Skull bearibg traits!!

Question

A one-million-year-old skull bearing traits associated both with Homo erectus and, in addition, Homo sapiens has been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, and indicates that modern humans developed much earlier than previously thought.

(A) both with Homo erectus and, in addition, Homo sapiens has been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, and indicates
(B) both with Homo erectus and Homo sapiens have been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, which indicates
(C) with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens has been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, indicating
(D) with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens and found in the Afar region of Eritrea, indicating
(E) with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens have been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, which indicates

I have reached to right answer in the following way:

1. Both XX and YY, where XX and YY MUST be parallel.

So, in A and B, "both with XX,....: must have another "And with YY", which is not there. So, they are out.

2. which refers to immediate preceding noun. So, E is out because region can not indicate.

3. "bearing traits associated with both X and Y" is the modifier of SKULL. So, and found in the option D is not correct.

The sentence could be "Skull was associated and found". "AND found" MUST have a previous parallel verb. So, I eliminated it.

My question:

Am I right? If not, what is the reason(s) for elimination of D?

grockit_andrea · Answer

You're really close! You just missed one crucial issue in D: there's no verb. "[A]ssociated with" modifies "traits," "found" is referring (awkwardly, as you pointed out) to "skull," but the gerund "indicating" isn't a viable verb here, because it again is describing the previous subjects. In order to avoid that, the verb "indicates" would have to be used instead. The comma preceding it would have to go as well, I think, unless there was further restructuring of the sentence. Then the subject would be 'skull,' and the verb would be 'indicates.'

Andrea A.
Grockit Tutor
https://www.grockit.com

paddle_sweep · Answer

I will go with [spoiler]'C'[/spoiler]. Pls post OA. Cheers

gmat_Tutor · Answer

grockit_andrea wrote:You're really close! You just missed one crucial issue in D: there's no verb. "[A]ssociated with" modifies "traits," "found" is referring (awkwardly, as you pointed out) to "skull," but the gerund "indicating" isn't a viable verb here, because it again is describing the previous subjects. In order to avoid that, the verb "indicates" would have to be used instead. The comma preceding it would have to go as well, I think, unless there was further restructuring of the sentence. Then the subject would be 'skull,' and the verb would be 'indicates.'

Thanks Grockit.

I have another question.

In the option C, the correct choice, we can find the following summary.

Skull has been found in ARE, indicating

=> We know "COMMA + VERBING" modifies the preceding clause. It is also a clause, but it is in passive form.

Then are the following sentences right?

The proposal has been canceled, implying that it will not work.

The book has been banned, saying that it is illegal.

Thanks.

gmatmachoman · Answer

grockit_andrea wrote:You're really close! You just missed one crucial issue in D: there's no verb. "[A]ssociated with" modifies "traits," "found" is referring (awkwardly, as you pointed out) to "skull," but the gerund "indicating" isn't a viable verb here, because it again is describing the previous subjects. In order to avoid that, the verb "indicates" would have to be used instead. The comma preceding it would have to go as well, I think, unless there was further restructuring of the sentence. Then the subject would be 'skull,' and the verb would be 'indicates.'

Thanks Grockit.

I have another question.

In the option C, the correct choice, we can find the following summary.

Skull has been found in ARE, indicating

=> We know "COMMA + VERBING" modifies the preceding clause. It is also a clause, but it is in passive form.

Then are the following sentences right?

The proposal has been canceled, implying that it will not work.

The book has been banned, saying that it is illegal.

Thanks.

gmatmachoman · Answer

Posted in Arcehealogy Journal( Just googled it)

A one-million-year-old skull bearing traits associated with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens has been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, pushing back the development of modern human morphology by some 300,000 years. Excavated between 1995 and 1997 by Ernesto Abbate of the Università di Firenze (Florence, Italy) and an international team of paleoanthropologists, the nearly complete cranium of an adult, along with two pelvic fragments and two incisors, was recovered from ancient lake and river sediments deposited within the primarily volcanic Northern Danakil Formation.

C is correct option!!

R&D on GMAT algorithm:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/r-d-on-gmat- ... tml#305739

grockit_andrea · Answer

gmatmachoman wrote:Posted in Arcehealogy Journal( Just googled it)

A one-million-year-old skull bearing traits associated with both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens has been found in the Afar region of Eritrea, pushing back the development of modern human morphology by some 300,000 years. Excavated between 1995 and 1997 by Ernesto Abbate of the Università di Firenze (Florence, Italy) and an international team of paleoanthropologists, the nearly complete cranium of an adult, along with two pelvic fragments and two incisors, was recovered from ancient lake and river sediments deposited within the primarily volcanic Northern Danakil Formation.

C is correct option!!

@gmatmachoman: gmat_perfect eliminated A,B,D, and E; I was just explaining a point that he had missed when eliminating D. I agree that C is the correct answer; not sure what in my post would have implied otherwise.

@gmat_Tutor: Your first example sentence, "The proposal has been..." is fine, but I don't think the second one works. I can't cite to a precise rule for that, but I believe it has something to do with the specific gerunds being used. "Saying" is too specific; the action itself couldn't "say" that the book is illegal, but it could, for instance, "suggest" that the book is illegal.

Andrea A.
Grockit Tutor
https://www.grockit.com

deep.amangmat · Answer

Thanks Andrea for your detailed explanation choice D.

However, I have one more question. You said that "bearing traits…" and "found in…" are two modifiers for the noun "skull". I know these are in non-underlined portion of the sentence. But can these be parallel? They are not in same form. One is in verb-ed and the other in verb-ing.

Thanks,

Aman

e-GMAT · Answer

Yes, we can have verb-ed modifier parallel to verb-ing modifier, if the information provided by each is logically parallel to each other. In this case, these modifiers explain the "skull" - verb-ing modifier explained the characteristics of this skull and the verb-ed modifier explains where it was found. Now both these findings result in the conclusion drawn in the following verb-ing modifier - indicating that..... Thus, from the context of the sentence, these two are logically parallel. Now there are other questions in which such parallelism has been seen, e.g. OG12#42.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Payal

jonathan123456 · Answer

IMO C

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