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Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made

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Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 04 Apr 2019, 04:16
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Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.


(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent

(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented

(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented

This official question is similar but not identical to an official question that can be found HERE.




Verbal Question of The Day: Day 106: Sentence Correction


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D

Originally posted by sondenso on 19 May 2008, 20:11.
Last edited by Bunuel on 04 Apr 2019, 04:16, edited 7 times in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   18 Sep 2017, 14:17
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There's some nice, low-hanging fruit right at the beginning of the non-underlined portion of the sentence. And I like that sort of thing -- it makes life easier.

"Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, ________" Well, the thing that fits in the blank MUST be something that can actually be developed by Palatine Germans, as discussed in our sexy guide to "-ed" words.

So with that in mind...

Quote:
(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent

... "they" doesn't make any sense here at all. "They" presumably refers to Palatine Germans -- the only plural noun earlier in the sentence -- and the Palatine Germans weren't developed by Palatine Germans. (I don't actually know much about the Palatine Germans, but maybe they developed really awesome baked goods? Because German bakeries are freaking fantastic. But maybe I already mentioned that in another QOTD explanation? I'll stop now.)

I'm also not crazy about the second "they" later in the sentence. It's not necessarily wrong, but it's awfully muddy -- "they" logically refers to "wagons", but "wagons" is way back in the sentence, hiding behind a whole bunch of other plural nouns, and that's not awesome. But the "-ed" modifier error is very definitely wrong, so (A) is out.

Quote:
(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented

I'm pretty much OK with everything in (B), other than the "-ed" modifier error -- it's the same mistake as in (A). So (B) is gone, too.

Quote:
(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

The "-ed" modifier is fine now, but we don't really have a sentence anymore. "Conestoga wagons" is presumably the grammatical subject of the sentence, but there's never a main verb. "Had a floor..." would work, in theory, but the "and" messes it up.

Or if you prefer, you could think of it this way: "and" is a parallelism trigger, and it's followed by the verb phrase "had a floor." But there's no verb phrase earlier in the sentence that "had a floor" could parallel to.

However you prefer to think of it, (C) is wrong.

Quote:
(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

This looks pretty good. The "-ed" modifier is fine, and the parallelism is fine, too: "and" is followed by "a floor that was curved upward..." -- and that's a noun that's parallel to "high wheels." No problem there: the list just consists of two things that the Conestoga wagons had. Keep (D).

Quote:
(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented

(E) isn't so different from (D), except for the very end of the underlined portion: "floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented..." Whoa, WTF does "it" refer to here? "Floors" and "wagons" are plural, and I can't find anything else that could possibly make sense with that pronoun.

So (E) can be eliminated, and (D) wins.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   07 Sep 2018, 13:33
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milomingchao wrote:
I understand D is the best option, but still have two questions.

First, when we say X has A and B, we don't use a common before B; yet the correct sentence essentially says that wagons had wheels ,(comma) and a floor.

Second, wagons is plural, but why it is followed by a singlar noun (a floor). Is wagons a collective noun here?
In terms of logic, it makes perfect sense that each wagon only has one floor, I just don't know how to interpret it in terms of grammar.

Thanks in advance if someone could help!


Excellent questions!

Typically, when we have two objects associated with the same verb, there's no reason to separate them with a comma. A simple example:

    "When my daughter had the flu, she had muscle soreness and a hacking cough."

There's comma between "muscle soreness" and a "hacking cough." But if I wanted to describe the muscle soreness, I could use commas, either to separate the modifier from the rest of the sentence or to separate elements within the modifier:

    "When my daughter had the flu, she had muscle soreness in her back, neck, and toes, and a cough."

The modifier in red makes the sentence a little harder to parse, so it makes sense to include a comma at the end of it to communicate to the reader that I've finished modifying "muscle soreness." Put another way, almost any "rule" that posits that you can't use a comma in a certain scenario can be violated by sticking in a modifier. Commas are slippery animals. But the good news is that commas are very rarely a deciding factor on the GMAT. More on that in this video.

As for the second question, the sentence is about Conestoga wagons, in general. When we're writing about a plural noun in general, it's perfectly fine to attribute a singular quality to that noun. If I write, "Dodge Vipers come equipped with a laser that makes small animals go blind," there's no confusion about whether the Dodge Vipers are all sharing one laser. It's clear that each car individually has this feature. (Note: this feature does not, and should not exist.)

But if I'm writing about a particular plural noun, the usage is a little different. For example, if I write, "The Goldstein brothers have a bike with a broken axle," I'm not suggesting that each brother has such a bike. Rather, there appears to be just one bike that the Goldstein brothers have to share. The difference is that now I'm referring to particular brothers, as opposed to the generic idea of brothers.

I hope that helps!
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 May 2008, 20:35
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'D' is most parallel.

Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and (had) a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 May 2008, 20:49
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D also

Narrowed to C,D,E due to reasons above.

"And"s are incorrect in C and E

(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent - "and" should be eliminated

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent - correct usage of the second "and": wheels and a floor

(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented - second "and" incorrectly ties the prairie and floors
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   21 Jul 2012, 13:19
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Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.

(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent

(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented

(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented

Quote:
in choice D

Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

if one is using THAT with one of the clause, should the other clause sud also start with THAT.
For me the right version of option D should have been

Conestoga wagons had high wheels that were capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

I had this logic inn mind for eliminating it. So i selected E. How is this logic wrong?


similarly in this question

The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.

(A) The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.
(B) The bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and with a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs, has been discovered in Madagascar.
(C) In Madagascar, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembled South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered.
(D) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, bearing a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs is Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur, the bones of which have been discovered in Madagascar.
(E) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembling South American predatory dinosaurs, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, have been discovered in Madagascar.

Quote:
when we are comparing Majungatholus with two categories dinosaurs, shouldn't both compariosons include THAT. If not then both should not have THAT

i.e it should either be

The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and thatclosely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.

or

A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembling South American predatory dinosaurs, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, have been discovered in Madagascar.

which is option E. Can anybody please explain me if i have a wrong concept of using THAT?


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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   21 Jul 2012, 13:57
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I think you should only apply your concept of "that" when you are making the clauses parallel.

In the first example you are forcefully trying to make them parallel when they should not be parallel.

Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent.

So high wheels and a floor are parallel.What modifies them(modifiers are marked in green) are not necessarily have to parallel.

In the second example I think you are free to use that.It has other parallelism problem though.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   21 Jul 2012, 14:07
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Read the option D this way (don't read .... capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, ) and you would understand that "that" here refers to the floor.

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

( Conestoga wagons had high wheels and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent )


Thanks!!
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   21 Jul 2012, 14:36
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One of the best suggestion in SC, said by a gmat instructor, is this: do not rely too much on rules, grammar and so on .....Those are very important but try to figure out as first thing where the sentence goes aka the MEANING of the sentence, what the sentence is saying.

here is this:

The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.

(A) The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.
(B) The bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and with a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs, has been discovered in Madagascar. The bones of........, Majungantholus atopus, a distant..........no have sense at all
(C) In Madagascar, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembled South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered. ackward and wrong because the bones are related to what ??
(D) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, bearing a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs is Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur, the bones of which have been discovered in Madagascar. ackward
(E) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembling South American predatory dinosaurs, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, have been discovered in Madagascar. ackward and seems that a relative was discovered not the BONES

A) The bones (subject) of....., fluff......., have been discovered (verb) WHERE ??? in a place (Madagascar)--------> Straight like a sword ;)
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   23 Jul 2012, 09:13
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(C) In Madagascar, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembled South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered

C cannot be the right answer. Distantly related is a past participle, whereas resembled is a simple past tense verb. In fact, one cannot make a past participle with resemble; you can make only a present participle ‘resembling’

In addition, the phrase ‘in Madagascar, which modifies the place of the discovery, should not be far removed from the phrase - have been discovered in Madagascar -.It is a wrong word order.

A. The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.

Here, the phrase ‘a meat-eating dinosaur’ is an appositive modifier of the Majungatholus atopus or a phrase that defines the dinosaur. Therefore, it correctly modifies the noun before it.

Why is A the answer?

Read the sentence in the format below

The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and (that) closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.

The 'that' I have put in bracket is elliptical and hence is understood.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   23 Jul 2012, 09:53
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Here we go !

Both of the questions are meaning centrical, in first (D) wins because;

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

-capable of crossing( x,y,and z )rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie
-conestoga wagons (had x ,and y) had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie AND a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent

In second;let's analyse

(A) The bones of Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur that is a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembles South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered in Madagascar.
couldn't figure out ? HOLD
(B) The bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and with a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs, has been discovered in Madagascar.
".....a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and with a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaur..."
BOTH SIDES OF AND ARE NOT PARALLEL
(C) In Madagascar, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembled South American predatory dinosaurs, have been discovered.
PASSIVE VOICE;distantly related is for what? ïn medagascar or majungatholus atopus??
(D) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, bearing a close resemblance to South American predatory dinosaurs is Majungatholus atopus, a meat-eating dinosaur, the bones of which have been discovered in Madagascar.
BEARING-VERB+IND MODIFIER; INCORRECT USE, BEARING IS NOT MODIFYING "A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex"AS ACTION.
(E) A distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and closely resembling South American predatory dinosaurs, the bones of a meat-eating dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, have been discovered in Madagascar.
MEANING DISTORTED;vague

(A) stays back;reasons:-
-a meat-eating dinosaur is modifying clearly- Majungatholus atopus
-distant relative parallels to closely resembles
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   16 Jul 2016, 19:55
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Hi all,

I always thought that you don't put a comma before 'and' when you're connecting two direct objects. The OE says that the comma helps to clarify that the second direct object 'a floor...' is an object of 'had'. Can someone explain to me when you need a comma to help clarify and when you don't?

