With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired

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melguy: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 335; Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:31 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Australia / India; Thanked: 37 times

by melguy » Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:43 pm

With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous

A. With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie
B. Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
C. Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
D. Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
E. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

Please help me with this problem.

[spoiler]Answer choice E has dangling modifier issue. The sentence should refer to Agatha Christie and not Agatha Christie's travels. The modifier is not modifying any person or group. So how is it the OA?
[/spoiler]

Thanks

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:43 pm

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:44 am

melguy wrote:With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A. With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie
B. Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
C. Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
D. Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
E. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

When an introductory modifier includes a pronoun without an antecedent, the referent for the pronoun must be THE FIRST WORD of the main clause.
A: With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired
Here, the introductory modifier in red includes a pronoun without an antecedent (her), but the referent for this pronoun (Agatha Christie) is not the first word of the main clause.
Eliminate A.

B: Agatha Christie used her travels to inspire several mystery novels.
Here, it is not crystal clear whose mystery novels were inspired by the travels.
Eliminate B.

When a plural pronoun serves to refer to two distinct nouns, the two nouns should be connected by a conjunction such as and.
Correct: When MARY AND HER HUSBAND entered the room, THEY received a round of applause.
Incorrect: When Mary entered the room with her husband, they received a round of applause.
In the red sentence, the intended referents for they -- Mary, her husband -- are NOT connected by and.

In C and D, the intended referents for their -- Agatha Christie, her archaeological husband -- are not connected by and.
Eliminate C and D.

The correct answer is E.

OA: Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.
Here, the TRAVELS served as inspiration for the novels.
This meaning is perfectly logical.
The blue portion provides an example of the sort of inspiration yielded by Agatha Christie's travels.

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