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Manhattan Question

by priyankamishra11 » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:59 am
Although reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime and that book is widely considered a masterpiece.
1- lifetime and that book
2- lifetime and it
3- lifetime, that book
4 - lifetime; it
5- lifetime; that book
I got the right answer 3.

Is use of comma before THAT is justified.?
Last edited by priyankamishra11 on Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by 4meonly » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:02 pm
I agree with 3 (C)
book is a masterpiece, not author
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by stop@800 » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:07 pm
the , is indicating that the modifier is non essential.
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Re: Manhattan Question

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:38 pm
priyankamishra11 wrote:Although reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime and that book is widely considered a masterpiece.
1- lifetime and that book
2- lifetime and it
3- lifetime, that book
4 - lifetime; it
5- lifetime; that book
I got the right answer 3.

Is use of comma before THAT is justified.?
Here we have two independent clauses:

1) reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime;

and

2) that book is widely considered a masterpiece.

Two independent clauses must be connected by 1 and only 1 connector.

"Although" appears in the non-underlined part of the sentence, so that's the only connector that we're allowed to use.

(1) and (2) both have "and", a second connector. Eliminate (1) and (2).

(4) and (5) both have a semicolon. Semicolons can precede a connector, but rarely, if ever, follow an introductory clause that begins with a connector. Elminate (4) and (5).

Only (3) has no connector issues: choose (3).

In this question we need "that book" because "it" would properly refer to "her lifetime", not the "one book" - another reason to eliminate (2) and (4).

Technically your original comment raises a good point - we would use "which book" (or just "which" if we didn't have a modification issue) instead of "that book" if we're just adding a parenthetical comment to the first part of the sentence. However, if we look at the sentence as composed of two independent clauses, "that" is correct.
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by priyankamishra11 » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:46 pm
Hi Stuart,

Thanks for your reply. It was a very nice explanation.

One thing i would like to confirm, as you said
Semicolons can precede a connector, but rarely, if ever, follow an introductory clause that begins with a connector

So, you mean we can use a semicolon in a construction such as

Although reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime; but that book is widely considered a masterpiece.

In this sentence semicolon precedes a connector. Is this sentence correct or I misunderstood something?


Thanks,
Priyanka
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by nox104 » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:03 pm
The connector here is Although. As Stuart mentioned, there is no need for another connector after the comma. I would imagine the following sentence to be an example of what Stuart was saying:

The reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime; and that book is widely considered a masterpiece.
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:13 pm
nox104 wrote:The connector here is Although. As Stuart mentioned, there is no need for another connector after the comma. I would imagine the following sentence to be an example of what Stuart was saying:

The reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime; and that book is widely considered a masterpiece.
Actually, "and" would be redundant with the semicolon in that sentence.

We'd see a connector after the semicolon if we're switching directions. For example:
The reclusive author Harper Lee wrote just one book in her lifetime; however, that book is widely considered a masterpiece.
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