PREP: Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000

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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets excavated at the site of the old roman fort at vindolanda in northern England are yielding a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries that are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered
C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that



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by elias.latour.apex » Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:20 am
(D) is the best answer.

Perhaps while reading the answer choices we note that we have a choice between is and are. This should be the first question: Which is better?

We can then ask ourselves: What is so vivid in its details about personal life? The answer is: The historical account. Accordingly, all answers with are should be eliminated. This permits us to eliminate answer choices (A) and (B).

Answer choice (E) contains the unidiomatic expression "so vivid...as" rather than the correct "as vivid as", which is contained in (C) and (D). Accordingly, (E) can be eliminated.

What differences are there between answer choice (C) and (D)? We can see that (C) uses "their" as a possessive adjective whereas (D) uses "its." Which is correct? Since we are talking about one thing (the historical account), we should use not their but its.

Accordingly (D) is the best answer.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:57 am
You have a slight typo in where the underlined portion should be. Here is the actual text from GMATPrep:
Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets excavated at the site of the old roman fort at vindolanda in northern England are yielding a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries that are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii.

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered
C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that
If we strip away modifiers and get to the core sentence, we have:
... letters and documents... are yielding a historical account... that are so vivid... as they are from Pompeii.

Clearly "are" is the wrong verb. "That" is replacing "a historical account," so the verb must be singular. Eliminate A and B.

Likewise, "account" must take a singular pronoun for "its details," not "their details." Eliminate C.

The correct idiom is "X is as vivid as Y," not "X is so vivid as is Y." Eliminate E.

The correct answer is D.

More explanation about the modifiers here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/written-in- ... 88289.html
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education