Terra-cotta Warriors

[Dean Jones]

Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Rivaling the pyramids of Egypt or even the ancient cities of the Maya as an
achievement, the army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang,
China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000
artisans more than 36 years to complete them.

A. took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete them
B. took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete it
C. took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete
D. 700,000 artisans took more than 36 years to complete
E. to complete them too 700,000 artisans more than 36 years


Please help.

OA after some discussions.

My choice was option D

Regards
Deano.

[sumgb]

IMO C

here's why....
"rivaliing .... achievement" is modifying "the army of..."
part of sentence to really focus starts from "the army of..."

here, ||ilsm comes into picture..

the army of... created .... and took ..... {eliminate option D and E}

for the remaining answer choices, everything boils down to pronoun and you really dont need one here.

"the army of... created .... and took .....to complete." is a complete sentence and you dont need a pronoun "it" [them is clearly incorrect as army is singular]

hrnce IMO
C

[shankar.ashwin]

the army of terra-cotta warriors <created ----> is more than 2,000 years old and took 700,000 artisans more than 36 years to complete

Both sides of 'and' should be parallel and only C is. You dont need to mention the pronoun again here.

[GmatVerbal]

the problem with choice (D) is - it has two clauses connected by 'and'.

1. 700,000 artisans took more than 36 years to complete (what?) -> 'it' is required in this case.
2. The sentence is no more graceful because of the subject is changed.
Army is... 2000 yrs old and took more than 36 yrs is more graceful than army is 2000 yrs and 700,000 artisans took ..
3. Missing COMMA infront of " and' is a hint to use same subject'
The army of terra-cotta warriors created to protect Qin Shi Huang,
China's first emperor, in his afterlife is more than 2,000 years old and ; ( It would have been " years , and "[/i]

[Dean Jones]

OA is option C