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<need expert help> SC

by voodoo_child » Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:13 pm
Stymieing the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing of eight war ships as "fireships," vessels filled with pitch, brimstone, gunpowder, and tar and sent downwind toward the closely-anchored Spanish fleet.

a) Stymieing the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing
b) The defeat of the Spanish Armada, which stymied the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing
c) The defeat of the Spanish Armada, which stymied the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also due to the sacrificing
d) Stymieing the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrifice
e) Stymieing the Armada's plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma's army off the coast of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was due not only to gale winds that favored the British but also to the sacrifice

OA - E


Question :

(I) I am confused about "Stymieing the Armada's plans to do X, the defeat of the Spanish Armada ...."

Here, since the introductory modifier is a participial modifier, don't we need an actor after the comma?

For instance, Stymieing at every turn, my brother waged a war with me. Here, my brother did "stymieing".

Am I correct?

(II) the official explanation says that "in C - The use of a "which" modifier (which must touch the thing that it modifies) implies that the Spanish Armada, not its defeat, stymied plans."

Why can't the "which" in C) refer to "the defeat of Spanish A" ? Can you please help me?

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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:36 am
i received a PM regarding this thread.
voodoo_child wrote:(I) I am confused about "Stymieing the Armada's plans to do X, the defeat of the Spanish Armada ...."

Here, since the introductory modifier is a participial modifier, don't we need an actor after the comma?
yes, but that "actor"/subject doesn't have to be a person; it just has to be whoever or whatever did the action described by the -ING construction.
here, then, the issue is this: WHO or WHAT stymied the armada's plans?
in the context of the sentence, the answer to that question is "the defeat of the armada". so that part is fine.

(II) the official explanation says that "in C - The use of a "which" modifier (which must touch the thing that it modifies) implies that the Spanish Armada, not its defeat, stymied plans."

Why can't the "which" in C) refer to "the defeat of Spanish A" ? Can you please help me?
you are correct; the "which" in that choice is fine. it is possible for "which" to refer to (noun + prep phrase).

the biggest problem i see in that choice is the use of "sacrificing" instead of the dedicated noun "sacrifice". see here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/parallelism- ... tml#377403
because the sentence requires a noun to represent the action of sacrificing -- and because that noun is in parallel to another noun -- we should use the dedicated noun "sacrifice", not the gerund "sacrificing".
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by ranjeet75 » Sun Dec 11, 2011 7:31 am
[quote]voodoo_child wrote:
(I) I am confused about "Stymieing the Armada's plans to do X, the defeat of the Spanish Armada ...."

Here, since the introductory modifier is a participial modifier, don't we need an actor after the comma?
yes, but that "actor"/subject doesn't have to be a person; it just has to be whoever or whatever did the action described by the -ING construction.
here, then, the issue is this: WHO or WHAT stymied the armada's plans?
in the context of the sentence, the answer to that question is "the defeat of the armada". so that part is fine. [/quote]

I could not understand how "the defeat" stymied the "Armada's plan" and therefore how the the modifier is correct in the sentence?

In C, the noun "sacrifice" would be better than the gerund. It's ok.

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by lunarpower » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:26 pm
ranjeet75 wrote:I could not understand how "the defeat" stymied the "Armada's plan" and therefore how the the modifier is correct in the sentence?
because it was defeated in this particular incident, the armada was not able to carry out the rest of its plan. therefore, the defeat stymied (= hampered, inhibited, prevented) the overall plan.
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