Excavators at the Indus Valley site of Harappa in eastern Pakistan say

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 the discovery of inscribed shards dating to circa 2800–2600 B.C. indicates that the development of a Harappan writing system, the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership, and the standardization of weights for trade or taxation occurred many decades, if not centuries, earlier than was previously believed.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Modifiers + Pronouns

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “discovery” with the plural verb “indicate”. Further, Option A suffers from a pronoun error, as the pronoun “their” lacks a clear and logical referent. Additionally, Option A uses the construction "indicate + clause" rather than the preferred construction "indicate + that + clause", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “discovery” with the plural verb “indicate”. Further, Option B alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “using inscribed seals…ownership”; the use of the present participle (“verb+ing” – “using” in this sentence) incorrectly implies that the development of a Harappan writing system was done by using inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership; the intended meaning is that the development of a Harappan writing system and the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership were separate actions.

C: This answer choice suffers from a pronoun error, as the pronoun “their” lacks a clear and logical referent. Further, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “using inscribed seals…ownership”; the use of the present participle (“verb+ing” – “using” in this sentence) incorrectly implies that the development of a Harappan writing system was done by using inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership; the intended meaning is that the development of a Harappan writing system and the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership were separate actions.

D: This answer choice suffers from a pronoun error, as the pronoun “their” lacks a clear and logical referent. Further, Option D uses the construction "indicate + clause" rather than the preferred construction "indicate + that + clause", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun “discovery” with the singular verb “indicates”. Further, Option E avoids the pronoun error seen in Options A, C, and D, as it uses no pronouns. Moreover, Option E uses the phrase “the use of inscribed seals…ownership”, conveying the intended meaning – that the development of a Harappan writing system and the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership were separate actions. Additionally, Option E uses the preferred construction "indicate + that + clause".

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi tcsing,

I can understand your concern. I also used to wonder why that is not followed by this reporting word.

Well it is advisable to use a reporting word after say, not mandatory though. An answer choice would not be incorrect just because it is not using 'that' after a reporting verb i.e. it must be having other apparent errors.

The question that you have posted is and official one, so you can take it for granted the usage of say is correct as it is not in the underlined part.

To sum up if you have two grammatically and contextually correct answer choices, the only difference is that one contains "that" after a reporting verb another doesn't then choose the one with "that"

The below usages of the verb say are totally correct.

Senators say nursing home rule is not followed
Some teachers say MPS make-up class guidelines are not followed
Apple now says it is looking into how users can reset their account passwords to ensure that their data is protected

to answer the question, it tests parallel structure

the discovery.... indicates that the development, the use of ...and the standardization of...occurred earlier than was prev believed
Correct Answer -- (C)

Hope it helps,

Vercules

Just a few thoughts:-

You can drop "that" when it introduces or works as the direct object, but you can't do it if it works as the subject of the verb.

I thought (that) I was too shy
In this case, "I" is the subject of "thought", while "that" is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause that works as the direct object of the verb.
You can drop "that".

The car (that) I bought is red
In this sentence, we have a relative clause in which "I" is the subject of "bought", and "that" is a relative pronoun that is the direct object of bought. Therefore, you can drop it too.

The car that is parked outside is red.
In this case, there is another relative clause, but "that" works as the subject of "is", so you can't drop it.

Hi all,

When "that" is used to connect an IC with a DC, then it is not necessary to explicitly write "that" between the two clauses.
You can read the following the article to know more about various usages of "that":

learn-how-that-can-help-you-demystify-a-long-sentence-138358.html

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Mike - Thanks for your detailed response. I believe, with choice B, we also have Subject Verb agreement issue as compared to choice E. Right ?

Dear rahulsehgal
Actually, my friend, that's not correct. Both (B) & (E) are 100% grammatically correct. The only thing that distinguishes them is logic and meaning. Choice (B) has a plural subject, P and R, which is in full agreement with the verb "occurred" --- past tense verbs don't change for singular & plural anyway.
Does all this make sense?
Mike

Hello Mike,

Thanks a lot for the explanation. I was just wondering what is the subject of Choice B? I was wondering if "discovery" is the subject (which is Singular) and hence if it needs to have a plural verb. I was under the impression that for Simple Present sentences like this one the rule is that a Singular subject should be followed by a plural verb. Also for the following:

Sandy plays with her friends

is it correct here that Sandy is the (singular) subject and plays is the (plural) verb? I was kind of using this sentence as an example while solving the above.

Can you please help? Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
Sri

Dear Sri,
You know, in my above analyses, and even in my response to rahulsehgal, I totally overlooked the split at the very beginning of the underlined section. I was so focused on the SVA within the "that" clause that I missed the most obvious thing at the beginning! Yes, yes, yes, singular subject "discovery" absolutely must take the singular verb "indicates." That is clearly a BIG problem with (B), which is wrong for both grammatical and logical reasons.

Thank you very much for pointing this out, and many apologies to rahulsehgal.

Mike

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply to my earlier post. I wanted to know if there is any rule that a Singular subject should always take a Singular Verb or if a Plural Subject should always take a Plural verb. This is something that confuses me. I was under the impression that when Simple Present tense is used, a Singular Subject will take a Plural Verb and vice-versa. Is this correct? Thanks a lot for your valuable time and help.

