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SC problem

by saurabh2525_gupta » Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:57 am
Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.

(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only
(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed
(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only
(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed
(E) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only

Hi Guys, Can anyone explain me why it can't be B. I was stuck between B & C and finally chose B.
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by bigguy_aug » Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:36 pm
In B, the second clause starting from "and they were only armed with" is written as an independent clause. This is not correct. The clause should be subordinate to the first clause. Therefore, C is correct and B isn't.

Hope this answers your question.
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:35 pm
bigguy_aug wrote:In B, the second clause starting from "and they were only armed with" is written as an independent clause. This is not correct. The clause should be subordinate to the first clause. Therefore, C is correct and B isn't.

Hope this answers your question.
You are absolutely allowed to join two independent clauses with "and" -- coordinating conjunctions are one of the three ways to join independent clauses (the others being a period and a semicolon). It's definitely more wordy, though, than simply continuing with the modfying phrase "armed only . . ."
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by bellcurve » Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:57 pm
One more for C.
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by kapur.arnav » Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:03 am
saurabh2525_gupta wrote:Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.

(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only
(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed
(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only
(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed
(E) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only

Hi Guys, Can anyone explain me why it can't be B. I was stuck between B & C and finally chose B.
(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed

This means that Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly were travelling in the back roads of Hungary when they started their pioneering work.... however, thats not the case.... the travelling in the back roads is to be considered a part of their work and not just a case in which they happened to be travelling in back roads... they travelled in back roads as a part of their study... The option C given below captures this aspect of the sentence correctly...

(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only
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by Salman Ghaffar » Tue Nov 16, 2010 1:37 pm
Option B is correct in its grammar. But remember that the GMAT wants you to choose an answer that best fits the intended meaning as well.

The author of the sentence obviously wants to highlight what a great achievement these musicians made, while they were "armed ONLY with a phonograph and an insatiable curiosity". This remarkable achievement would be highlighted best by making the second part of the sentence into a subordinate clause.

Consider the following example:

Jack was instrumental in his team's victory, and he was suffering from a fever.

versus

Jack, though suffering from a fever, was instrumental in his team's victory.

Between the 2 options above, though both are correct grammatically, the second one achieves the intended impact more forcefully in conveying the remarkability of the Jack's achievement.

So if you have 2 options that are both correct grammatically, choose the one that conveys the intended meaning better.
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by maoriba » Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:40 am
Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only [/u]with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.

(A) Traveling(MODIFIER OUT OF POSITION, SHOULD STAY NEXT TO THE SUBJECT) the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only...



(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, (THERE IS NO NEED OF COMMA TO PUT TOGETHER TWO INDEPENDENT CLAUSES)and they were only armed


(C) In 1905 (MISSES COMMA) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only


(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed


(E) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only (WRONG ARMING)
riba made
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