kikki123 wrote:My answer is B..
Good modifier question.whAt is regarded is the speed limit and not fight over speed limit. So, eliminate A, D and E. Between B and C, B is a better choice because, in choice C, ineffective is supposed to be describe speed limit and not meddling

Just realized that I missed to see the appositive in choice E. my answer choice would be E.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

[email protected] wrote:Honestly I cannot believe that this question took a lot of posts. I cannot see a reason why the answer chosen is E. I strongly feel that Knewton experts are right and the answer to the question should be B. E does not use the right modifier.

B. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.

E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

See the option E carefully. 'The fight over the speed limit' and then a , when you associate a comma the modifier modifies the whole thing i.e 'The fight over the speed limt'. How can the fight over the speed limit be the measure of something. The modifier should only modify speed limit. Even 'fight over speed limit' cannot be the subject to which any modifier should be associated.

So how can the answer be E.

The presumption is that an APPOSITIVE (such as a measure in E) refers to the IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING NOUN:

The new film by Steven Spielberg, a director known for producing epic movies, topped the box office last week.

In the sentence above, a DIRECTOR is in apposition to STEVEN SPIELBERG. Two nouns are in apposition when they appear SIDE-BY-SIDE, with the second serving to explain or define the first. Would any reader think that a director refers to the new film?

Answer choice E follows this same structure:

The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues...

In E, a MEASURE is in apposition to the SPEED LIMIT -- the IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING NOUN. Would any reader really think that a measure refers to the fight? Such an interpretation makes no sense.

There is good reason, however, to eliminate B: in the speed limit continues to be fought OVER IN our legislators, the preposition OVER is not followed by its object, and the juxtaposition of the two prepositions (OVER IN) is needlessly awkward.

All this being said, any SC that inspires this much controversy is best ignored.

DanaJ wrote:So the OA here is E!

@uwhusky: just stumbled upon it in the Beat The GMAT Practice Questions... While I don't have a specific set of questions with modifiers, I have seen quite a few in this resource, especially one really tough one with Italians and Slavs... If I find it again, I'll post it!

Anyway, here's my take on this question:

So the way it's structured right now, the modifier is incorrectly placed (as many of you have noticed). It's not the "fight over the speed limit" that's meddlesome or a conserver of life and energy, it's the speed limit itself. We need to find the answer choice that correctly attaches the modifier ("Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy") to its correct noun ("speed limit"). This way, we can eliminate A for sure. D is also wrong because of the same reason: incorrectly placed modifier.

C is wrong because there's no parallelism between "ineffective meddling" (verb) and "the conservation of life and energy" (noun). Also, the use of "the" in bold is unnecessary. "The" suggests that the speed limit is "the one and only" (to quote a song ) saver of energy and life, which is obviously not the case - I can think of a million other things that can save more lives and energy

Now, you guys have successfully narrowed it down to B and E... E is better here because of the use of the passive voice in B. In general, you should avoid the passive voice in the GMAT, because it's considered wordy. "To be fought over" is also pretty vague - who fights over it? The official explanation also cites "a pile-up of prepositions" in "to be fought over in".

My answer choice - B - is corroborated by the explanation given in this url - https://www.knewton.com/blog/gmat/2010/1 ... c-q-and-a/ . Besides, choice E still has a misplaced modifier - "a measure" can't logically modify "The fight over the speed limit"! And it would be incorrect to argue that "a measure" only modifies "speed limit" and not the words that precede them.