written in the same year as The Adventures of Tarzan were published

therealtomrose wrote:

written in the same year as The Adventures of Tarzan were published

This phrase is a noun modifier. The rule is the following: Noun modifiers must be immediately adjacent to the noun they are modifying. In this case, the author intends for the modifier to tell us information about "a thesis". Since it is not immediately adjacent to "a thesis" in answer choices A, B, and C, those choices are incorrect.

I don't like D or E, personally. They both have an ambiguous S/V relationship that would likely shut them down as a meaning error. Where did you ge this question?

T

lunarpower wrote:

mundasingh123 wrote:Ron , Can you explain why

written in the same year

inspite of being seperated from Spencer by just a comma doesnt modify Spencer but modifies Thesis
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc1 ... t1645.html

when it comes to modifiers that modify nouns, you should assume, in general, that such modifiers can also modify NOUN + PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE constructions.
this is true even for the modifiers whose use is most restricted, such as "which" (see OG12 #26 for a problem whose correct answer has "which" modifying a noun + prep phrase).

the only way in which this could be risky is if it creates potential ambiguity -- i.e., if the sentence makes sense both ways. in that case, you may want to shoot for an alternate wording that has one clear meaning. (note that no such ambiguity exists in OG12 #26; it's absurd meaning-wise as well as grammatically impossible for "which" to modify susan dickinson in that example.)

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in this case, "thesis by M.S." is a noun + prep phrase, so it's a legitimate referent for the modifier. moreover, there's no ambiguity, as "written" clearly cannot refer to a person. so you're good.