Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes

Question

Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

A. Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

B. The various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, firmly established by the 12th century, created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, was exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

C. The spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, exemplifying the religious and cultural exchange created by the European-wide network of trading people on the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, was firmly established by the 12th century.

D. Exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela were firmly established by the 12th century, creating a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange.

E. Firmly established by the 12th century and exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade and people, religious, and cultural exchange.

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Prithvi08 · Answer

Can anyone explain why D is wrong?

medicaldevicegirl · Answer

Yes. It is unnecessarily passive. Pay attention to the bolded parts:

D.  Exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, the various pilgrimage  routes to Santiago de Compostela  were firmly established  by the 12th century,  creating  a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange.

“Exemplified in the spread… routes were established… creating a network”

Also, the exemplified clause is modifying the wrong thing. The pilgrimage routes are not what was exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style, but rather the European-wide network of cultural exchange. A cultural exchange can be exemplified by an architectural style, but a route could not.

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CattoSiddy · Answer

KarishmaB ,  AndrewN ,  GMATNinja

Can someone please help explain why option (E) is not correct?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  CattoSiddy . The parallel modifiers  established  and  exemplified  rule out answer choice (E), since each on its own should logically modify the noun that follows. Test:

Firmly established by the 12th century,  the  various pilgrimage  routes ...

i.e. The routes were established by the 12th century. This makes sense. Check the other half:

Exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture,  the  various pilgrimage  routes ...

i.e. The routes were exemplified in the spread of a style of architecture. How can that be so? The meaning is nonsensical. Compare to a pared down version of the original sentence:

Firmly established by the 12th century, the routes created a network of X, Y, and Z, exemplified in the spread of a type of architecture.

i.e. The routes were established by the 12th century, and it is the  network    that was exemplified in the architecture. The sentence may be lengthy, but the modifiers are modifying the correct nouns. See if you can follow the logic of the red-colored words below for each of the wrong answer choices.

Perhaps the answer choices make more sense now. Thank you for thinking to ask, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

A. Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

This answer choice places the modifier ( Firmly established by the 12th century ) directly before the noun it describes ( the various pilgrimage routes ). The list of the sentence displays correct nested parallelism of (A, B and C): (A)  trade , (B)  people , and (C)    exchange .

Note also that the final modifying phrase  exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture  logically modifies  religious and cultural exchange and not network . The network is a network of  trade, people and exchange , but the Romanesque style can only be an  example  of  religious and cultural exchange  (not of trade and people).

B. The various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, firmly established by the 12th century, created a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange, was exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture.

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

In the original sentence the phrase  exemplified...architecture  modified the noun  exchange . In the corrected sentence the addition of the conjugated verb  was  ( was exemplified ) turns the last part of the sentence from a modifier into a clause that lacks a subject or some kind of conjunction (like and) to connect the two clauses. We do not know  what   was exemplified  - hence, the last part of the sentence is not a correctly constructed clause, but rather a fragment.

Note that even if the sentence were corrected grammatically (for example, by adding the connector  and  before  was exemplified ), this would turn  The various pilgrimage routes  into the subject of  was exemplified  (although  was  would have to be changed to  were  to agree with the subject  routes ). But this would also radically change the meaning of the sentence. In the original sentence  religious and cultural exchange  is  exemplified , not the  routes .

C. The spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, exemplifying the religious and cultural exchange created by the European-wide network of trading people on the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, was firmly established by the 12th century.

Incorrect.

This answer choice unnecessarily changes the meaning of the original sentence by turning  The spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture  into the subject of the sentence, instead of  the pilgrimage routes . It also unnecessarily removes the connector and from the parallel construction  trade  and  people  and turns them into one concept,  trading people .

D. Exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela were firmly established by the 12th century, creating a European-wide network of trade, people, and religious and cultural exchange.

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect and illogical. The corrected sentence begins with a modifier:  Exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture . A modifier should be placed right next to the noun it describes. In the original sentence, this phrase modified the noun  religious and cultural exchange . In the corrected sentence however, it is illogically placed before the phrase  the various pilgrimage routes .

What helps us identify this question as a Dangling or Misplaced Modifier question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A modifier

Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase at the beginning of the sentence, and separated by a comma). The modifier should modify the noun following the comma. 
  Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase appearing in the middle to end of a sentence and preceded by a comma; the modifier should refer back to the nearest subject or clause or show the result of the previous clause. 
  Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase appearing in the middle to end of a sentence and NOT preceded by a comma; the modifier should modify the preceding noun or noun phrase.

Whenever you see this Stop Sign, focus on the modifier: check whether the modifier has something to modify and, if so, that it modifies what it is supposed to.

E. Firmly established by the 12th century and exemplified in the spread of the Romanesque style of cathedral architecture, the various pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela created a European-wide network of trade and people, religious, and cultural exchange.

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect and illogical. The corrected sentence begins with a modifier (there are actually two modifiers):  Firmly established ... and exemplified ...architecture . A modifier should be placed right next to the noun it describes. In the original sentence,  exemplified ... cathedral architecture  modified the noun  religious and cultural exchange . In the corrected sentence however, it is illogically placed before the phrase  the various pilgrimage routes , which it now wrongly modifies.

In addition, the first and third items in the list at the end of the sentence are nouns (  people ,    exchange  ), but the second item is an adjective (  religious  ).

Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Firmly established by the 12th century, the various pilgrimage routes

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