{"id":7553,"date":"2011-07-13T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=7553"},"modified":"2011-06-15T19:16:54","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T03:16:54","slug":"kaplan-gmat-sample-problem-sentence-correction-modification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/kaplan-gmat-sample-problem-sentence-correction-modification\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaplan GMAT Sample Problem: Sentence Correction Modification"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kaplan<\/a> Today\u2019s advanced GMAT sentence correction <\/a>problem revolves around a modification error. Remember to watch out for modifying phrases at the beginning of a sentence \u2013 they must refer to whatever comes directly after them.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nRunning off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones adapted The Fantasticks<\/em> from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques<\/em>.<\/u>
\n(A)\tRunning off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones adapted The Fantasticks<\/em> from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques.<\/em>
\n(B)\tThe Fantasticks,<\/em> which ran off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years, was adapted by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques.<\/em>
\n(C)\tThe Fantasticks<\/em>, which ran off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years and was adapted by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones adapted from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques<\/em>.
\n(D)\tRunning through 17,162 performances over 42 years off-Broadway, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones had adapted The Fantasticks<\/em> from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques<\/em>.
\n(E)\tAdapted from Edmund Rostand\u2019s 1894 play Les Romanesques<\/em>, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones ran The Fantasticks<\/em> off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong>
\nThe original sentence opens with the modifying phrase \u201crunning off-Broadway for 17,162 performances over 42 years,\u201d which is followed by a comma. In order for the sentence to be correct, whatever ran off-Broadway must come after this comma. However, the sentence puts Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones after the comma, making it seem as if they ran off-Broadway, rather than their play. All answer choices that maintain this error must be wrong. Therefore, we can eliminate options (A), (D) and (E), as they all make similar modification errors.<\/p>\n

While option (C) fixes the initial modification error, it introduces a new one. \u201cThe Fantasticks<\/em>\u201d is followed by a comma and the word \u201cwhich.\u201d In this construction everything that follows the word \u201cwhich,\u201d until another comma appears, is part of a modifying phrase. However, in choice (C) a second comma is never used, making the entire sentence after \u201cThe Fantasticks<\/em>\u201d a modifier. This is problematic, as the sentence has no verb, making it a fragment. Option (C) is, therefore, incorrect and should be eliminated.<\/p>\n

This leaves choice (B) as the only remaining answer. Thus, (B) must be correct.<\/p>\n

~Bret Ruber
\nhttps:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/gmat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s advanced GMAT sentence correction problem revolves around a modification error. Remember to watch out for modifying phrases at the beginning of a sentence \u2013 they must refer to whatever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,719,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-sentence-correction-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7555,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7553\/revisions\/7555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}