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Russian Composers Thread 2

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by mundasingh123 » Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:44 pm
Hi could an expert please explain this Sc

The nineteenth-century Russian composers known as "The Five" were united by their holding an ideal of a national music based on folk melodies and themes.

(A) were united by their holding
(B) had as their uniting ideal
(C) united each other with
(D) united based on
(E) were united with

In D based is a past participle. I read that past participles are noun modifiers . Since noun modifiers need to be placed as close as possible to the noun that they modify , i dont find this rule followed in this SC .
based is close to united and united seems to be a part of " were united " phrase .
This SC is from the kaplan verbal workout . What i found surprising is that there is no helping verb were in (D)
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by mehrasa » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:09 am
mundasingh123 wrote:Hi could an expert please explain this Sc

The nineteenth-century Russian composers known as "The Five" were united by their holding an ideal of a national music based on folk melodies and themes.

(A) were united by their holding
(B) had as their uniting ideal
(C) united each other with
(D) united based on
(E) were united with

In D based is a past participle. I read that past participles are noun modifiers . Since noun modifiers need to be placed as close as possible to the noun that they modify , i dont find this rule followed in this SC .
based is close to united and united seems to be a part of " were united " phrase .
This SC is from the kaplan verbal workout . What i found surprising is that there is no helping verb were in (D)
I also agree with you.. the correct sentence should have "were".. choice D doeas not make sense in meaning... with this choice seems that "the five" united something while they were united each other with an innovative idea so the choice "E" makes more sense in my book.
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