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The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon

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The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon

by ceeka9388 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:54 am
1. The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been

Kindly help me crack this one with proper explanation............
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by ceeka9388 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:02 am
The OA is B.I want rationale behind this............
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by Frankenstein » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:29 am
Hi,

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were --> run-on sentence
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been -->'each that' is bad usage. past perfect usage is not required.
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each -->each connected by doesn't make sense.
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been--> run-on sentence

I am not sure about the usage of 'scale of'. So, experts can comment on this. But other options can be eliminated even without the knowledge of this usage.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:56 am
Good question, ceeka9388!

In A, that verb "were" doesn't have a subject assigned to it. "of up to 600 rooms" is a modifier, so those rooms aren't a subject. The same goes for "with more than 75 structures". And "the Anasazi settlements" would need to have "and" to link its initial verb (were built) with another verb (...ans were connected). So A doesn't work - there's no subject for the verb "were".

C, D, and E all commit the same error - it's illogical to modify "were built on a spectacular scale" with the phrase "of more than 75 carefully engineered structures". The settlements weren't built "on 75 carefully engineered structures". That word "of" links the structures directly to the scale, which is what they were built on. And that's not logical. "with" in B works because it links more generally back to "were built...with".

I'd also argue that the use of "had been" in C and E is iffy at best without a designation that the roads had been built before the settlements (which doesn't seem logical).
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by [email protected] » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:43 pm
Final solution at one place:

Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong ones. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
(A) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
(B) with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
(C) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
(D) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
(E) of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each had been

In this construction, 'scale of' is the wrong idiom. 'Scale of' is correctly used in constructions such as: 'on a scale of 0-10'. This eliminates C, D, and E.

In A, if we remove the nonessential part between the commas, we are left with:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

In A, we can't use 'were' ... 'were' without a connecting word (such as 'and / or / but / that etc. depending upon the meaning'). In this sentence, the 'structures' were 'connected', so we surely need some connector (preferably 'that') between 'structures' and 'were'. Or else, A becomes a run-on sentence. It tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. If you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. UGH!

Similarly, E is a run-on sentence.

In B, if we remove the nonessential part between the commas, we are left with:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, connected by a complex regional system of roads.

In the sentence above, the last part is a non-essential modifier. Perfect.

In C, D, and E, 'scale of' is the wrong idiom.
Also, in C, we can't use the past perfect ('had been') as the events don't have a time lag.
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by frankhongyi » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:47 pm
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Good question, ceeka9388!

In A, that verb "were" doesn't have a subject assigned to it. "of up to 600 rooms" is a modifier, so those rooms aren't a subject. The same goes for "with more than 75 structures". And "the Anasazi settlements" would need to have "and" to link its initial verb (were built) with another verb (...ans were connected). So A doesn't work - there's no subject for the verb "were".

C, D, and E all commit the same error - it's illogical to modify "were built on a spectacular scale" with the phrase "of more than 75 carefully engineered structures". The settlements weren't built "on 75 carefully engineered structures". That word "of" links the structures directly to the scale, which is what they were built on. And that's not logical. "with" in B works because it links more generally back to "were built...with".

I'd also argue that the use of "had been" in C and E is iffy at best without a designation that the roads had been built before the settlements (which doesn't seem logical).
Hey~~sorry to bother you
I'm still confused about "with" structure and "of"structure.
What's the differences between them?
When I did this question, I think I have a "big scale" so I said the scale of .
The scale of 400 acres
the scale of 10 buildings
They are right, aren't they?
Please help me out on this~~
Thank you!!
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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 04, 2016 7:39 am
The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

There is only one clause in this sentence. Rest are modifiers. The S-V pair have been highlighted.

A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were - Here this verb were is abandoned. There is no subject for this verb. so incorrect.
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, - Correct
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been - Scale of is incorrect. Each that had been suggests that the rooms were connected by system of roadways. This is illogical. Also use of past perfect is incorrect since this can't be the first action. The building needs to be constructed before rooms are connected,
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each - Same issues as in c
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been - Same issues as in c
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