The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sy

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 meaning of this sentence is that Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959 and was later made into both a film and a musical.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the placeholder pronoun "it", producing an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the prepositional phrase "in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun", producing an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the noun "Lorraine Hansberry", illogically conveying that Lorraine Hansberry was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; the intended meaning is that Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses "The first commercially successful drama...Broadway" to modify the noun phrase "Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun", conveying the intended meaning - that Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. Further, Option D uses the phrase "and was later made into both a film and a musical", conveying the intended meaning - that A Raisin in the Sun was made by some other entity into both a film and a musical.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "and later made it into both a film and a musical"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that A Raisin in the Sun made some unspecified thing into both a film and a musical; the intended meaning is that A Raisin in the Sun was made by some other entity into both a film and a musical.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase", you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

clearly D....

the 1st clause in A, B and C, is modifying the wrong thing...

really liked E, but the "it" at the very end made me sick....

so it has to be D....

errors in stimulus : require modification for novel
modification error A,B are out
incorrect modification : clause modified to writer C IS OUT
pronoun error in E : IT has no antecedent

hence IMO D

A. it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made
B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was later made
C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made
D. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award in 1959 and was later made
E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it ( ?? IT refers to novel ??)

This question starts with a warm-up. Immediately after warm up , the thing which is discussed should come next. Only D and E do that. Between D and E, D is the answer as in E ambiguous it is used.

A. it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made Wrong - dangling modifier because "it" cannot take the opening modifier; "and was later made" is a fragment because a subject is needed.

B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was later made Wrong - dangling modifier

C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made Wrong - misplaced modifier in that "Lorraine Hansberry" is not the first commercially successful drama.

D. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award in 1959 and was later made Best answer choice

E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it Wrong - ", and" needs a subject or the comma needs to be removed.

IMO D

The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made into both a film and a musical.

A. it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made - Misplace modifier. It ambiguous . No subject for was clause
B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was later made - Misplace modifier
C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made -Misplace modifier
D. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award in 1959 and was later made
E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it - no referent, need a proper subject

The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made into both a film and a musical.

A. it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made
B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was later made
C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made
D. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award in 1959 and was later made
E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it

The modifier-
The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway

should clearly modify w/o any ambiguity A Raisin in the Sun.
D and E both qualifies.

E has a meaning issues.
E is breaking the rule
[clause], and [clause]
after and we need a clear subject-verb agreement. it has no clear referent. Infact it is creating meaning issue.

D completely maintains the and marker rule-

[clause], and [clause]
D is a clear winner!!!!

"The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway...."
The X and The Y construction presented in the non-underlined part appears to be plural but they take singular verb in "WAS" in the correct option.
Kindly help to clear my misunderstanding.
Thanks

Hey DinkarDK ,

Looks like you didn't understand the structure of the sentence properly.

The current structure is

Modifier 1 AND Modifier 2, Independent Clause. Here both modifiers are referring to the Subject of the Independent clause.

It is true that Modifier 1 and Modifier 2 should be || but it is wrong to say that the subject of the Independent clause must be followed by a plural verb.

Example:

A male and an Indian, Ramesh is already half screwed for his MBA applications.

Here, both male and Indian are modifiers and are referring to Mr Ramesh.

Similarly, in the question given

Modifier 1 : The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically

AND

Modifier 2: The first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway

Both of these are referring to "Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun".

Does that make sense?

The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made into both a film and a musical.

Meaning Analysis: "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry was the first commercially successful drama that depected Black family life. It was also the very first drama that was played by a black woman. This drama won the NY award and ,based on this play, a movie and a musical was produced.

Sentence Structure:
The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, (Noun modifier)
it (Subject ; pronoun refers to the noun "drama")
was (verb)
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (object of the sentence)
that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959 (Relative pronoun modifier beginning with "that") ("That" acts as a subject to the verb "won")
, and (parallelism marker)
was later made (second verb to the subject "that")
into both a film and a musical. (Object of the sentence)


We have a Sentence structure/modifier error out here. The noun modifier "the first commercially..." must modify a noun. And to make the meaning clear, the noun must be placed right after the modifier. However, we notice that an IC "it was..." is placed and this structure is incorrect.

I am not quite happy with the ",and" between the verbs "won" and "later mad". I would reject the choice solely based on this reason but I would just be a bit cautious about its presence.
E.g. The actor won the "best actor award" and gave a wonderful speech. (Preferred)
E.g. The actor won the "best actor award", and gave a wonderful speech. (Less Preferred)

Note - Authors do use a COMMA in a sentence to place an "intended pause" while reading. Hence it is advisable not never consider such issues while eliminating - unless we have a COMMA SPLICE, parallelism, comma between a subject and a verb, and other such deterministic errors in which the COMMA plays and important role.


As mentioned, we need a noun immediately after the modifier.


Now the modifier "the first commercially..." seems to modify the noun "Lorraine Hansberry" and that is illogical.


The modifier error is rectified and the meaning is conveyed in a clear and precise manner.


The modifier error is rectified, however, we now seem to have a meaning error towards the end of the sentence. The phrase "later made it into both a film and a musical" seems to suggest that the drama "A Raisin in the Sun" made something into a film and a musical. This is illogical as a drama cannot make anything as such.

Correct Choice: (D)

abhimahna
For option D, if we change it to later made itself*.... will the option be correct then?
The common verbal usage of * I made it into goldman sach as an associate, is it a dummy pronoun?
There were some post in the past by GMATNinja saying dummy pronoun is not always the case to rule out an answer choices, hence, my question.

E is out, unless the name of the director/producer was "later"!

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