Incan Highway

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showbu: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 114; Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:33 pm

by showbu » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:03 pm

The greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending from northern Ecuador through Peru to Southern Chile.

A. Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending
B. Columbus was the Incan highway, over 2,500 miles in length, and extended
C. Columbus, the Incan highway, which was over 2,500 miles in length and extended
D. Columbus, the Incan highway, being over 2,500 miles in length, was extended
E. Columbus, the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles long, extending

OA: Spoiler Code E

Last edited by showbu on Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:03 pm

mjjking: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 353; Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:29 am; Location: Italy; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:720

by mjjking » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:32 pm

IMO E

OA?

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Bidisha800: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 344; Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: USA; Thanked: 6 times

Re: Incan Highway

by Bidisha800 » Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:51 pm

"The greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher"- appositive of Incan highway

the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles long, extending (participle modifying the noun Incan highway)is correct

(E)

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satish.nagdev: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 130; Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:35 am; Location: SGP; Thanked: 5 times

Re: Incan Highway

by satish.nagdev » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:15 am

showbu wrote:The greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending from northern Ecuador through Peru to Southern Chile.

A. Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending
B. Columbus was the Incan highway, over 2,500 miles in length, and extended
C. Columbus, the Incan highway, which was over 2,500 miles in length and extended
D. Columbus, the Incan highway, being over 2,500 miles in length, was extended
E. Columbus, the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles long, extending

OA: Spoiler Code E

most definitely E
A, B are saying Christopher Columbus was road
C - which is non essential pronoun here
D - wordy

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Tomn: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 23; Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:46 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by Tomn » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:34 am

E also just sounds the best when you say the sentence to yourself.

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Kajiabeat: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 41; Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:10 pm

by Kajiabeat » Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:03 am

Hi Ron,

in this context, whether "Ican Highway extends from....to...." and "Ican Highway was extended from ....to...." both are right? we pick E just because D has "being".

I mean, talking about highway, "extend" is more used in "passive voice" or "active voice" ?

Thank you!

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:57 am

Kajiabeat wrote:Hi Ron,

in this context, whether "Ican Highway extends from....to...." and "Ican Highway was extended from ....to...." both are right? we pick E just because D has "being".

I mean, talking about highway, "extend" is more used in "passive voice" or "active voice" ?

Thank you!

as in the case of any other choice between the active and passive voices, you must think about meaning. either of those two usages could be legitimate, but any particular sentence will probably provide enough context to narrow the choice down to just one of the two.

* if you are just describing the range or span of something, then you say that it extends (active voice) over whatever range or span. this usage doesn't take an object.
Interstate 95 extends from Maine to Florida.

* if the subject is a person who is actually extending something, or an event that contributes extra length to something, then PERSON/EVENT extends X -- an active construction with an object.
The Bulldogs' victory in today's game extends their winning streak to 16 games.
The professor decided to extend his office hours during the week before final exams.

* if you are just describing the thing that was extended, then you use the passive voice.
Highway 85 ended in Cupertino before it was extended through Saratoga and southern San Jose.

the sentence at hand is just discussing the extent of the highway -- it doesn't mention any specific projects or efforts by which the highway was extended beyond its original length -- so the active voice is the only usage that makes sense in this problem.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:44 am

Hi Ron ,
The last example that you gave

Highway 85 ended in Cupertino before it was extended through Saratoga and southern San Jose.

is similar to the sc in question .
In this example , the subjected is being extended through Saratoga and southern San Jose.
and the subject is Highway 85
The sc under consideration is also talking about a highway .
why isnt the same case applicable to the SC

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navami: Legendary Member; Posts: 540; Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:24 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 37 times

by navami » Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:32 am

IMO E..
Tough one !!

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ashutoshkumar7: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 21; Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:14 am; Location: Dallas, USA; Thanked: 2 times

by ashutoshkumar7 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:02 am

Can someone please explain why the option A is wrong.

It definitely is not wrong because it seems that Christopher Columbus was road . Or is it?

I can see that there is something wrong with sentence after the word "Which". I do not see any verb

But can someone please explain it?

Thanks,
Ashutosh

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:12 am

ashutoshkumar7 wrote:Can someone please explain why the option A is wrong.

It definitely is not wrong because it seems that Christopher Columbus was road . Or is it?

I can see that there is something wrong with sentence after the word "Which". I do not see any verb

But can someone please explain it?

which is a subordinating conjunction and used to introduce a clause . The which in option A doesnt precede a verb

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:06 pm

mundasingh123 wrote:Hi Ron ,
The last example that you gave
Highway 85 ended in Cupertino before it was extended through Saratoga and southern San Jose.
is similar to the sc in question .
In this example , the subjected is being extended through Saratoga and southern San Jose.
and the subject is Highway 85
The sc under consideration is also talking about a highway .
why isnt the same case applicable to the SC

this example isn't applicable because the meaning is completely different. (in fact, the point of this example was to contrast it with the example in the thread.)
in this example, the highway actually was extended, i.e., lengthened/expanded. that is not the meaning of the original sentence. try inserting "lengthened" or "expanded" into the original; it will make no sense.

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:07 pm

ashutoshkumar7 wrote:Can someone please explain why the option A is wrong.

It definitely is not wrong because it seems that Christopher Columbus was road . Or is it?

I can see that there is something wrong with sentence after the word "Which". I do not see any verb

But can someone please explain it?

the lack of a verb -- which you've correctly identified -- is the only error in that answer choice.

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crisro: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 56; Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:57 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:600

by crisro » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:31 pm

Can somebody explain why option C is wrong?
Thanks

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Tue Sep 04, 2012 6:22 am

crisro wrote:Can somebody explain why option C is wrong?
Thanks

(c) is not a sentence -- it doesn't have a main verb.
it consists only of "the incan highway", preceded and followed by modifiers.

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