Sentence Correction

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.

a) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

b) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

c) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstakingly documention of

d)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documention of

e)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documention of


OA is D , can someone explain me how?
My Q is in OA - D, what is the the pronoun ' her' referred to?
shouldnt it be referring to Mary Leakey rather than Mary Leakey's ?

manju_ej wrote:In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.

a) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

b) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

c) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstakingly documention of

d)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documention of

e)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documention of


OA is D , can someone explain me how?
My Q is in OA - D, what is the the pronoun ' her' referred to?
shouldnt it be referring to Mary Leakey rather than Mary Leakey's ?

hi... pl let me know whether u r looking at knowing what your perspective must be when you first look at such a sentence and how to tune urself to think the GMAT way, or r u just wondering why this statement alone is so weird. anyways, here goes:
this sentence works this way. Cut it short. let's say you know the context. Say, someone has been telling u abt mary leakey and her contributions elaborately all this while. now if the person wants to summarize without including those details (title of the contribution, field of contribution, name, etc.), the sentence would be like:
"apart from that, her contribution includes discovery of "EDEHA" and documentation of paintings."
So clearly, the subject is not her - in the first portion of the sentence before the comma - but it is "that" which translates to "her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record" in this context.
Am i clear? or do u need a different explanation?
Keep posting
Px

I go with D

"Her" referring to Mary Leakey's is correct in this sentence.

Mary Leakey's is a possesive noun. A possesive pronoun (her) referring back to Mary Leakey's is correct in this case.

d)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documention of

Shouldn't it say "Leakey's contribution to archaeology includes"

The subject is "Mary Leakey's contribution" which is singular?

Thanks[/i]

LSB wrote:d)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documention of

Shouldn't it say "Leakey's contribution to archaeology includes"

The subject is "Mary Leakey's contribution" which is singular?

Thanks[/i]

I agree, it should say "includes," not "include." Can someone explain?

I was intially in the impression that the modifier should be "Mary Leakey " instead of her work as in " Leakey"s". Can someone explain what made you choose the work as the modifer instead of "Leakey " ?

I saw "In addition to "her" work ...." and thought that it should be modified by "Leakey" instead of her work. If I didn't see "her", in the initial sentence, I would have choosen Leakey's. At least that's my initial thought process when I saw the sentence.

Stockmoose16 wrote:

LSB wrote:d)Leakey's contribution to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documention of

Shouldn't it say "Leakey's contribution to archaeology includes"

The subject is "Mary Leakey's contribution" which is singular?

Thanks[/i]

I agree, it should say "includes," not "include." Can someone explain?

good point mate! can someone explain pls?

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 one. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
(D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
(E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

A, B: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
C: uses the wrong idiom 'was a contributor with' ... completely wrong.

D is correct.

Another version of the same question:

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

B, D: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
C, E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'

A is correct.