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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
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It's not possible to use a singular word like "treaty" to make different nouns with several different modifiers. If we want to talk about more than one thing, we always need a plural noun. A few examples:

The first, second, and third place winners are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. (Notice that even though there is only one winner and one medal in each category, we still use the plural noun.)

I tried the chocolate, caramel, and coffee varieties.

The Swedish, Finnish, and Norwegian governments were all parties to the agreement.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
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Let's take a look at that. Here's the sentence with the correct choice filled in:

The Lisbon treaty, successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties would create a permanent club rulebook.

First, we can use the touch rule. Generally, modifiers starting with "which," "who," or "that" apply to the immediately preceding noun. In this case, that's constitution.

We can verify this with meaning. The Lisbon treaty followed the EU constitution, which followed three other treaties. If we meant that the Lisbon treaty followed the three other treaties, why state separately that it was the successor to the EU constitution. Why not say that it followed all four things? The phrase "in turn" helps to make this clear. We use this phrase when someone or something both acts and is acted upon: "I taught the song to my children, who in turn taught it to their friends."
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
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The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties, would create a permanent club rulebook

A) ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties.

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

C) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, that in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

D) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht treaty, Amsterdam treaty and Nice treaty

E) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaty




A) ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties. 'which' must modify 'ill fated European constitution' and not 'constitution's successor'

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties. Correct Choice

C) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, that in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties. That preceded by ','

D) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht treaty, Amsterdam treaty and Nice treaty. 'treaty' is mentioned three times and that is not required.

E) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaty. need plural 'treaties'
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
Kindly post your reasoning for different options.

Correct sentence is from https://www.economist.com/node/17307985
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
Can B as an answer challenged ? i might be wrong , but i think we can term B as given below

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

Followed Maastricht
Followed Amsterdam
Followed Nice treaties ( treaties may refer to more then one treaty of Nice)

Can anyone comment ?
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
nice explanation yossarian84. Kudos to you
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
hirendhanak wrote:
Can B as an answer challenged ? i might be wrong , but i think we can term B as given below

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

Followed Maastricht
Followed Amsterdam
Followed Nice treaties ( treaties may refer to more then one treaty of Nice)

Can anyone comment ?



I agree with you , this answer looks debatable and i would like to know the source of this question
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
) ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties ---> Check possesive - Out A

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

C) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, that in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties --> THAT is incorrectly placed

D) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht treaty, Amsterdam treaty and Nice treaty --> NOTICE Maastricht treaty ....this is OUT

E) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaty --NOTICE Amsterdam and Nice treaty ......this is OUT
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
yossarian84 wrote:
saxenashobhit wrote:
The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties, would create a permanent club rulebook

A) ill-fated European Union constitution's successor, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

C) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, that in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

D) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht treaty, Amsterdam treaty and Nice treaty

E) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaty


"Which" in A modifies "successor" but the context of the sentence means that it should modify the Lisbon Treaty instead.

In the rest,
"which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaty" is a modifier and a non-essential phrase. So we've to use "which". This rules out C.

B vs D vs E
E - Plural form of treaty (treaties) must be used as there are three treaties discussed.
D - "Treaty" is redundant.
B - Best in the lot and hence the answer.


Added color and bold for emphasis.
Without reading this article in The Economist, how can we clearly discern what the "which in turn followed the X, Y and Z treaties" is supposed to modify?
A) The Lisbon Treaty was the ill-fated EU Constitution's successor. The successor was in turn followed by X, Y and Z treaties.
B) The Lisbon Treaty was the successor to the ill-fated EU Constitution. The EU Constitution was in turn followed by X, Y and Z treaties.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
sayantanc2k can you please provide an explanation for this question.
My confusion is regarding" Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties "

My undertstanding is that when we have a list of similar items they follow this construction X,Y,and Z treaty
where the word treaty can be put in the end instead of repeating.
Now here x,Y and Z means that y,z are parallel and X is parallel to y and Z.
So in this way if we remove Y and Z the list reads as X treaties.
How do we evaluate in this context what is right treaties or treaty.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
goforgmat:

You are asking why it is not E. Here is the answer.

Your choice E implies that there was one "X,Y,Z" treaty. Sort of like a bundle. That is wrong because that is not the intended meaning of the author. The author meant to say there were three treaties. So you have to say "X,Y,Z treaties". How do I know this? I know this from the original sentence. Original sentence says there were three treaties. It also starts with a treaty named after one city. So you can infer that a treaty is named after one city but not multiple cities. Clear ?

For me, paying more attention to the original sentence to understand the intended meaning is really paying off. I encourage you to do that too. GL.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
The underlining of the question is not proper. The questions shows the comma is underlined but its not the case.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
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ArulBharathi wrote:
The underlining of the question is not proper. The questions shows the comma is underlined but its not the case.


Corrected; thank you for pointing out.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
hirendhanak wrote:
Can B as an answer challenged ? i might be wrong , but i think we can term B as given below

B) successor to the ill-fated European Union constitution, which in turn followed the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties

Followed Maastricht
Followed Amsterdam
Followed Nice treaties ( treaties may refer to more then one treaty of Nice)

Can anyone comment ?


The way the sentence is written, those 3 should be comprehended as treaties.

Similar examples: the one-dollar, two-dollar, and five-dollar bills.
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
Can't understand how B is the answer. I agree that it looks better than other choices, but shouldn't there be a comma after Amsterdam?
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
Can sum1 pls explain what is the difference between the use of which and [,which] ?

is it not that [,which] is for the whole sentence before the comma and which is for the word before which ?
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Re: The Lisbon treaty, ill-fated European Union constitution's [#permalink]
nisharma wrote:
Can't understand how B is the answer. I agree that it looks better than other choices, but shouldn't there be a comma after Amsterdam?


The Oxford comma is not mandatory.
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