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Indus Valley!!

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by gmat_perfect » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:01 am
The Achaemenid empire of Persia reached the Indus Valley in the fifth century B.C., bringing the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and southern Indian alphabets.

(A) the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and
(B) the Aramaic script with it, and from which deriving both the northern and the
(C) with it the Aramaic script, from which derive both the northern and the
(D) with it the Aramaic script, from which derives both northern and
(E) with it the Aramaic script, and deriving from it both the northern and

My explanation:

I have understood that it is subject verb inversion. So, the verb should be derive.

A and D can be easily eliminated.

How easily can the options B and E be eliminated

Thanks.
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by dream700 » Fri Jul 02, 2010 3:10 am
hi GP,

for me the big catch was as the statement is mentioning two particular alphabets, so it has to be "the northern and the southern Indian alphabets". that reduces my options straight away to B and C.

then derive is appropriate...so it has to be C

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by Patrick_GMATFix » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:58 pm
In B, "from which deriving northern and southern alphabets" is an attempt to describe (modify) Aramaic script. B is wrong in part because this modifier is not placed next to "script".

B and E are both incorrect because they link the last two parts of the sentence with 'and', suggesting that the intended meaning is to list ideas (conjunction 'and' is used to introduce the last term in a list). In fact there should be no list in this case; the last part of the sentence is a description (modification) of "Aramaic Script", not the 2nd item in a list of two things that the empire did.

The OA is C. A more detailed explanation is available at GMATPrep Question 2363.

Good Luck,
-Patrick
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