adjective adjective noun vs adverb adjective noun

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topspin360: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 103; Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2012 9:46 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by topspin360 » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:34 pm

can someone please clarify? I really think "increasing impressive" is correct b/c both should be modifying "number" but OA says otherwise.

In the field of eugenics, geneticists have thoroughly scrutinized the human genome and its ability to shape certain traits to select and pre-determine an increasing impressive number of physiological characteristics in the unborn, each "ready to order" to parents' specifications.

A) increasing impressive number of physiological characteristics in the unborn, each

B) increasingly impressive number of physiological characteristics in those not yet born, and each one

C) increasing impressive number of physiological characteristics in those unborn who are

D) increasingly impressive number of physiological characteristics in the unborn, all of them

E) increasingly impressive number of physiological characteristics in the unborn

OA is E

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:34 pm

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by [email protected] » Wed Feb 12, 2014 11:05 pm

Hi topspin360,

This SC is based on Modification rules. Modifiers can (and will) appear in two ways on the Official GMAT:

1) Modifying words - words that almost always end in "-ly"

2) Modifying phrases - a string of words that is usually offset by a comma.

The overall rule with modifiers is that they are supposed to be placed next to the word that they're meant to modify.

In this SC, the adjective "impressive" describes the word "number" - "an impressive number of characteristics...."

The modifying word should be "increasingLY", which modifies impressive. Eliminate A and C.

The word "unborn" is preferable to "those not yet born"; wordiness is often considered poor "style." Eliminate B.

The phrase "all of them" is clunky and redundant (since we already have the noun "the unborn"). Eliminate D.

Final Answer: E

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Rich

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Feb 13, 2014 8:34 am

Its ability to pre-determine an INCREASING impressive number of characteristics.
Here, increasing serves as an ADJECTIVE modifying an impressive number.
Conveyed meaning: The IMPRESSIVE NUMBER of characteristics that can be pre-determined is INCREASING.
Not the intended meaning.
The number of characteristics that can be pre-determined is not changing.
Rather, it is our IMPRESSION of this number that is changing.

Its ability to pre-determine an INCREASINGLY impressive number of characteristics.
Here, increasingly serves as an ADVERB modifying impressive.
Conveyed meaning: As geneticists count how many characteristics can be pre-determined, the number is becoming INCREASINGLY impressive.
In other words, with each new discovery, geneticists get more and more IMPRESSED by the number of characteristics that can be pre-determined.
This is the intended meaning.

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conquistador: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 266; Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 4 times

by conquistador » Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:02 am

GMATGuruNY wrote:Its ability to pre-determine an INCREASING impressive number of characteristics.
Here, increasing serves as an ADJECTIVE modifying an impressive number.
Conveyed meaning: The IMPRESSIVE NUMBER of characteristics that can be pre-determined is INCREASING.
Not the intended meaning.
The number of characteristics that can be pre-determined is not changing.
Rather, it is our IMPRESSION of this number that is changing.

Its ability to pre-determine an INCREASINGLY impressive number of characteristics.
Here, increasingly serves as an ADVERB modifying impressive.
Conveyed meaning: As geneticists count how many characteristics can be pre-determined, the number is becoming INCREASINGLY impressive.
In other words, with each new discovery, geneticists get more and more IMPRESSED by the number of characteristics that can be pre-determined.
This is the intended meaning.

Thanks It got a bit clear now.
I eliminated the options to E at first going by the modifier in the end.
Later I got confused by the 3-2 split regarding increasing vs increasingly and selected A.

can someone give a detailed explanation pf why each option is correct/incorrect?
Also explain what "ready to order" to parents' specifications modifies or refers to?

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