V11-09

Official Solution:

The great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination in a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich.

A. The great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination in a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich.
B. In a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway accounted for a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination.
C. To the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote a letter, being an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination.
D. In a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination.
E. Writing a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway accounted for a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination.


The challenge here is to place the prepositional phrase in the letter correctly.

A. The Broadway act seems to happen in the letter itself.

B. Wrong usage of idiom: The idiom accounted for means to be the cause of.

C. The participle being wrongly refers to the subject Ernest Hemingway.

D. Correct. Fixes all the problems above: Placement of the prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence makes the meaning clear.

E. Wrong usage of idiom: The idiom accounted for means to be the cause of.


Answer: D
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I feel the construction -- "actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer" gives kind of impression that the great writer is modifying Marlene Dietrich and the explanation for choice A is not complete.

If you concentrate only on a part of a sentence in isolation, then you will tend to make wrong judgements - one effective technique to tackle tough SC questions is to understand the structure of the sentence as a whole (which is the main clause, which is the subject, which the main verb, which are the independent clauses which are the modifiers etc.).

If there were a comma after "the great writer", then your point could be valid. In this sentence the main clause of this sentence is the great writer ... wrote..., in which the great writer is the subject and wrote is the verb. Consider the sentence:

In a letter to him, I wrote about..... Would you say I is a modifier of him?

In a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, the great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination.

In a letter ..... , Ernest Hemingway,the great writer of the 20th century, wrote......

would the above one be more correct?? I lost interest in D the moment I saw "the great writer followed by first part of sentence "

Option D and your variation both are alright. Option D uses a direct adjective phrase, whereas you have used the same as a modifier.

Can you kindly explain the option choice in a more elaborate way. I am stuck between option A & D. I could not find any of difference between the two and choose A. Thanx

Posted from my mobile device

Quality of question is ok, but explanation is not at all good, more than questions, explanations are difficult to understand.

daagh

Can you help in solving this question?

Option a , why it is wrong (option d no doubt it is correct ) but can't understand from the explanation provided here. How buzzare act happens only in the letter. Can some legend throw light on this ?

We do have a similar official OG question explaining in detail : https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-nephew-of-pliny-the-elder-wrote-the-only-eyewitness-account-of-the-85872.html
I hope this will suffice!
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My 2 cents:

The great writer of the 20th century Ernest Hemingway wrote an account of a bizarre Broadway act from his own imagination in a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich.

Let us simplify the sentence -
The great writer of X wrote an account of Y from Z in A to MD

Once we simplify the sentence, we can observe that --> "from Z in A" seems to suggest that "imagination (Z)" was " in letter (A). This is wrong. The imagination was written/described in the letter, it was not IN THE LETTER. That is why we need to disconnect the "letter" from the given prepositional phrases.
The disconnection is perfectly done in option D.

Please correct me if there are any flaws in my explanation.
Thank you.

Hey, Since i find many people confused on this problem, I am sharing my idea of approaching this question, hope you find helpful.
Basically, Wrote is not acting as the verb for the letter and thus I removed in the letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich as this was not falling in line with the sentence and reading the sentence without the highlighted part was giving me more sense.
option D, clearly did what I was expecting as a result, I went with option D.

Hi.

Could you please explain why Broadway act happens in a letter? Hence, option A is not correct. I struggle to understand why option A is not correct.

Thank you so much.

First of all, this question is a high-level question. It tests prepositional phrase and idiom. As others have written on the idiom, I will prefer to explain why Option D is correct (i.e. explanation around prepositional phrase).

Let's first look at the structure of Option D.

In a letter to the Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, (It is a prepositional phrase)
the great writer of the 20th century (Phrase modifying noun after)
Ernest Hemingway (Subject)
wrote (verb)
an account (object)
of a bizarre Broadway act (Prepositional phrase)
from his own imagination. (another Prepositional phrase)

Hence, there is no mistake in Choice D.

Note that as the sentence begins with the prepositional phrase 'in a letter.....' (+) 'comma', words subsequent to comma do not modify words before comma from the prepositional phrase.

If the sentence were 'A letter to Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich, a great writer, ..... ' then words after comma i.e. a great writer would modify noun before comma i.e. Marlene Dietrich.

Hence, a critical takeaway - when a sentence begins with a prepositional phrase, words after comma may be modifying something else succeeding them and not the words before comma from the prepositional phrase.

Please give me kudos if you find my explanation relevant.

I didnt understand why option D is a better answer choice than option A? souvik101990 bb sayantanc2k