In B meaning of " their floors were often serving as beds" is problematic..

Please guide if I am wrong.

Hi imskpwr

I see problem in every sentence. However, if i have to choose one, it would be A.

What is the source of your question???

imskpwr wrote:In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect . After POE, i chose A, however, i see a major iseue in this as well. Why??

Since "whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded" is unrestrictive modifier, we can remove it and sentence should make sense after that. NOTE :- we will have to remove set of comma's along with it. And therefore since after removing, the sentence does not make sense saying APARTMENTS THEIR FLOORS. i Feel this is not a good GMAT question.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect PARALLELISM ISSUE.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect . PARALLELISM ISSUE.

having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect WRONG MODIFIER.

having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect. WRONG MODIFIER.

imskpwr wrote:In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect

having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect

Underline parts (3 parts) are extra informations about APARTMENTS ,and therefore they should act as modifiers - not independent clauses

PART 1: whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded,
PART 2: their floors often serving as beds, and
PART 3: their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

A - WHOSE WERE overcrowded (DEPENDENT CLAUSE), their floors often serving as beds (MODIFIER - ITS NOT INDENDENT CLUASE as there is NO VERB), and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect (MODIFIER - ITS NOT INDENDENT CLUASE as there is NO VERB)

B/C - PART 1 (ok), Part 2 (independent clause, Note WERE SERVING), and Part 3 (independent clause, Note WERE lacking or HAD in C); drop

D - parts are not parallel at all; 3rd pART IS AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE (note, WERE). Additionally, HAVING OVERCROWED implies that OVERCROWDING did not happen at the same time as the APARTMENTS WREE PHOTOGRAPHED.

E - parts are not parallel at all; PART 3 - "THEIR WALLS LACKED ..AND (their walls) WERE DILAPIDATED..." - first is a phrase and 2nd is a clause, making it non-parallel

IMO A

HI patanjali

Can you Please check my answer just above your post. and Also please confirm my doubt over A. I have mentioned my doubt in the post above.

Thanks in advance.

patanjali.purpose wrote:

imskpwr wrote:In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect

whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect

having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect

Underline parts (3 parts) are extra informations about APARTMENTS ,and therefore they should act as modifiers - not independent clauses

PART 1: whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded,
PART 2: their floors often serving as beds, and
PART 3: their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

A - WHOSE WERE overcrowded (DEPENDENT CLAUSE), their floors often serving as beds (MODIFIER - ITS NOT INDENDENT CLUASE as there is NO VERB), and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect (MODIFIER - ITS NOT INDENDENT CLUASE as there is NO VERB)

B/C - PART 1 (ok), Part 2 (independent clause, Note WERE SERVING), and Part 3 (independent clause, Note WERE lacking or HAD in C); drop

D - parts are not parallel at all; 3rd pART IS AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE (note, WERE). Additionally, HAVING OVERCROWED implies that OVERCROWDING did not happen at the same time as the APARTMENTS WREE PHOTOGRAPHED.

E - parts are not parallel at all; PART 3 - "THEIR WALLS LACKED ..AND (their walls) WERE DILAPIDATED..." - first is a phrase and 2nd is a clause, making it non-parallel

IMO A

imskpwr wrote:In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

Since "whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded" is unrestrictive modifier, we can remove it and sentence should make sense after that. NOTE :- we will have to remove set of comma's along with it. And therefore since after removing, the sentence does not make sense saying APARTMENTS THEIR FLOORS. i Feel this is not a good GMAT question. [/color]

I agree that "whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded" is a MODIFIER (unrestictive). But note that not only "whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded", but also "their floors often serving as beds" and "their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect" are modifiers all. They are modifiers.

What is modifier: A word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or adverb to limit or qualify the meaning of another word or word group

Lets see:

"whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded" - Presence of WHOSE makes it Unresctivive modifier with INTERIOR as Subject and WERE OVERCROWED as verb;

"their floors often serving as beds" - THEIR FLOORS (subject) but no verb; So we have a phrase; Phrase can act as a modifier

"their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect" - THEIR WALLS (subject) but no verb; So we have a phrase; Phrase can act as a modifier


All these three modifiers are modifying APARTMENTS;

If we remove the first modifier, then sentence will look like:

..the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph immigrant tenants' apartments, their floors often serving as beds...

To simplify: "apartments, their floors often serving as beds" = APARTMENTS' FLOORS SERVING AS BEDS. It makes perfect sense.

Same we can do for third modifier: "apartments,their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect = APARTMENTS' WALLS windowless and dilapidated with age".

Hope you are able to see the logical connection.

Question Statistics:
38% CHOOSE: whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect
42% CHOOSE: whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect
4% CHOOSE: whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect
8% CHOOSE: having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect
8% CHOOSE: having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect

Sample size = 4,707

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

Though this sentence is long and not necessarily in your favorite style, there is nothing grammatically wrong with it.

Stripped way down, the last part of this sentence would read: "The interiors were overcrowded, their floors serving as beds, and their walls windowless." The last two clauses are descriptive clauses, parallel to each other but not to the first phrase.

It may seem odd, but here the word "serving" in the phrase "their floors often serving as beds" actually functions as an adjective. This is fairly common, however. For example, in the sentence "She ran for the bus, shouting, and finally caught it" the verbs "ran" and "caught" are parallel, while the word "shouting" functions as an adjective, describing what she was like while "she ran for the bus."

In the case of this sentence, "their floors often serving as beds" describes the extent to which the "interiors were inhumanely overcrowded." Similarly, the phrase "their walls often windowless and dilapidated..." is a descriptive phrase. It helps explain exactly how "inhumanely overcrowded" the apartments were.

Since there is nothing actually wrong with this sentence, we'll just check each choice to see if any of them is better stylistically.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

There is a clear and useful 3-2 split here. Choices (A), (B) and (C) all begin "whose interiors were" and choices (D) and (E) both begin with "having interiors."

Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

Choices (D) and (E) both begin with the word "having," which is incorrect, because if we write simply "having" it isn't clear who or what has these interiors. Is it the apartments, the immigrants, or Jacob Riis? Such ambiguity is unacceptable, which is enough reason to rule out these two choices. Further, (D) changes "dilapidated with age" to "dilapidated due to age," and (E) changes it to "dilapidated on account of age." Neither of these changes is preferable to the original "with." In fact, the phrase "on account of" is usually wrong on the GMAT. So, both choices (D) and (E) are incorrect.

Choice (B) makes several small changes from choice (A). First, it changes "floors often serving" to "floors were often serving." This small change has big implications. Without the word "were," the phrase "their floors often serving as beds" was a descriptive aside. With "were," this is an independent clause (it could stand on its own) so it would at the very least have to be parallel with the first clause. However, it isn't parallel; to be parallel, it would have to read, "whose floors served as beds." Choice (B) also inserts the word "were" in the last clause, which creates exactly the same problem there. Finally, it unnecessarily changes the phrase "dilapidated with" to "dilapidated due to." "With" is fine, so there's no reason to make the phrase any longer. Because of these problems, choice (B) is wrong.

Since each of the other choices introduces new errors, the sentence is correct as written and Answer Choice (A) is correct.

Remember, you shouldn't automatically assume that all "-ing" verbs are wrong. It's true that they are not stylistically preferred, but there are certain circumstances in which they are correct. This sentence illustrates one particular way in which the testmaker can and does use "-ing" verbs - as a present participle that sets off a descriptive clause. Also, in long sentences with many commas, take the time to make sure you know what is supposed to be parallel to what.