Best Regards,
Sri

Dear Sri,
I'm happy to respond. What you are asking concerns the topic of Subject-Verb Agreement, one of the major areas on the GMAT SC. In the Simple Present, a singular subject (the box) always takes a singular verb (is/ weighs), and a plural subject (the boxes) always takes a plural verb (are/ weigh). Again, this is a crucially important rule on the GMAT SC. Here's an article:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/subject-ve ... orrection/

Does this make sense?
Mike

Hi Mike,

I have a small here. While discarding option B you used the following reasoning ,

You simplified the question to a parallel structure of the form, indicates that P, modifier of P, and R.

I want to ask, can't we consider the second entity in the parallel structure as a gerund phrase instead of thinking of it as a modifier that modifies the first entity P.

Can we ever have a construction where we have 3 parallel structure X, Y, and Z where

X = participial phrase in a verb-ed form.
Y = participial phrase in a verb-ing form.
Z= participial phrase in a verb-ed form again similar to X.

Will in this case Y be still considered as a modifier of the X instead of as a participial phrase parallel to the other two entities?

I discarded option B based on the subject-verb disagreement problem and not on the modifier problem. I considered the second entity as a gerund phase and since gerund phrases act as nouns , I thought it keeps the parallelism intact by being parallel with the other two entities which are Noun phrases.

Please clarify my reasoning here.

Many Thanks.

Dear Aldorado,
I'm happy to respond.

This gets into a very subtle issue: simple gerunds vs. complex gerunds. A simple gerund is simply the -ing form of the verb, used as a noun (e.g. "using"). A complex gerund has an article and perhaps an adjective (e.g. "the using of", or "the advance using of"). A simple gerund can never be in parallel with ordinary nouns, but a complex gerund can be in parallel with ordinary nouns. That's why "using" can't be interpreted as a gerund, and "the using of" would be so incredibly awkward that it wouldn't be right either.

As to your second question, yes, theoretically, one could have three participles in a row modifying a noun, past-present-past, and all three modifying the noun, by that would be a rare literary form, not at all likely to show up on the GMAT.
The soldier, wounded twice, still feeling pain, shattered in his confidence, was not able to return to the front lines.
What you are suggesting, past-present-past, with the middle modifier modifying the first participle ---- well, I guess that would be possible, but I am not going to try a concoct a sentence for that example, and I would bet the Star of India that it would NEVER appear on the GMAT.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

If this were a rapid-fire round, remove choices A, C, and D for using the pronoun 'their' without a logical referent and B for erring on S-V number agreement. E remains.

Excavators at the Indus Valley site of Harappa in eastern Pakistan say the discovery of inscribed shards dating to circa 2800 - 2600 B.C. indicate their development of a Harappan writing system, the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership, and the standardization of weights for trade or taxation occurred many decades, if not centuries, earlier than was previously believed.

a) indicate their development of a Harappan writing system, the use of

- as discovery is singular, it should be "indicates" and not indicate.
- "their" does not have a clear antecedent.

b) indicate the the development of a Harappan writing system, using

- as discovery is singular, it should be "indicates" and not indicate
- "using" is not parallel to "development" and "standardization"

c) indicates that their development of a Harappan writing system, using

- "their" does not have a clear antecedent
- "using" is not parallel to "development" and "standardization"

d) indicates the development of a Harappan writing system, their use of

- "their" does not have a clear antecedent

e) indicates that the development of a Harappan writing system, the use of

- CORRECT - indicates is correctly referring to discovery, the use of is parallel to development and standardization.

Hence, Answer is E

Did you like the answer? 1 Kudos Please

'A' and 'B' were eliminated, as indicate does not agree with the discovery. 'C' and 'D' - eliminated use of 'their' is not correct in the sentence, no reference. Thus, "E" is the correct choice- In the sentence, 'indicates' agrees with 'discovery' and is followed by that to introduce a clause. Also, the three parallel phrases begin with an article (the), a noun, and the preposition of are correctly used.

Hello there,

Just wanted to say that AnubhavK has done a very precise analysis of this official sentence. Great job there. Keep up the good work.

I just want to say something about the parallel entities in the correct answer choice.

Yes, incidentally, all the three parallel elements start with article the followed by noun phrase and preposition phrase.

However, it is not necessary that the parallel elements need to be this identically parallel in structure. As long as the core elements play the same role in the sentence, they make a grammatical parallel list.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Excavators at the Indus Valley site of Harappa in eastern Pakistan say the discovery of inscribed shards dating to circa 2800–2600 B.C. indicate their development of a Harappan writing system, the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for marking ownership, and the standardization of weights for trade or taxation occurred many decades, if not centuries, earlier than was previously believed.

(A) indicate their development of a Harappan writing system, the use of - subject-verb agreement issue - discovery needs singular indicates

(B) indicate that the development of a Harappan writing system, using - subject-verb agreement issue - discovery needs singular indicates

(C) indicates that their development of a Harappan writing system, using - pronoun their antecedent issue -- antecedent excavators is non-sense

(D) indicates the development of a Harappan writing system, their use of - pronoun their antecedent issue -- antecedent excavators is non-sense

(E) indicates that the development of a Harappan writing system, the use of - Correct

Answer E