A challenging one ! Give it a try Blinded by the sun's

Question

A challenging one ! Give it a try

Blinded by the sun's reflection, the crevasse was all but invisible until the climbers nearly stumbled into it.

(A) Blinded by the sun's reflection, the crevasse was all but invisible until the climbers nearly stumbled into it.

(B) The climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, nearly stumbled into the crevasse, which they had found until then all but invisible.

(C) The crevasse was all but invisible to the climbers blinded by the sun's reflection until they nearly stumbled into it.

(D) Nearly stumbling into the crevasse, the climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, found it all but invisible.

(E) All but invisible, the climbers nearly stumbled into the crevasse, blinded by the sun's reflection.

esledge · Answer

Challenging because two answers (B and C) are grammatically correct? :-)

Both have non-ideal aspects, but none so terrible as to warrant elimination, in my opinion.

nusmavrik · Answer

esledge, First of all hats off to your score :-D

. Its really frustrating to spend more than 2 mins on any SC. POE, poe again POE. Still no answer. Btw I have the OA :wink:

seekmba · Answer

I will go with B.

B is wordy and C is passive. What is the OA?

nusmavrik · Answer

Hey seek Both B and C use the passive "by". So "passive" should not be the reason :wink:

(B) The climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, nearly stumbled into the crevasse, which they had found until then all but invisible. (C) The crevasse was all but invisible to the climbers blinded by the sun's reflection until they nearly stumbled into it.

dwivedys · Answer

truly nerve wracking question....would you care to tell the source? +1 for the question

dwivedys · Answer

Logic: B should be right because we need to keep the stumbling as close to the phrase "blinded by..." because they stumbled because they were blinded...

nusmavrik · Answer

Sorry dwi it all happened when was searching on google and I spotted this question. I was stunned because even after doing POE thrice the answer was not clear.

I'm afraid the OA is C. Don't ask me why :-D

dwivedys

truly nerve wracking question....would you care to tell the source? +1 for the question

dwivedys · Answer

Hey Nus ... for me it was between B and C actually. In fact I had chosen C initially ;;; as usual I had not even bothered to read B carefully because it just appeared too wordy and the moment I found C I had been kinda convinced it was ok. Then of course I read some comments and took a closer look at B. And B started making sense... I was thinking I had finally cracked the SC code until I got this one...more frontiers remain to be explored is what this means

nusmavrik · Answer

My second stab on this one ------> :wink:

"all but invisible" should remain as close to "crevasse" as possible. compared C and E and dinged E (first POE) In E (E) All but invisible, the climbers nearly stumbled into the crevasse, blinded by the sun's reflection. >>> "all but invisible" cannot modify "climbers" (C) The crevasse was all but invisible to the climbers blinded by the sun's reflection until they nearly stumbled into it. >> Makes sense. But don't qualify for the answer yet ! In B -I really don't feel the need for change of tense "had found". I think the climbers were blinded until they hit the "crevasse". So finding "crevasse" first is not warranted. (B) The climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, nearly stumbled into the crevasse, which they had found until then all but invisible. >>> Also "all but invisible" is far away from the subject "crevasse". Thoughts??

esledge · Answer

"All but invisible" in (B) clearly refers to "crevasse," because that whole "which" phrase clearly modifies "crevasse." It's like saying "Jane restored the house, which had been (until then) all but condemned." Remove the verb complexity, the idiom "all but X," and the adverbial modifier "until then" and you have simply "...the house, which was condemned." Remember, it's not just word spacing/distance that determines whether the modifier is clear, overall structure plays a role.

But now that I've looked at it again, and compared with my "Jane" sentence, I can see why the "had found until then" in choice (B) is questionable (I still don't think it is wrong  enough  to be truly GMAT-like). I actually think the verb tense is OK: The climbers stumbled (most recent past action = simple past), because before that they had found the crevasse invisible (earlier past action = past perfect). Therefore, "until then" would be unnecessary, as the verbs convey the order of actions on their own. So the worst I can say about (B) is that "until then" places double emphasis on the verb order, and is wordier in the process.

gauravnagpal · Answer

I opted for B .. The use of "it " in option C was inappropriate ...but I guess ..

ImJun · Answer

Blinded by the sun's reflection, the crevasse was all but invisible until the climbers nearly stumbled into it.

(A) Blinded by the sun's reflection, the crevasse was all but invisible until the climbers nearly stumbled into it.

It  WASN'T  the crevasse that got blinded by the sun's reflection, so OUT!!

(B) The climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, nearly stumbled into the crevasse, which they had found until then all but invisible.
The gramatical structure is fine, but this doesn't make much sense, coz  finding something invisible  is not part of the issue here, but let's just hold this and see if there's any better choice.

(C) The crevasse was all but invisible to the climbers blinded by the sun's reflection until they nearly stumbled into it.

Correct answer to me, and it didn't change too much the meaning!
(D) Nearly stumbling into the crevasse, the climbers, blinded by the sun's reflection, found it all but invisible.

They put the wrong subject matter  Nearly stumbling into the crevasse  as what caused the event.

(E) All but invisible, the climbers nearly stumbled into the crevasse, blinded by the sun's reflection.

The climbers  AIN'T  invisible, the crevasse is.

hope I've made a clear explanation for that.

sridhar · Answer

Good one. Made me spend close to 3 mins on it.

vudsri000 · Answer

I went for C by mistakenly eliminating B .......latter found my elimination Bad .......good question ....

psychomath · Answer

Ok for once instincts won over the rules

Was confused between B and C and went for C - trusted my instincts

A challenging one ! Give it a try Blinded by the sun's

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