Having the crack Phoenician fleet being

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Having the crack Phoenician fleet being

by shimbal80 » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:21 pm
Having the crack Phoenician fleet being decimated by the much smaller Greek fleet in the straits of salamis, the persian king Xerxes, whose initial arrogance quickly changed to horror, fled back to Asia and left his remaining troops under the generalship of his brother in law , Mardonius.

A) same
B) In view of his crack Phoenician fleet had been decimated by the much smaller Greek fleet in the straits of salamis
C) Because of there having been a much smaller Greek fleet in the straits of salamis that decimated his crack Phoenician fleet
D) seeing as the crack Phoenician fleet having been decimated by the much smaller Greek fleet in the straits of salamis
E) His crack Phoenician fleet decimated by the much smaller Greek fleet in the straits of salamis

The answer is E

I can not understand. we are looking for modifier. but the right answer, I think it is not modified the "king persian". If any, can you give some example? I think the right answer is run on sentence. and the right answer needs the word such as "because".

please explain experts

Thanks in advance
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:48 pm
Hi there,

It is not so much a modifier problem here as it is mostly about a stylistic concern/awkwardness.

The 'having' does relate to the King, there is no problem of modifier as it is the king's fleet. A has other problems. Having + being/been is/are not only very awkward but wrong (you will not have having + being as correct). In general you should be careful with either 'having' and 'being' + participle. There are usually better more active ways of saying the same thing. Also, 'having...being decimated' seems to talk of a process in the present.

In B 'there having been' is usually considered awkward, and the 'in the straits of...' is wrongly placed.

In C 'there having been' again awkward

In D 'seeing as' and 'having been' are awkward

In the correct answer, although the 'his' is awkwardly placed before the noun it refers to, it still relates to the king; the whole modifier relates correctly to the king so no problem there. It is not a run on sentence as there is a comma after the modifier and within the modifier itself, there is no run on sentence (no missing conjunction or punctuation between two clauses).
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by shimbal80 » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:53 pm
Isaac@MasterGMAT wrote:Hi there,

It is not so much a modifier problem here as it is mostly about a stylistic concern/awkwardness.

The 'having' does relate to the King, there is no problem of modifier as it is the king's fleet. A has other problems. Having + being/been is/are not only very awkward but wrong (you will not have having + being as correct). In general you should be careful with either 'having' and 'being' + participle. There are usually better more active ways of saying the same thing. Also, 'having...being decimated' seems to talk of a process in the present.

In B 'there having been' is usually considered awkward, and the 'in the straits of...' is wrongly placed.

In C 'there having been' again awkward

In D 'seeing as' and 'having been' are awkward

In the correct answer, although the 'his' is awkwardly placed before the noun it refers to, it still relates to the king; the whole modifier relates correctly to the king so no problem there. It is not a run on sentence as there is a comma after the modifier and within the modifier itself, there is no run on sentence (no missing conjunction or punctuation between two clauses).

Thanks a lot.
I understand. your explanation helps me well

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