prasannar wrote:
From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
(A) baggage so light
(B) baggage being so light
(C) baggage, yet being so light
(D) baggage, and so light
(E) baggage yet was so light
Tough one IMO. As I am finding in many 700 level questions, and as the GOAT
GMATNinja says, the best way to eliminate answer choices is based on
MEANING.
siyer did a great job of reducing the sentence. Let's do that real quick.
"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage..."Right off the bat, I'm noticing a construction of "
could carry X or Y" Our answer choices are all after "Y" (baggage), so we need to figure out what the purpose is for everything after Y.
The quick answer? Everything after Y needs to be modifying "canoe", but some answer choices modify "baggage."
prasannar wrote:
(A) From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
I fell for this answer. I misinterpreted the meaning.
"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage
so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids."
I thought that everything after "baggage" was just modifying "baggage."
But what would that mean? The baggage was so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapid?
Wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense. The person wouldn't be portaging the baggage around rapids. They would be portaging the
canoe around rapids. Therefore we need everything after baggage to be modifying
canoe, not "baggage."
Eliminate based on MEANING.prasannar wrote:
(B) From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage being so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
BKimball did a great job explaining the problem with "being." Further, this answer choice makes the same mistake as (A). Everything after "baggage" would be modifying "baggage" instead of "canoe."
Eliminate based on MEANING and grammar.prasannar wrote:
(C) From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage, yet being so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
Same issue as (B), "being" is
wrong here. But since we have a comma after "baggage", I think we are actually OK from a meaning perspective, everything after "baggage" is referring to "canoe", which is good. Nonetheless, "
being" is not needed.
Eliminate based on grammar.prasannar wrote:
(D) From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage, and so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
Yuck. Let's look at our reduced sentence for this answer choice.
"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage, and so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids."The "comma + and" is wrong here. If we're going to have a comma + and, I think we need an independent clause. But we don't have a verb after the comma + and.
Eliminate based on grammar.prasannar wrote:
(E) From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage yet was so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.
I was unable to eliminate this one, but like I mentioned earlier, I sheepishly still chose (A). But when we dive into the meaning, this one is the most clear and concise.
The "yet" introduces a contrast.
"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage yet was so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids.*Thinking out loud:* So the Menomi crafted a canoe, it could carry X or Y, yet (the canoe) was so light that a person could portage it around violent rapids.
This makes sense from a meaning perspective. I kind of wish we had a comma before "yet." Maybe a grammar expert can explain why we don't need a comma?
Regardless, there's nothing clearly
wrong with this sentence, and it's the only other answer choice aside from (C) and (D) that conveys the correct meaning by having the modifier after "baggage" refer to "canoe."