Visitors to the park have often looked up into the leafy canopy and saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang like socks on a clothesline.
(A) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang
(B) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs were hanging
(C) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging
(D) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging
(E) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs have hung
OA is D.
I have two doubts in this question:
1) According to the OE, "whose" modifies "branches". However, in other official questions I have seen that sometimes the clause modifier doesn't modify the closest noun. Actually, it can modify the main noun in a noun phrase as long as it makes sense and it is not ambiguous.
In this case, we have "monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose..."; "monkeys" is the main noun of that noun phrase and makes sense with "arms and legs hang like socks on a clothesline".
So, my question is: Is the split "whose....", a good reason to eliminate some choices?
2) What are the rules related to a prepositional phrase after a comma? In this question: "..., with arms and legs hanging". How could we know that the prepositional phrase refers to the monkeys and not the visitors. Because these modifiers modify the entire clause, usually modifies the subject (visitors).
Thanks!
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Monkeys in the park
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metallicafan
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Jim@StratusPrep
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A big thing you are missing here is that whose can only modify people, and the monkeys are the noun that is described in the modifier. This takes care of question 1.
2) Generally you use a comma before a long prepositional phrase, more than 4 or 5 words, and in this case it refers to the noun before it. The comma is in case is separating two prepositional phrases 'on the branches' and 'with ...' so that you do not think the branches had arms and legs...
2) Generally you use a comma before a long prepositional phrase, more than 4 or 5 words, and in this case it refers to the noun before it. The comma is in case is separating two prepositional phrases 'on the branches' and 'with ...' so that you do not think the branches had arms and legs...
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iongmat
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Hello Jim, not sure if this is a typo, but I believe that "whose" can modify "non-living" things as well (let alone animals/plants).Jim@StratusPrep wrote:A big thing you are missing here is that whose can only modify people
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GMATGuruNY
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The usage of whose is not restricted to people.
SC48 in the OG13: The new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic.
Here, whose refers to weapon.
SC48 in the OG13: The new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic.
Here, whose refers to weapon.
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