The Parthenon was a church from 1204 until 1456, when Athens

Hi Abid,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

The Comma + Verb-ing modifier modifies the action in the preceding clause. This preceding clause can be an Independent or a Dependent Clause. Ans also, action denoted by the Comma + Verb-ing modifier must make sense with the Subject of the action modified by this modifier.

In this sentence, the cause preceding the Comma + Verb-ing Modifiers "establishing..." and "using..." is "when Athens was taken by General...
So, here the action these modifiers modify is "was taken". The Subject of this modified action is "Athens". Hence, this modification is illogical because Athens did not do any of the two actions denoted by the Comma + Verb-ing Modifiers here.

These actions were actually performed by the General. Choice A is the clear winner here that conveys that meaning perfectly.

For more details on the correct use Comma + Verb-ing modifiers, please read the following article:
usage-of-verb-ing-modifiers-135220.html

Hope this helps.
Thanks
Shraddha
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Ah, I think I see the issue. You're thinking about "like" and "as" when those words are used as comparisons. If you're comparing two nouns ("Like a pig, Charlie eats with tremendous enthusiasm"), you'd want to use "like"; if you're comparing two clauses ("Just as pigs are voracious eaters, Charlie also can consume his entire body weight in a single trip to the buffet"), you'll want to use "as".

Trouble is, this isn't a comparison at all! In the phrase "the Turkish sultan... used the Acropolis as a fortress", we're not trying to compare "the Acropolis" with "a fortress" -- the Acropolis is simply put to use as a fortress. The phrase "used as" just indicates the building's function. So there's no need to even worry about the distinction between "like" and "as", since there is no comparison taking place.

I hope this helps!
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A is correct.
You don’t even need to stress on as vs like in this question as all the answer choices other than A are wrong.

Like means “similar to” or “in a manner similar to”.

(B) who, establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like – establishing and used not parallel
(C) who, when he had established a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like – we don’t need when and past perfect here. Moreover as should be used instead of like.

D and E are way too off.

Answer A

"as" is correct in comparison to "like" and "to be". So, B, C and D are out.

Out of A and E, A seems to be logical and correct.

Hi,
Comma + verbing modifies preceding independent clause,then how establishing and using is modifying athens,which is actually a dependent clause.

Thanks
Abid

The Parthenon was a church from 1204 until 1456, when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror, the Turkish sultan, who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress.

(A) who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as

(B) who, establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like Paralelism

(C) who, when he had established a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like Paralelism

(D) who had established a mosque in the building, using the Acropolis to be Paralelism

(E) establishing a mosque in the building and using the Acropolis as Verb is required

GMATNinja mikemcgarry - can you please explain this. I think As + clause is the correct usage and Like + noun is also the correct usage and so A and E would be wrong

Hello saurabh9gupta,


Although your question is not for me, I would like to help you with this one.


The structure as + clause is used when the sentence intends to present comparison.

But this official sentence does not intend to present any comparison. It intends to say that the Turkish Sultan used the Acropolis itself as a fortress. The Acropolis has not been compared with a fortress.

Since the sentence intends to present the role of Acropolis as a fortress, use of as + a fortress (a noun entity) is absolutely correct.

It is very important that you understand the intended meaning of the sentence to be able to decide whether the sentence intends to present comparison or function and hence, use the correct structure accordingly.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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This is example of parallelism. also, the sentence is in past tense, so parallelism list needs to have past tense of verb. (in some case, parallelism can go have mix match of tense but those are rare cases and meaning is more important)

Errors are highlighted in Bold


The Parthenon was a church from 1204 until 1456, when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror, the Turkish sultan, who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress.

(A) who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as - Correct, since established and used are parallel.

(B) who, establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like

(C) who, when he had established a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like - No sequence, hence use of past perfect tense is wrong.

(D) who had established a mosque in the building, using the Acropolis to be

(E) establishing a mosque in the building and using the Acropolis as - No need of present perfect tense

Hello cantaffordname,

A very good analysis of the problem, I must say. Keep up the excellent work.

I would like to add to your analysis the error about the usage of like in Choices B & C. The word like is used to present either the comparison or the examples. But this sentence intends to convey that the Acropolis itself was used as a fortress. It means that the Acropolis = fortress. Since the Acropolis functioned or acted as a fortress, the sentence must use as to present this intended function as we see in the correct answer choice.

Usage of to be is incorrect in Choice D for the same reason.


Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi egmat,

Mam, can you elaborate the problem in "Option B"

(B) who, establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like

My thought process is
1. Since who is in between commas ,who, it is correctly modifying the General.
2. establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like shows cause and effect in which establishing phrase is the cause for the used clause.
3. Used modifies the General

Hence gives the intended meaning.

Hi @e-gmat,

in choice E, will 'establishing' not modify General Mohammed ?
as 'the Turkish sultan' is a non essential modifier and is within a comma pair. Therefore, there's no comma after General Mohammed The conqueror

Regards,
Ahmed

Dear Moderators GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo could you please remove the tag for "comparison" seems this is the major issue for confusion
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The Parthenon was a church from 1204 until 1456, when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror, the Turkish sultan, who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress.

(A) who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as. -> Correct. Who modifies sultan and has verb established and used. "as" is used to describe the function/role acropolis did.

(B) who, establishing a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like -> Incorrect. "like" should not be used to describe the function/role acropolis did.

(C) who, when he had established a mosque in the building, used the Acropolis like -> Incorrect. had established renders the sequence of the events illogical. It depicts that mosque was established first, then athen was taken by sultan.

(D) who had established a mosque in the building, using the Acropolis to be -> Incorrect. same error of option "C". "Using to be" is unidiomatic

(E) establishing a mosque in the building and using the Acropolis as -> Incorrect. This complete sentence is acting as a verbing modifier for the verb of the previous dependent clause, but does not makes sense with the subject of the clause.

GMATBusters

why usage of to be is wrong

Hello saby1410,

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can help resolve your doubt.

As mentioned by egmat above, the use of "as" is most appropriate here, as the sentence conveys that "the Acropolis" played the role of "a fortress"; remember, the idiom "A as B" conveys that A plays the role of B.

Further, the use of the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + be" in Option D) also leads to a somewhat incoherent meaning, as the infinitive verb form is the preferred construction for referring to the purpose or intent of action; thus, its use here seems to imply that "General Mohammed the Conqueror" used "the Acropolis" for the purpose of it being a "fortress".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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This is the second time i am answering this question and still marked wrong option

In option a "who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress" Is a clause right?

Somewhere I read if a pronoun starts the clause then Pronoun refers to the subject of the main clause(So subject would be either Athens or The Parthenon) Rejected A.
One more reason
when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror, the Turkish sultan is first clause (Dependent clause)

, who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress is second clause (dependent clause) . These are just connected by comma - So two dependent clause can be connected by comma?

Please answer all the above queries.

Thanks

Yes, it's a relative clause.


Your understanding is incorrect. The relative pronoun at the beginning of a relative clause does not have to refer to the subject of the main clause.


It's not quite correct to say that the relative clause "who established a mosque ..." is connected to the preceding clause by a comma. The relative clause plays a role within the clause "when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror ...." The relative clause "who established a mosque ..." is a modifier.

Here's another example:

John met the man who had invented the blender.

The relative clause "who had invented the blender" plays a role within the clause "John met ...."
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