A. huge fossil bones have been found by paleontologists, which appears to have been
====> passive voice, misplaced modifying clause which should refer huge fossil bones, huge fossil bones dig in the Egytian desert?? Subject of the main clause must be paleontologists.
B. huge fossil bones have been found by paleontologists, which appear to be from
====> same as A
C. it appears that paleontologists have found huge fossil bones that are from
====> awkward, "while digging in the Egytian desert" shows that we need paleontologists as a subject of the main clause.
D. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from what appears to be
====> wrong. sv agreement. "bones" is plural but appers is sigular
E. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones, which are from what
appear to be
====> correct.

First, I picked D but I found that D has subject verb agreement err.
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The only thing that matters is what you believe.

Doesn't "which are from what appears to be" sound conflicting?

On one hand we assert that the "fossils are" and on the other we say with some uncertainty that they "appear to be"?

"appears" refers to a singular dinosaur not the bones.

Well, after reading posts, I felt like stupid.
I am not afraid of choosing wrong answers but afraid of making the same mistakes...
Hopefully, all those mistakes that I made will help me to choose the right answers.
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The only thing that matters is what you believe.

Hey Freetheking,
Its not about feeling stupid... As U2 said, its about learning. You won't believe how stupid I feel most days when I am trying to solve quant problems.

And hope my comments didn't on your previous response didn't offend you... was just trying to understand your response. Sorry if I did...

Thanks/

I think its D as well.

If you look at the sentence carefully, yo will notice that the sentence talks about the "bones are from what APPEARS to be the second largest dinosaur"--here the relationship is between "dinosaur" and "appears", the bones are from what APPEARS to be a dinosaur..

I know it would seem odd for all of u but the OA is E I have also loookied around and seems that the explanation should be the following....Paleontologists(subject of sentence) didn't find the bones from the dinosaur, but the bones are from the dinosaur ( was posted in another place) I alos got cought by D.....
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“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.â€

Yes this is D. But I have a question:

Which one is better if E don't have a S-V agreement error:

D. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from what appears to be
E. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones, which are from what appears to be
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SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL, OXFORD - MBA CLASS OF 2008

PS Boss -- you have asked a wonderful question!. In fact on first reading the choices D and E, because I had not read carefully enough I was a bit troubled. However soon enough I realized the problem with E and ruled it out.

Now to your question - IMO, both choices would be correct insofar as the Grammar is concerned. However, the difference would be that of interpretation - when a relative clause such as WHICH has a comma preceding it, it is supposed to give a non-vital (like a by-the-way kind of) information - Example

Give me the red book, which is lying on the table.

Here which is lying on the table is a by-the-way-information

Now compare

Give me the red book which (or that) is lying on the table.

The ommission of comma in the second example makes the information (which is lying on the table) crucial to the interpretation of the sentence. In this case, I need the red book which is lying on the table; not the red book which COULD be lying underneath the table for arguments sake.

To put the same analogy -

In E, the information ", which are from what appears..." is presented as a by-the-way information. The digging has yielded fossils, which are from what appears to be the largest etc...

Another viewpoint - Compare the two sentences below.

1) The book lost in the library was recovered

2) The book which was lost in the library was recovered

The two sentences mean exactly the same thing. The addition of the relative clause (which was lost) is really not adding any value because it is clear "which book" it is we are talking about. The relative clause in 2 at best is making the sentence WORDY though not incorrect. In general therefore when the subject is immediately followed by an adverbial phrase acting as an adjective ("lost in the library" adverbial phrase modifies "the book"), the relative that/which can be omitted.

Would appreciate if you would let me know what you think..

Haas would it be possible for you to share some of that material with us? May be through a sticky or something? Would be great help.

Good question.. i think E is better in this case..

E -- > They found fossil bones at some place(some place is implied) and these bones are from what appears to be ...

D -- > This doens't give the sense of place..

Any comments ??