Thanks!
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   17 Jul 2016, 01:25
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yotaad wrote:
Hi all,

I always thought that you don't put a comma before 'and' when you're connecting two direct objects. The OE says that the comma helps to clarify that the second direct object 'a floor...' is an object of 'had'. Can someone explain to me when you need a comma to help clarify and when you don't?

Thanks!


When you have two distinct lists, you need to have a comma to distinguish first list from the 2nd.

For Example, Here One list of of Wheels and a Floor, and the 2nd list of the various surfaces on which the wheel can move.

If you see my above example, it itself has what I am saying " Two Lists Concept"

Hope that helps.

Hit Kudos if you get the answer.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 Jul 2017, 02:33
sondenso wrote:
35.
Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.
(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented
(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented


Hello Sir / Madam,

Is the use of past perfect tense correct in this question?
Past perfect tense is used when there are two events in the past;the former event uses the past perfect whereas the latter event uses simple past.

Now, in the above question I am not able to identify the latter event. 'Developed....1750' is a modifier modifying 'Conestoga wagons' . Even if I consider 'developed...1750' to be the latter event, then 'Cognestoga wagons had ....prevent...grades' would suggest this event happened before 1750 that is impossible :!: :o

Can someone help to clarify here? Thanks in advance
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 Jul 2017, 05:49
Imo D
Hi no has here is not used in past perfect tense .
It is used to show that the wagon possessed some characteristics.

Can some one explain appositive modifier in detail ?
Thanks in advance .


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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 Jul 2017, 06:04
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pikolo2510 wrote:
sondenso wrote:
35.
Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.
(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented
(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented


Hello Sir / Madam,

Is the use of past perfect tense correct in this question?
Past perfect tense is used when there are two events in the past;the former event uses the past perfect whereas the latter event uses simple past.

Now, in the above question I am not able to identify the latter event. 'Developed....1750' is a modifier modifying 'Conestoga wagons' . Even if I consider 'developed...1750' to be the latter event, then 'Cognestoga wagons had ....prevent...grades' would suggest this event happened before 1750 that is impossible :!: :o

Can someone help to clarify here? Thanks in advance


There is no use of past perfect in the sentence. The verb of the main clause is simple past "had", and the verb of the subordinate clause is also simple past "was curved" - no other verb is there in the sentence.

The opening phrase "Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750" is a past participle modifier, not a verb. A sentence (except an imperative sentence) does not start with a verb.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   19 Jul 2017, 06:07
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arvind910619 wrote:
Imo D
Hi no has here is not used in past perfect tense .
It is used to show that the wagon possessed some characteristics.

Can some one explain appositive modifier in detail ?
Thanks in advance .


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There is no appositive modifier in the sentence. An appositive modifier is a noun or noun phrase modifier referring to another noun / noun phrase.

Ram, my best friend, is sick.
"my best friend" is an appositive modifier (noun phrase) referring to "Ram" (noun).
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   18 Sep 2017, 14:36
Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.
(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented
(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
wagons have 2 features - high wheels (described in 3 parts- capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie) and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent=> clearly describing in option D by making the use of ,and.
(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   18 Sep 2017, 18:29
Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.

(A) they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
- Modified subject "Conestoga wagons" should follow modifier. Because of use of WITH It appears that manufacturer use HIGH wheels as a tool to make Wagons. Antecedent of THEY in latter half is ambiguous. Hence Incorrect.

(B) they made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented
- Modified subject "Conestoga wagons" should follow modifier. Antecedent of THEY in latter half is ambiguous. Hence Incorrect.

(C) Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
- If we remove the highlighted modifier, we will get a FRAGMENT. Hence Incorrect.

(D) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
CORRECT

(E) Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented
- Plural pronoun should have been used. Comma should have been used before AND to highlight two features of the wagons. Hence Incorrect.
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink] New post   03 Sep 2018, 12:54
I understand D is the best option, but still have two questions.

First, when we say X has A and B, we don't use a common before B; yet the correct sentence essentially says that wagons had wheels ,(comma) and a floor.
Second, wagons is plural, but why it is followed by a singlar noun (a floor). Is wagons a collective noun here?
In terms of logic, it makes perfect sense that each wagon only has one floor, I just don't know how to interpret it in terms of grammar.

Thanks in advance if someone could help!
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Re: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made [#permalink]
03 Sep 2018, 12:54
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