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Architects and stone masons

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Architects and stone masons

by metallicafan » Thu May 09, 2013 4:41 pm
Architects and stonemasons, huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya without the benifit of the wheel or animal transport.

A: huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya without the benifit of the wheel or animal transport.
B: without the benefits of animal transport or wheel, huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya
C: the Maya built huge palace and temple clusters without the beneifts of sanimal transport or the wheel.
D: there were built, without the benefit of the wheel or animal transport, huge palace and temple clusters by the Maya
E: were the Maya, who without the benefit of the wheel or animal
transport, built huge palace and temple clusters.

OA is C.

What's wrong with E?
IMO, it is wrong because:
1) "were tha maya doesn't have an object". "Architects and stonemasons" cannot be the object because there is a comma, which means that it is a modifier. In this case a misplaced modifier.
2) The sentence changes the emphasis in the meaning. Now the fact of building huge palaces is not the main information, just additional information.

Please confirm. Thanks!
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by Ben.Miller@ApexGMAT » Fri May 10, 2013 5:22 am
Overall, you're absolutely correct.

This problem boils down to the modifier (Architects and stonemasons). A modifier can be thought of as a simple aside, or as a set of adjectives that describe something.

The caveat is that the something being described must always be close/next to the modifier. For this problem, only C & E put the subject close, and only C makes any sense. Remember, these are adjectives, NOT the predicate, so the verb 'were' has no place there.

It sometimes helps to rearrange the sentence and change the words to get a handle on what's important. In this case:

E: 'Musicians and showmen, Metallica set the tone for serious metal bands in the 80's and beyond.'
vs.
C: 'Musicians and showmen, were Metallica..."

Note how much the comma makes C the incorrect choice. Since the modifier error is so glaring, this problem becomes simple, since we don't have to worry about the correctness of the rest of the sentence. There is only one CLEAR correct answer.

One last note, while the meaning is supposed to be maintained, occasionally it will be altered since the word order MUST change. Think of this not as the meaning changing, but as the true/intended meaning becoming clear rather than fuzzy.

Ben 'Riding the Lightning' Miller
Ben Miller
Senior Instructor
Chief Curriculum Developer
ApexGMAT
[email protected]
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