Sentence Correction

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded "• some of them posthumously "• with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in
B.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
C.the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, long-overdue in
D.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
E.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, in long-overdue


Hi, everyone,
What's your answer with this problem?

rx_11 wrote:More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded "• some of them posthumously "• with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in
B.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
C.the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, long-overdue in
D.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
E.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, in long-overdue


Hi, everyone,
What's your answer with this problem?

IMO D.
Awarded with is incorrect. D corrects this and also explains what for the award was given, in clear manner.
OA ?

Hi, beat_gmat_09

The OA is E

I don't understand why E is correct, and I even cannot understand what the role does "in recognition of their outstanding bravery" play in the sentense. Is that an adv modifier or noun modifier? Hope experts can make some explanations.

Any experts can give some explanations???

rx_11 wrote:Hi, beat_gmat_09

The OA is E

I don't understand why E is correct, and I even cannot understand what the role does "in recognition of their outstanding bravery" play in the sentence. Is that an adv modifier or noun modifier? Hope experts can make some explanations.

I'd say that it is an adverbial phrase - it modified the verb "awarded", and answers the question "why was this medal awarded?". technically, it should be as close to the verb as possible, but the verb "awarded" requires its direct object "the congressional medal of honor": first tell me what was awarded, then tell me why.

In any case, E is fine: I give you this medal in recognition of your achievements"

D (and also B) is eliminated for illogical meaning - if we place the long-overdue adjective after "for", it becomes part of what the medal is given for. Thus, D and B seem to suggest that the purpose of the medal is to always award long overdue recognitions - which doesn't make sense.
A and C are eliminated mostly because of a tense problem - the congressional medal of honor still IS the nation's highest military award, presumably, so the use of the past tense "was" is incorrect.

Geva pretty much nailed it.I eliminated D for same reason.

It's illogical to say the nation's highest military award is ,usually,awarded when the soldiers's recognition is overdue.

The sentence instead intends to say that the Medal that was awarded to the soldiers was long overdue for the bravery they showed in the Second World war.

I initially selected D, because I thought that 'for' was better than 'in' within the context of the sentence. Now that I've read the explanations, I know how I erred.

tomada wrote:I initially selected D, because I thought that 'for' was better than 'in' within the context of the sentence. Now that I've read the explanations, I know how I erred.

I am a non-native speaker.You might be a native speaker! But you say "where I erred".Just a way to improve your SC.

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded "• some of them posthumously "• with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, in long-overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.


Geva,
Can you please throw some light on whether 'awarded the medal' vs 'awarded with the medal' is better/correct/concise?

awarded medal is a better and concise construction.

Stylistically speaking,you say:

Mr X was awarded the Nobel prize today.

award -Oxford dictionary usage

verb

give or order the giving of (something) as an official payment, compensation, or prize to (someone):

he was awarded the Military Cross
a 3.5 per cent pay rise was awarded to staff
grant or assign (a contract or commission) to (a person or organization).

Geva@MasterGMAT wrote:

rx_11 wrote:Hi, beat_gmat_09

The OA is E

I don't understand why E is correct, and I even cannot understand what the role does "in recognition of their outstanding bravery" play in the sentence. Is that an adv modifier or noun modifier? Hope experts can make some explanations.

I'd say that it is an adverbial phrase - it modified the verb "awarded", and answers the question "why was this medal awarded?". technically, it should be as close to the verb as possible, but the verb "awarded" requires its direct object "the congressional medal of honor": first tell me what was awarded, then tell me why.

In any case, E is fine: I give you this medal in recognition of your achievements"

D (and also B) is eliminated for illogical meaning - if we place the long-overdue adjective after "for", it becomes part of what the medal is given for. Thus, D and B seem to suggest that the purpose of the medal is to always award long overdue recognitions - which doesn't make sense.
A and C are eliminated mostly because of a tense problem - the congressional medal of honor still IS the nation's highest military award, presumably, so the use of the past tense "was" is incorrect.

Hi Geva,
From what I understand, long-overdue is modifying recognition in the correct answer choice..

Please let me know whether my understanding is correct.

Hey everyone, I got E in about 45 seconds. I will do my best to explain how I went through each mentally:

First of all, some things to consider as soon as you see the answers. What are the answer choices main differences? First, you have to make a choice between awarded THE CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL or with the congressional medal. Awarded the congressional Medal is more concise and doesn't diminish the meaning of the sentence. A and B are gone. Second, it appears you have to use commas correctly to make the sentence mean what it is intended to mean.
C)if you remove the which was the nations highest military award modifier the sentence doesn't make any sense
D) "the nation's highest military award for long-overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery. This is obviously wrong as the the nations highest military award is not awarded for long-over due recognition of their bravery. There is also no pronoun subject agreement between their and African American soldiers. In this sentence their would be referring to all the people whoever recieved the nations highest military award, the medal of honor.
E) Correct use of the congresional medal of honor,Sensical, modifier is placed correctly, if you remove the modifier mentally the sentence still makes sense. CORRECT

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded "• some of them posthumously "• with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, and which was long overdue in
B.with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
C.the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation's highest military award, long-overdue in
D.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award for long-overdue
E.the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, in long-overdue

Hope that helps

-BP

Bumping for experts review.