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ZZZ: Modifiers and Pronouns

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ZZZ: Modifiers and Pronouns

by gmatusa2010 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:10 am
Few questions below. I'm out of OG material so I am going back to learn from the wrong answers. Please enlighten if you see other ways to eliminate choices.

Industrialization and modern methods of insect control have improved the standard of living around the globe while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.


a. while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having

having modifies the action of improving living standards by indust. and modern methods. so wrong.


b. while at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants that have

"they" is unambigious her?

c. while they have introduced 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time, and have

"At the same time" modifies introduced. Location ok here? Implies industrialization and methods to have gone unregulated.

d. but introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time that have

"At the same time" modifies introduced. Location ok here?
X but Y. Is that a parallel structure? ie. parallelism error here?
"that have..." properly modifies chemical p.
"they" refers to chemical???

e. but at the same time introduce some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having

"having..." modifies wrong item.
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by kvcpk » Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:31 am
I dont see "they" in option B.

B looks correct to me.
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by seshadrivyas » Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:01 am
Doesn't choice B modify the meaning of the sentence? The presence of 'that' after pollutants implies that the chemical pollutants have gone gone unregulated. Its industrialization and modern methods that have gone unregulated.

Why is choice C wrong. It maintains the tense by using 'introduced'. I can't find any error here. Can anyone spot one????
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by kvcpk » Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:21 am
seshadrivyas wrote:Doesn't choice B modify the meaning of the sentence? The presence of 'that' after pollutants implies that the chemical pollutants have gone gone unregulated. Its industrialization and modern methods that have gone unregulated.

Why is choice C wrong. It maintains the tense by using 'introduced'. I can't find any error here. Can anyone spot one????
What is "they" referring to in C?
"Once you start working on something,
don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it.
People who work sincerely are the happiest."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)
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by seshadrivyas » Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:37 am
they refers to the first part of the sentence, viz. Industrialization and modern methods. I broke the sentence down like this,

A & B have improved C, while they have D...

So, A & B does 2 things one of which is C and the other is D.
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by chris@veritasprep » Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:20 am
hi seshadrivyas,

The "they" is problematic in this sentence not so much because of a reference error (it clearly refers back to industrialization and modern methods) but because it is completely unnecessary and awkward. For instance, you would not write "John and Linda went to the park and they had a picnic" but "John and Linda went to the park and had a picnic". To give another example with the conjunction "while" that is used in this SC problem: You would not write "John and Linda enjoyed the guided trip to the island while at the same time they learned many interesting historical facts" but "John and Linda enjoyed the guided trip to the island while at the same time learning many interesting historical facts"

The bigger problem with C is the "have gone" at the end of the underlined section which creates severe meaning problems and a comma problem that I described in a recent post: https://www.beatthegmat.com/zzz-og-q-tha ... tml#284223 Lets look at the sentence with answer choice C inserted:

Industrialization and modern methods of insect control have improved the standard of living around the globe while they have introduced 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time, and have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.

One strategy that we really push in our classes with SC is to get rid of garbage in a sentence and look only at the core elements (subject, verb, object). In this case that would be: Industrialization and modern methods have improved this while they have introduced this, and have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.

A closer look at the sentence now shows that the subject for the verb have gone at the end is still "Industrialization and modern methods" and while those things could have gone virtually unregulated, it is clear that they were not things developed more than 50 years ago! Industrialization has been around for much longer than that. With a closer inspection it is obvious that the last part of the sentence is supposed to be modifying the 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants and that needs to be done as it is in the correct answer (B) with a relative clause. Meaning problems are some of the most subtle but important error types on GMAT Sentence Correction. Also note that the location of "at the same time" is also awkward in C from a meaning perspective.

In terms of the comma error, you cannot write "these things have done this while they have done this, and have gone this...." There is no parallelism and it is a great example of the comma error I reference in my other post (don't use commas with correlating conjunctions unless you are separating independent clauses).

Hope this helps and let me know if I can clarify any of these rules....
Chris Kane
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by seshadrivyas » Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:11 am
Thanks Chris.. that was a very elaborate and clear explanation..!
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by gmatusa2010 » Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:16 am
chris can you explain why the pronoun reference is clear? if it has to do with subject pronoun and object pronoun then just say yes. no need for explanation. also, is my analyses correct? y/n answer is good enough for me. thanks.
chris@veritasprep wrote:hi seshadrivyas,

The "they" is problematic in this sentence not so much because of a reference error (it clearly refers back to industrialization and modern methods) but because it is completely unnecessary and awkward. For instance, you would not write "John and Linda went to the park and they had a picnic" but "John and Linda went to the park and had a picnic". To give another example with the conjunction "while" that is used in this SC problem: You would not write "John and Linda enjoyed the guided trip to the island while at the same time they learned many interesting historical facts" but "John and Linda enjoyed the guided trip to the island while at the same time learning many interesting historical facts"

The bigger problem with C is the "have gone" at the end of the underlined section which creates severe meaning problems and a comma problem that I described in a recent post: https://www.beatthegmat.com/zzz-og-q-tha ... tml#284223 Lets look at the sentence with answer choice C inserted:

Industrialization and modern methods of insect control have improved the standard of living around the globe while they have introduced 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time, and have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.

One strategy that we really push in our classes with SC is to get rid of garbage in a sentence and look only at the core elements (subject, verb, object). In this case that would be: Industrialization and modern methods have improved this while they have introduced this, and have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.

A closer look at the sentence now shows that the subject for the verb have gone at the end is still "Industrialization and modern methods" and while those things could have gone virtually unregulated, it is clear that they were not things developed more than 50 years ago! Industrialization has been around for much longer than that. With a closer inspection it is obvious that the last part of the sentence is supposed to be modifying the 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants and that needs to be done as it is in the correct answer (B) with a relative clause. Meaning problems are some of the most subtle but important error types on GMAT Sentence Correction. Also note that the location of "at the same time" is also awkward in C from a meaning perspective.

In terms of the comma error, you cannot write "these things have done this while they have done this, and have gone this...." There is no parallelism and it is a great example of the comma error I reference in my other post (don't use commas with correlating conjunctions unless you are separating independent clauses).

Hope this helps and let me know if I can clarify any of these rules....
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by chris@veritasprep » Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:49 am
hi gmatusa2010,

there are two "they"s in the sentence but I think you are referring to the second one in answer choice B as follows: "while at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants that have gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago"

In a case such as this, the pronoun automatically refers to the subject of the preceding clause (chemical pollutants) not something earlier in the sentence so there is no ambiguity.

The first they in incorrect answer choice C (as I discussed in my other post) has no other antecedent other than industrialization and modern methods so there is no reference error there. However, there are many other problems as previously noted.

In terms of your other analyses, you seem to hit most problems except perhaps the meaning issues I discussed in the other post. Def. correct in catching the inappropriate location of "at the same time" in several of the answer choices. Hope that helps!
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