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by sana.noor » Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:25 am
According to medieval monks, the remains of king Arthur and queen Guinevere were found at Glastonbury Abbey in A.D. 1191, and the Arthur's coffin marked with the inscription (in Latin): "Here lies the Arthur, The Once and Future King.

A) and the Arthur's coffin marked with the inscription
B) Arthur's coffin marked with the inscription
C) and the inscription was marked on Arthur's coffin
D) the inscription that was marked on the coffin of Arthur
E) the coffin of Arthur had the inscription marked

OA is B
Last edited by sana.noor on Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by gmat4fun » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:04 am
This question tests the usage of colon. Since there is a colon in non-underlined portion, the segment post colon should be a list or explanation of what is pre-colon.

This means that the underlined portion must end with inscription as text of inscription is provided post-colon.

This brings us down to A and B.

A contains "and". One usage of and is to join two independent clause. In A, "the Arthur's coffin marked with the inscription" is not a complete sentence (independent clause).

In B, "Arthur's coffin marked with the inscription" gives the additional information about the findings and is properly separated by comma.

B is the winner here.

Please let me know if this clears your doubt.

Cheers!
Last edited by gmat4fun on Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by sana.noor » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:23 am
Its clear now..:) seems u r new to this site...Welcome to BTG
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by Tommy Wallach » Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:50 pm
Hey Guys,

I don't see the modifier in (B) being okay, sorry to say. Consider this example:

I found my umbrella yesterday, its handle made of bone.

I don't see that being okay.

Is this a real question? What is the source?

-t
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by sana.noor » Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:16 pm
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by The Iceman » Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:16 pm
Tommy Wallach wrote:Hey Guys,

I don't see the modifier in (B) being okay, sorry to say. Consider this example:

I found my umbrella yesterday, its handle made of bone.

I don't see that being okay.

Is this a real question? What is the source?

-t
Tommy, this kind of modifier is known as an "absolute modifier" and is indeed tested on the official GMAT problems.

The umbrella example that you presented is perfectly fine and is also an example of an absolute phrase.

Absolute phrases generally contain noun/pronoun + participle + any related modifier and modify the entire sentence, adding information

Consider few additional examples:
He came out of the wrestling match, his body paining badly.
The season nearly finished, Ram and Shyam emerged as top contenders.
Legs shivering, we stayed for hours in the cold swimming pool.

This type of modifier is often confused with an appositive, which is a renaming of an existing noun and can be completely substituted for that noun. The resulting sentence would still make sense.

For example, using your umbrella example we cannot construct the following sentence:

I found my 'its handle made of bone' yesterday. It does not makes sense and hence this modifier cannot be an appositive.
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by Tommy Wallach » Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:06 pm
Hey IceMan,

Thanks for the note. Indeed, I'm aware of absolute modifiers, but I didn't like this question because usually the added detail isn't quite so random. It tends to be a focusing detail. Of course, if this is an official GMAT question, then they're allowing it. Luckily for us, (B) is the best answer choice for plenty of reasons, so it makes very little difference.

Oh, and be careful in your third example: "paining" isn't a word in English.

-t
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by The Iceman » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:15 pm
Tommy Wallach wrote:Hey IceMan,

Thanks for the note. Indeed, I'm aware of absolute modifiers, but I didn't like this question because usually the added detail isn't quite so random. It tends to be a focusing detail. Of course, if this is an official GMAT question, then they're allowing it. Luckily for us, (B) is the best answer choice for plenty of reasons, so it makes very little difference.

Oh, and be careful in your third example: "paining" isn't a word in English.

-t
Indeed Tommy. Hurting is a suitable choice there. :)
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