In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Jude

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Grammatical Construction + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.

A:
1/ This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "suggesting" is a present participle ("verb+ing") there is no active verb to act upon the subject noun "blending".
2/ Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase "the images she borrowed", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B:
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "solar imagery", "Judeo-Christian thought and figures", and "borrowing images from ancient classicism"; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

C:
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "solar imagery", "Judeo-Christian thought and figures", and "she borrowed images from ancient classicism"; the use of the independent clause "she borrowed images from ancient classicism" leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.
2/ Option C incorrectly refers to "ancient classicism" with "which suggests her range and depth of influences", incorrectly implying that ancient classicism suggests Phyllis Wheatley's range and depth of influences; the intended meaning is that the act of blending solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests Phyllis Wheatley's range and depth of influences; remember, "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.

D: Correct:
1/ This answer choice acts upon the independent subject noun "blending" with the active verb "suggests" to form a complete thought, producing a complete sentence.
2/ Option D maintains parallelism among "solar imagery", "Judeo-Christian thought and figures", and "images borrowed from ancient classicism", conveying the intended meaning - that Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences.
3/ Option D uses the active verb "suggests" rather than a "comma + which" construction (as seen in Option C), avoiding the modifier error seen in Option C and conveying the intended meaning - that the act of blending solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests Phyllis Wheatley's range and depth of influences.
4/ Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E:
1/ This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "suggesting" is a present participle ("verb+ing") there is no active verb to act upon the subject noun "blending".
2/ Option E uses the needlessly wordy phrase "images that she borrowed from ancient classicism", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Which", "Who", "Where", and "Whose" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Confusing one..
I will go with D.
Phyllis Wheatley's blending of {X, Y, and Z} suggests....
(here Y = (a and b)

D too.
A, C, E has possessive pronoun problem. B violates ||ism
Here is the breakdown:

In her later poems,

(These are parallel)
(1) Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery,
(2) Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and
(3) the images borrowed from ancient classicism

suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

'Borrowing of images' violates the parallelism of X (solar imagery) and Y (thoughts and figures). Both X and Y are nouns therefore 'Z' has to be a noun. 'Borrowing of images' is a gerund phrase. Instead a simple noun for Z, such as 'images' fixes this problem.

Hope that helps!

Singular Subject, so "suggests"will suit.
(A) , (E) Eliminated

In (C) ,which(comma which) is modifying classicism -incorrect
Final fight ; (B) Vs (D)

so,Lets have a look:-

"...Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, AND images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests...."

is the desired sentence.Now the problem is two ANDs.
first and is to mention two items in one sub-roof-christian thoughts and figures
second AND is to sum up the third list in the same major roof "......Phyllis Wheatley's blending of X,(P and Q) , AND Z

Hope this works !

Am I right in stating that in a statement as such one cannot use She as there is not antecedent for "she"..and her can be used because there is Phyllis Wheatley's?

Hi there,

Yes, you are absolutely correct. Usage of "she" is incorrect in this sentence because this pronoun has no antecedent to refer to. Notice that "Phyllis Wheatley's" is in possessive form, meaning this entity is an adjective here and not a noun. A noun possessive noun cannot refer to this possessive noun. Only the possessive pronoun "her" can refer to this entity as we have in the beginning of the sentence.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

How come the usage of suggests is correct. Shouldn't it be suggest?
Please help!

blending is the subject and hence, singular.

The structure of the sentence is: Phyllis Wheatley's blending of X, Y and Z suggests...

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting --> Missing Verb Mistake
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests --> llism Mistake
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests --> Missing Verb Mistake
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests --> Correct
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting --> Missing Verb Mistake

Well, two factors come into play. 1. Subject –verb agreement and 2. List parallelism.
The subject blending is singular. Hence the correct verb is 'suggests'. The participle ‘suggesting’ in A and E renders the sentences into a fragment.
Among B, C and D: B is wrong because borrowing images is not parallel to imagery and though and figures.
In the case of C the clause ‘she borrowed, is not parallel to the nouns imagery and though and figures. In addition, the sentence is a fragment because of the undue intrusion of the relative pronoun ‘which’.
What is left is D; borrowed images tallies with the other nouns in the list. D wins.

This is a difficult sentence for me :-
Because I donot quiet understand what is being talked about :-
My question is "Judeo-Christian thought and figures" does this contain the main subject and main verb of this sentence?

Sentence Construction
Noun Verb

Question
In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending
of

solar imagery,
Judeo-Christian thought and figures,and
the images she borrowed from ancient classicism

suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

Parallel elements

solar imagery, - noun phrase
Judeo-Christian thought and figures - noun phrase, thought is not used a verb in past tense, but a noun
the images she borrowed from ancient classicism - she borrowed, makes this element a clause, so not parallel with others (noun phrases)

Answer
In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending
of

solar imagery,
Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and
images borrowed from ancient classicism

suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

Thanks

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.
(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting Lack of verb leads to a Fragmented sentence. Hence Incorrect.
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests
- Blending of X, Y, & Z. X & Y are NOUN, so Z should be noun as well. Parallelism is not maintained among three items. Hence Incorrect
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests
- Blending of X, Y, & Z. X & Y are NOUN, so Z should be noun as well. Parallelism is not maintained among three items. Lack of verb leads to a Fragmented sentence. Incorrect use of WHICH. Hence Incorrect
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests - CORRECT
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting Lack of verb leads to a Fragmented sentence. Hence Incorrect.

GMATNinja I have 1 doubt in this question. Three things are suggesting something about a person's something, then how can we use a singular "suggests"; shouldn't "suggests" be replaced with "suggest" in all the options?

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

"social imagery", "thought and figures" and "images" should be parallel

(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting -the usage of "suggesting" makes this sentence a fragment.
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests -"borrowing" is not parallel
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests -"she" makes the structure unparallel
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests -Correct maintains parallelism.
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting -the usage of "suggesting" makes this sentence a fragment.

hi, can someone please explain why we have 'figures , and the images she borrowed...' in the original sentence
how is it different in meaning from a sentence that says 'figures and the images she borrowed..'

it would really help if someone could answer this one.
I am not sure i have come across , and so easily in newspapers etc. Maybe I have not been reading carefully enough, Hence I am not aware of this essential rule.
can some one be kind enough to throw some light on this.

Hello gmatexam439,

I will be glad to help you with this one.

Let's take a look at the structure of correct sentence:

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of

solar imagery,
Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and
images borrowed from ancient classicism

suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.


Please note that the subject of the sentence is singular noun blending and hence takes singular verb suggests. The said imagery, the figures, and the images do not act as the subject.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha