During hot summer days to reduce the effect of sun s

Building a protective layer and fighting radiation are two different actions. And thus C can`t be the answer.
It may be B

I'd go with B on this one. In B: The Argan oil is acting as a blocking agent and not the face. In C, this is not the case. So, B must be right imho.

I agree with B on this one.

+1 for C.
Agree with Dinesh2Apr but I think he missed on mentioning the point that "which" can refer to non-touching noun in cases when the closest noun is short, has no place to be fitted otherwise, and does not add ambiguity for "which" reference. Here, clearly which is referring to Argan Oil and "on the face" has nowhere to go.

Hi foks, this is a slightly tricky question.

A) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.

The original sentence does not maintain parallelism. Dr. Steven suggests “drinking..” and “to apply..”

B) applying Argan oil, which acts as a blocking agent on the face, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation.

This choice distorts the meaning of the original sentence. Answer choice incorrectly implies that "on the face" Argan oil is acting as a blocking agent. But, actually argan oil acts as a blocking agent in general and not just on the face. By changing the placement of prepositional phrase we have distorted the meaning and logic of the sentence. Moreover, notice the word "acts"; it is simple past, which is used to express a characteristic or a general truth. So the meaning of the phrase "acts as a blocking agent on the face" is incorrect in the given sentence.

As a rule you can remember,

if you have "A + preposition + B, which..."
then:
--> if B works well (in terms of both grammar, common sense and the intended meaning of the sentence) as the antecedent of "which", then "which" should stand for B.
--> if B doesn't work as the antecedent, but "A + preposition + B" DOES work, then "which" can stand for "A (+ prep + B)"

The example in this post comes under the second category.

C) applying Argan oil on the face, which acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.

This is the correct answer choice. It may appear that the relative pronoun “which” is modifying “face” but it does not make any sense. It is in fact modifying “Argan oil”; the placement of the prepositional phrase “on the face” is correct because it cannot be placed anywhere in the sentence without changing the intended meaning of the sentence. Answer choice maintains parallel structures and retains the original meaning and, thus the correct choice.

D) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.

Same error as (A), parallelism is not maintained. Moreover, ‘as’ marks the comparison better than “like”. The argan oil acts “as” a blocking agent and not “like” a blocking agent.

E) applying Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allowing the skin time for building a protective layer fighting the radiation.

E again uses “like” inappropriately; furthermore it lacks the main verb, making a fragment. Thus, this is also an incorrect choice.


Hope my original question and explanation helped

Vercules

During hot summer days to reduce the effect of sun’s ultraviolet rays on the skin, Dr. Steven suggests drinking warm cold water and to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.
A) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.
B) applying Argan oil, which acts as a blocking agent on the face, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation.
C) applying Argan oil on the face, which acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.
D) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.
E) applying Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allowing the skin time for building a protective layer fighting the radiation.

A) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. - Incorrect - Parallelism (drinking and to apply)
B) applying Argan oil, which acts as a blocking agent on the face, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation. - Incorrect - Change of meaning ('which acts as a blocking agent on the face' sounds like it is exclusive to the face)
C) applying Argan oil on the face, which acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. - Correct!
D) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. - Incorrect - Parallelism (drinking and to apply)
E) applying Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allowing the skin time for building a protective layer fighting the radiation. - Incorrect - acting and allowing is unnecessary. Also, 'as' is better than 'like' since we are comparing an action.

Hope this helps

Please search for topics before posting. The same SC question has been discussed at during-hot-summer-days-to-reduce-the-effect-of-sun-s-147529.html

chetan2u , please merge the topics.

How do you determine of the modifier, 'which', modifies either the preposition or the actual subject? I have seen multiple cases of both scenarios.

Yasss I have the same thought as yours. In fact, stuck with this issue, I moved on to another split "build a protective layer and to fight the radiation"/ "build a protective layer to fight the radiation". But my reasoning is different from that of OE, and I marked option (B).

I agree that the second clause slightly changes the meaning of original sentence (1 function -> 2 functions), but I also learned that a correct answer should deliver a logical meaning. Regarding this context, I find it inappropriate to say that "a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer to fight".....

In my opinion, "protect" and "fight" are quite 2 different states, similar to "defense" and "offense". For example, when we use a shield to protect ourselves, intuitively, we just use it for protection only... I mean, when we fight something, we are in a more active state than when we protect ourselves, right?

Even in reality, I never read such line on cover of cosmetics products "build a protective layer to fight the radiation", but rather something such as "build a layer/mask to stop/ protect radiation". That's why I thought these are 2 different functions.

Experts GMATNinjaTwo, daagh, mikemcgarry, EMPOWERgmatRichC please shed some light. Thank you!

The end of answer C is correct, and the end of B is not, since it changes the meaning. This is a bit of a subtle point, but if you look at B, it says:

"allowing the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation"

which, inserting the implied words, means:

"allowing the skin time to build a protective layer, and allowing the skin time to fight the radiation"

But the skin doesn't need to be allowed time to fight the radiation -- the skin needs the protective layer, and that layer will fight the radiation. C gets that meaning across:

"allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation"

which, inserting the implied words, should be read to mean:

"allowing the skin time to build a protective layer in order to fight the radiation"

which conveys the intended meaning correctly. Incidentally, we use the word 'to' in this way a lot, as a shorthand for 'in order to': "to improve your GMAT score, you should do practice problems" really means "in order to improve your GMAT score, you should do practice problems".

And the final perplexing thing about this question is the beginning: "Dr. Steven suggests drinking warm cold water " -- what is "warm cold water"?

Yeah.. didn't realize that if the extra word "and" is added, then the clause will turn out to bear the meaning [the skin fights the radiation], which sounds more bizarre...

Thank you for pointing this out! +kudos to you

By the way, not until you mentioned "warm cold water" did I notice that strange word I must be more careful next time..

Between B and C
C is the correct answer
C removes ambiguity and conveys the meaning much better than B

As no found any biased answer, I am just writing down the explanation myself.

Just note that I applied the concept taught by GMAT Ninja from his Live video. I assume you know him most likely.

Rule 1. Eliminate definite errors.
"To apply" should be "applying" to parallel with "drinking". "and" is a trigger of the parallelism, which you don't want to miss out.
Knock out And D easily.

Rule 2. Focus on meaning
You most likely ended up with two answer choices, B and C. E could be easily eliminated because of wrong comparison, using "like", which changes entire meaning.

Ask yourself.
1) What acts as a blocking agent? it's an Argan oil. Not a face!
2) As "allowing" modifies prior clause, we need to think "What allows the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation?" It's "applying Argan oli on the face". Not just "Argan oil". Only the action that applying Argan oil on the face can allow the skin time to build a protective layer. Therefore C is clear in terms of meaning perspective.

It is a tricky point that without looking at more detail on its meaning, we could be trapped by the look of the sentence as B looks better on its look.

Look at the sentence "Argan oil on the face, which acts as ~".
"Which" modifies Argan oil or face? it looks ambiguous without thinking, just on the surface.

No. it's not ambiguous. It is not grammatically wrong to modify the noun placed prior to the preposition clause. "face" can act? No. Impossible. "Argan oil" can act? Yes. No ambiguity.

C) applying Argan oil on the face, which acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.

This is the correct answer for the following reasons
(1) which can modify Argan Oil since argan oil is followed by a preposition. The pronoun which can have either face or argan oil as a modifier since they are separated by a preposition. Which can definitely modify argan oil in this case.
(2) applying Argan oil is parallel to drinking warm water
(3) allowing the skin -> modifies the application of argan oil on the face
(4) to build a protective layer should NOT be parallel to fight the radiation since it does not make sense that argan oil allows skin to fight the radiation. Here allowing the skin time to build a protective layer leads to fighting the radiation.

A) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. — suggests “drinking” and “to apply”. Not parallel. Eliminate.

B) applying Argan oil, which acts as a blocking agent on the face, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer and to fight the radiation. — illogical meaning. Aegean oil acts as a blocking agent only on face? Not true. Eliminate.

C) applying Argan oil on the face, which acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. — “as” is used when describing the functioning in the capacity of something. For eg: Mira behaved as a teacher. Other uses of “as” is to compare clauses. We aren’t comparing here though. This is correct. Keep.

D) to apply Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation. — eliminate for same reasons as A.

E) applying Argan oil on the face, which acting like a blocking agent allowing the skin time for building a protective layer fighting the radiation. — like is used in comparison but the comparison here is incorrect. We are comparing the action “acting” with “blocking agent”. Incorrect. Eliminate.

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