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Statue Of Liberty

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Statue Of Liberty

by goelmohit2002 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:43 am
Hi All,

In the below question, can someone please tell how help me understand how "E" is correct answer ? To me relative pronouns "which" and "that" modifies the nouns just preceding the same.

Please tell what I am missing here.


======================================
The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration have been corrected, according to the firm of consulting engineers.
A) The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration
B) The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure, leading to its deterioration
C) leading to its deterioration, the Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure
D) The defects that the Statue of Liberty had in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration
E) The defects in the supporting structure of the Statue of Liberty which led to its deterioration

Thanks
Mohit
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by TedCornell » Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:49 am
I'm a bit surprised at the answer. Where is the question from?
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:52 am
TedCornell wrote:I'm a bit surprised at the answer. Where is the question from?
https://www.beatthegmat.com/tricky-gmat- ... 30196.html

But I am not very convinced by the discussion in the thread there about this question.
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by mals24 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:53 pm
As per GMAT 'which' refers only to the preceding noun.

'which' is used with non-restrictive clauses, so we use a comma before 'which'.

So according to me this question is a little messed up. I have my doubts on the original source of this question.
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by scorpion_phoenix » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:57 pm
Sometimes we get so caught up on the advanced rules of the English language that our minds become menial to these and totally ignore the basics.

I offer the following explanation:

After carefully reading the sentence, the focus is on what has been corrected.
Therefore, the true subject here is ‘defects’.
This may explain why the correct answer begins the sentence with ‘defects’ as oppose to ‘Statue of Liberty’. Using this logic, one can eliminate answer choices (A), (B), and (C).

Clearly (D) just doesn’t sound right. This is mainly because ‘that’ is used twice. Even more, this sentence is not grammatically correct since the second ‘that’ refers to the supporting structure ALONE as the cause of deterioration. Obviously, defects in the supporting structure caused deterioration NOT the supporting structure alone.

Hope this helps.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:32 pm
scorpion_phoenix wrote: the focus is on what has been corrected.
Therefore, the true subject here is ‘defects’.
This may explain why the correct answer begins the sentence with ‘defects’ as oppose to ‘Statue of Liberty’. Using this logic, one can eliminate answer choices (A), (B), and (C).
Hi scorpion_phoenix,

If we forget about the intermediate "in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration"....then

Can you please tell which of the following two are correct and why...To me both look correct....please correct me if I am wrong.

1. The statue of Liberty's defects have been corrected.
2. The defects of Statue of Liberty have been corrected.

Thanks
Mohit
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by satish.nagdev » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:43 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote: 2. The defects of Statue of Liberty have been corrected.
I may be wrong but I think "defects in" sounds more correct than "defects of"
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by rs2010 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:50 pm
IMO both are correct and about this question E has edge over D because E uses simple past tense while in D we split apart defects by 2 thats.

E clearly says defect were present in supporting structure of X
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:12 pm
But IMO as per Manhattan SC guide....which modifies noun immediately preceding it...

So how does "E" fit there ?

Thanks
Mohit
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by scorpion_phoenix » Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:23 am
Hi scorpion_phoenix,

If we forget about the intermediate "in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration"....then

Can you please tell which of the following two are correct and why...To me both look correct....please correct me if I am wrong.

1. The statue of Liberty's defects have been corrected.
2. The defects of Statue of Liberty have been corrected.

Thanks
Mohit
First off, I am assuming you intended #2 to read as follows:

2. The defects of the Statue of Liberty have been corrected.

Given that, both, I presume, are gramatically correct.

The only caveat I have would be to make certain you understand what information is being conveyed in the 'original' sentence. In the original (incorrect) sentence:

"The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration have been corrected, according to the firm of consulting engineers."

The information being conveyed here is that defects once existed in the supporting structure, not necessarily the Statue of Liberty itself.

In light of this approach, when addressing sentence correction, I encourage you to read each sentence carefully, try to understand the message being conveyed, then, and only then, attempt to correct the syntactical structure of the sentence using your grammatical knowledge.
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by scorpion_phoenix » Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:29 am
goelmohit2002 wrote: Hi scorpion_phoenix,

If we forget about the intermediate "in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration"....then

Can you please tell which of the following two are correct and why...To me both look correct....please correct me if I am wrong.

1. The statue of Liberty's defects have been corrected.
2. The defects of Statue of Liberty have been corrected.

Thanks
Mohit
First off, I am assuming you intended #2 to read as follows:

2. The defects of the Statue of Liberty have been corrected.

Given that, both, I presume, are gramatically correct.

The only caveat I have would be to make certain you understand what information is being conveyed in the 'original' sentence. In the original (incorrect) sentence:

"The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration have been corrected, according to the firm of consulting engineers."

The information being conveyed here is that defects once existed in the supporting structure, not necessarily the Statue of Liberty itself.

In light of this approach, when addressing sentence correction, I encourage you to read each sentence carefully, try to understand the message being conveyed, then, and only then, attempt to correct the syntactical structure of the sentence using your grammatical knowledge.
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by vertigo05 » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:37 pm
is it necessary to put a comma before which?
if its not then E should be the ans. otherwise IMO B
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