Clarification about modifiers

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:24 am

Clarification about modifiers

by tsharma » Fri Sep 21, 2012 11:11 am
Seldom more that 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected the Hudson River at Albany to the Great Lakes at Buffalo, providing the port of New York City with a direct water link to the heartland of the North American continent.

A. Seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
B. Seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep but running 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
C. It was seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, and ran 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, but the Erie Canal, connecting
D. The Erie Canal was seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep and it ran 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, which connected
E. The Erie Canal, seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but running 363 miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, connecting
--------------------------------------------------------------

I am trying to clarify some of my doubts related to modifiers. So my question out here is not about the right answer. I want to know that in (E) if "connecting" was replaced by "connected", then would there a modifier related issue in (E) because of ", but".
Source: — Sentence Correction |

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:12 pm
Thanked: 7 times

by henryjejo » Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:08 pm
Hi Sharma,

As far as I know, the punctuation is not tested in GMAT. But comma, semicolon,colon and dash are exceptions in that they work along with modifier, "AND" rules, List rules etc.

In E, the comma before "but" is incorrect. The whole sentence modifies "Eerie Canal". In GMAT world, it will be a modifier rule.

Regards
HenryJEJO

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3835
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:00 pm
Location: Milpitas, CA
Thanked: 1854 times
Followed by:523 members
GMAT Score:770

by Anurag@Gurome » Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:07 pm
Incidentally, The serial comma is frowned upon in Queen's English. For a humorous reference to the battle with commas, read the preface of the book "Eats, Shoot & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. In that preface, the author talks about her struggle with an editor who loved commas (whereas the author herself eschewed them as much as possible). But because this is a "GMAT" forum and because GMAT follows Chicago Manual of Style, for the most part, serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or the Harvard comma) is de rigueur.
Anurag Mairal, Ph.D., MBA
GMAT Expert, Admissions and Career Guidance
Gurome, Inc.
1-800-566-4043 (USA)

Join Our Facebook Groups
GMAT with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/272466352793633/
Admissions with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/461459690536574/
Career Advising with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/360435787349781/

• Page 1 of 1