12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 7: Dogen Zenji, the

Experts' Global Official Explanation:

Meaning + Modifiers + Tenses + Verb Forms + Grammatical Construction

Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dogen Zenji, conducted rituals in his monastery, and these rituals included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji.

• A comma cannot join two independent clauses; such usage leads to the error of comma splice; to correct this error, the comma must be replaced with semicolon or comma followed by a conjunction such as and, but etc.
• “who/whose/whom/which/where”, when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

A. This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses “Dogen Zenji… conducted rituals in his monastery” and “they included the participation of both monks and laymen…”; please remember, a comma cannot join two independent clauses; such usage leads to the error of comma splice; to correct this error, the comma must be replaced with a semicolon or a comma followed by a conjunction such as and, but etc.

B. This answer choice incorrectly modifies “monastery” by using “which included…”, incorrectly implying that the monastery included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dogen Zenji, conducted rituals in his monastery, and these rituals included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji; please remember, who/whose/whom/which/where when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.

C. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “who was the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in his monastery”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that Dogen Zenji was the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, within his monastery; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dogen Zenji, conducted rituals in his monastery, and these rituals included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the present participle (“verb+ing” - “including” in this sentence) to refer to an event that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

D. Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “in his monastery that included”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that Dogen Zenji’s monastery included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dogen Zenji, conducted rituals in his monastery, and these rituals included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji.

E. Correct. This answer choice correctly uses “in his monastery” to modify “Dogen Zenji” and correctly uses “that included…” to modify “rituals”, conveying the intended meaning of the sentence- that the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, Dogen Zenji, conducted rituals in his monastery, and these rituals included the participation of both monks and laymen, the practicing of zazen meditation, and the veneration of the metaphysical concepts of Bussho and Uji. Further, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Option C, as it correctly uses the past participle (“included” in this sentence”) to refer to an action that concluded in the past.

E is the best answer choice.



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