12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 5: An academic who

After the underlined portion the phrase is often focusses at first.

This means B, C is out. Since, history or a serious study of history can't focus on anything.

A,D and E are pretty similar. But I would go with E, since the phrase is often focusses at first. This means, it is a certain timeframe and initially, the academic focusses on something and moves on to something else later. The word when used in option E, signifies that it is a time frame we are talking about. A,D just talk about an academic in general.

Hence, IMO E.

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history -- Implies academic evolves so wrong
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history -- Correct modfier, correct meaning.
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, -- Makes "for academics who undertake it" a non essential modifier. It is required otherwise the sentence makes a general statement about history that is wrong
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history -- same as A
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic -- same as A

Ans: B

Option A should be the answer since it properly modifies the subject 'The academic' and also doesn't dwell in the meaning ambiguity of 'undertaking'.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history we need main subject in latter part
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history ' it ' pronoun error
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, same as B pronoun error
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history undertaking same as A error ; main subject
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic modifier has subject an academic and it is well connected with later part of sentence

OPTION E is correct

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history Incorrect as the academic cannot evolve into an examination of something but a study can

(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history Incorrect as history cannot focus on anything; its the study which focuses or researcher who focuses

(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, A study focuses on a period but evolves into examination of other things Correct

(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history Incorrect as the academic cannot evolve into an examination of something but a study can

(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic Incorrect as the academic cannot evolve into an examination of something but a study can

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on......, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

Who evolves? The academic?

(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople
- History is not focused on a period of history itself!

(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople
- looks okay

(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople
- Same issue as A.

(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople
- Same issue as A.

C is best choice.

Note: Attempted this as a part of the Christmas challenge (answers not revealed yet). Let me know if there is an error.

This task is quite simple, because immediately after the insert the fixed (unhighlighted) part contains a predicate, which we can already coordinate with the answer options. Moreover, there are two parallel predicates (focuses and evolves), both of which have to be in accordance with the subject:
In the answer options, we have three alternative subjects - history, academic and study:

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic

Quite obviously, history cannot focus on anything. An academic, in her turn, can focus on something, but cannot evolve into an examination, because she is a human.
So, the only thing that can both focus and evolve in this context is 'a serious study' - which means that the answer is C.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history--- an academic cannot evolve into something
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history--- history cannot evolve into something
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,---- study can evolve makes sense
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history--- an academic cannot evolve into something
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic----an academic cannot evolve into something

Ans C

An academic
who undertakes a serious study of history
often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in,
typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher,
but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

An academic .... often focuses at first on .....,......, but frequently evolves ......

D is more concise and correct.
Incorrect

history can not focus or evolve.
An academic should be the subject.
Incorrect

A serious study of history can not focus or evolve.
An academic should be the subject.
Incorrect

Concise and correct

D is more concise and correct
Incorrect

IMO D

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history--out
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history--out
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,--out
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history--correct
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic-out


oa:d

D is the answer.

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well-known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

Interpret:
Subject: An academic/researcher, Verb: focuses. Then BUT... but evolves... The academic does not evolve, the study he/she pursues evolves. No. There are other problems, but I only need one critical problem to rule this out, so I will proceed.
Let's understand the intended meaning:
--The researcher starts out studying a well-known period.
--The period being studied is somehow significant to the researcher.
--As the academic's research continues, it evolves into less familiar times/places.

Let's now consider the other options. A is OUT!

(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history
No!!! S--V topic is mismatched. This is a critical modifier error. The subject is now "history," and history has been personified... HISTORY--FOCUSES on a certain period. NOT!

(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,
A (serious) study is now our subject. In this case, a study can indeed FOCUS. So far, so good.
Now I get very confused b/c this study, that is focusing on a well-known period of history, is modified by "typically one closely tied to the culture OF THE RESEARCHER." One simple issue (excusable though) is that our researcher has not been introduced. Now we are modifying the researcher... that doesn't exist. Hmmm. NO.

(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history
The subject now is back to our academic/researcher/person. This person focuses. So far so good.
"typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher" now modifies the period being studied. Yes again!
The ending continues to modify the period being studied. PERFECT. No significant errors.
If I were out of time, I'd answer and run. D is it!

Nonetheless, continuing our evaluation:
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic
S--V: An academic--focuses. once again, so far so good.
Again, by removing (the period focused on) we get to that problematic latter modifier. This is flawed in exactly the way C is. E is out.

D is the correct answer.

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history - Correct
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history - it makes meaning mistake (history is not a subject so it can't focus on something) An academic can
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, - same as B
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history - seems correct. But Unable to identify the academic
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic - By using "when" the meaning of the sentence is changing

B) Meaning change. The sentence says history focuses on a well-known period that even laypeople take interest in. Incorrect

The end of the base sentence says it (subject/noun) evolves into an examination of other times and places. The cademic cannot evolve into an examination of other times and places.

Options A), D), and E) have the academic as the subject, which is incorrect.

The correct answer is C

Answer is C
An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

typically one closely tied to the culture..... Only C has a subject of "A serious study of history" which can actually tie to the culture or heritage. The rest have "an academic" as subject

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic

An academic who undertakes a serious study of history often focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, but frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places.

Meaning. While the a serious study of History focuses at first on a well known period that even laypeople take great interest in, typically one closely tied to the culture or heritage of the researcher, it actually frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history
Wrong reference to the academic instad of the History

(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history
replace 'it' with history' , it leads to History actually frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places..inappropriate meaning.

(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it,
correct meaning (as described above); here 'it' refers to 'a serious study of History'

(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history
again, Wrong reference to the academic instead of the History

(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic
meaning is inappropriate , since it's not the academic who frequently evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places Inappropriate meaning

[b](C) is the correct answer[/b]

A) We can eliminate this for illogical meaning. An academic who undertakes a serious study often focuses... but evolves
The academic evolves into an examination of less familiar times and places? illogical. out
B) Looks fine, keep
C) keep
D) Same error as A. The academic evolves? nonsense.
E) same error as A. An academic evolves? nonsense

B vs C.
C has the far better meaning. The subject of C is "A serious study of history". The study first focuses on a well known period, and then evolves into an examination of other less familiar times and places. This is logical.
B implies that history itself evolves. This is not quite as logical, and has a worse meaning compared to C.

C.

(A) An academic who undertakes a serious study of history - incorrect- often is a squinting modifier can modify both academic, and history
(B) For an academic who undertakes a serious study of it, history - Incorrect- if we look at the non underline portion we observe that history will not evolve study will
(C) A serious study of history, for academics who undertake it, - Correct
(D) An academic undertaking a serious study of history - Incorrect - An academic will not evolve, but a research study will
(E) When undertaking a serious study of history, an academic - Incorrect - An Academic will not evolve, but a research study will