Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized for You
we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Track Your Progress
every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance
Practice Pays
we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Thank you for using the timer!
We noticed you are actually not timing your practice. Click the START button first next time you use the timer.
There are many benefits to timing your practice, including:
Want to score 90 percentile or higher on GMAT CR? Attend this free webinar to learn how to pre-think assumptions and solve the most challenging questions in less than 2 minutes.
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
20 Jul 2009, 22:25
8
00:00
A
B
C
D
E
Difficulty:
15% (low)
Question Stats:
78% (01:10) correct 22% (01:25) wrong based on 664 sessions
HideShow timer Statistics
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom (B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him (C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him (D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
19 Sep 2011, 23:39
13
2
Here is a classic case of how improper modification through misplaced word order or punctuation can play a disastrous role in meddling with the logical meaning of a given GMAT SC. Please note tht the passage in general means freedom to the Black tribe and not freedom to Garvey alone. Chocie, B, C and E can be thrown out for wrongly meaning to refer to freedom to Garvey by not setting off the modifier 'to him' in commas, thus essentializing the modification.
In D, the first pointer is the grammatical flaw of the absence of comma before which, a non-restrictive modifier. In addition, by singularizing Blacks to a single Black’s returning, the intended meaning is awfully distorted by implying that some individual Black’s return to Africa is going to symbolize the freedom to the entire race.
A is thus rendered the best with proper placement and treatment of the modifier and with the use of the present imperative subjunctive mood
_________________
Are you stuck around 630? If you can't make out how to pole-vault over the 630-barrier, you can do so with my one-to-one lessons. (+919884544509)
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
21 Jul 2009, 04:41
5
IMO A.
With "advocate", "that" is required, as it represents a subjunctive construction. D and E are out for not starting with "that"
C is out, because of awkward use of "which" twice in "Africa which was the land which symbolized". I would have prefer a present participle form -ing instead of symbolized.
B is out, as the modifier is ambiguously defined. Not sure if "symbolizing the possibility..." is modifying the noun "the African land" or the whole phrase "some Blacks return to the African land"
_________________
WE 1: 7years (Financial Services - Consultant, BA)
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
21 Jul 2009, 05:42
1
bigoyal wrote:
IMO A.
With "advocate", "that" is required, as it represents a subjunctive construction. D and E are out for not starting with "that"
C is out, because of awkward use of "which" twice in "Africa which was the land which symbolized". I would have prefer a present participle form -ing instead of symbolized.
B is out, as the modifier is ambiguously defined. Not sure if "symbolizing the possibility..." is modifying the noun "the African land" or the whole phrase "some Blacks return to the African land"
Agree with you, B seems now incorrect. I was confused b/w A and B, and liked symbolizing better than symbolized. So, chose B. while choosing B, 'to him' also seems incorrect in B, still went for it.
Can someone explain in B, to what 'symbolizing' is referring to? I feel that it is correctly referring to the 'The African Land' but the placement of 'to him' is incorrect. Any takers?
_________________
Consider kudos for the good post ... My debrief : http://gmatclub.com/forum/journey-670-to-720-q50-v36-long-85083.html
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
01 Sep 2009, 08:37
1
A
(a) land that, to him, symbolized the possibility ' modifies Africa, and a prepositional phrase 'to him' is separated by commas to show verb 'symbolized' is modifying land. (b) 'African land symbolizing' distorts the meaning of the sentence. (c) 'which was the land which symbolized' is wordy and awkward. (d) 'advocated that' should be followed by subject and verb. no verb is presented. 'some Black’s returning to Africa' is awkward. (e) wrong for same reason as d.
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
24 Jan 2011, 22:10
2
that does not rule out A as there is nothing wrong with return. present tense--- he adovates the return past tense--- he advocated the return. the verb to be conjugated is advocate , not return. IMO A
_________________
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
25 Jan 2011, 08:55
2
The key here is the phrase, ‘to him’; It is used to mean ‘according to him’ and is therefore set off within commas. Without the use of commas, the phrase modifies freedom and thus erroneously means freedom to the Black leader. That is why we have to reject B, C and E, notwithstanding other aberrations inherent in them.
In A, it may be noted that the verb ‘return’ is used in the imperative form of present subjunctive mood. ‘Advocated’ is one of the so called bossy words here, coming as they are from a leader of the status of Marcus Garvey. Hence let there be no be no doubt about the use of the word ‘return’ in choice A. In D, the use of the gerund ‘returning’ is too awkward to consider. A wins after all.
_________________
Are you stuck around 630? If you can't make out how to pole-vault over the 630-barrier, you can do so with my one-to-one lessons. (+919884544509)
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
30 Jun 2011, 06:45
1
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom looks good --> leave it (B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him changes meaning --> the african land symbolizing doesn't really explain exactly which land, but the original sentence has an intended meaning that Africa is the land (C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him using which twice is poor word choice (D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa D and E - advocates is a directive verb so it needs to be followed either by "that" + a verb in root form, or by an infinitive verb. neither are present here
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
07 Aug 2011, 10:41
4
I wish to point out one factor of GMAT SC i.e. the importance or word order, an aspect that has been missed out in the posts.
Why are B C and E wrong? Because all of them state – freedom to him as though Garvey was talking about freedom to his personal self. However, the text means freedom for all the Blacks. Clubbing of the phrase ‘to him’ along with freedom is wrong word order.
Of course, this leaves out A and D, between which A is better because of using the present subjunctive verb ‘ that Blacks return’ rather than the incongruous gerund ‘Black’s returning’. The apostrophe plus s denotes that Black is used in singular rather than –“Blacks’” in plural.
Hope this gives one more insight into this topic now.
_________________
Are you stuck around 630? If you can't make out how to pole-vault over the 630-barrier, you can do so with my one-to-one lessons. (+919884544509)
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
19 Sep 2011, 22:00
1
gjayachandra wrote:
5. A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom (B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him (C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him (D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa
the bossy verb advocate indicates that subjunctive mood may be tested.
B ) the construction of this sentence is such that it looks as if there is particular part of africa that symbolises possibility of freedom to Marcus Garvey. Not Africa in general.
c) which was the land which. The second which is definitely wrong as it is part of restrictive clause. It should have been that.
D and E are out for using 'black's' , possessive is not needed here.
A, B and C use subjunctive but B & C introduce some errors. A is wordy but still best of the lot. So A is correct.
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
04 Jul 2012, 15:12
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom-PERFECT. (B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him-WHO IS SYMBOLIZING?BLACKS? INCORRECT (C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him-TWICE"WHICH"IS INCORRECT. (D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom-BLACK'S RETURNING IS INCORRECT. (E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa-BLACK'S RETURN IS INCORRECT.
+1 for (E)
_________________
" Make more efforts " Press Kudos if you liked my post
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
04 Jul 2012, 21:58
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom Answer
(B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him Meaning distortion
(C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him Meaning distortion
(D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom Meaning distortion
(E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa a wrong modifier
_________________
Luck is the additional surplus on the way to one's constant effort.
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
05 Jul 2012, 09:46
I got (A). Here's how I went about tackling this problem:
(A) that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom - didn't seem like the best answer, but nothing grammatically wrong (B) that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him - "symbolizing the possibility of freedom" is applied to Some Blacks' return to Africa, which is distorts the meaning (C) that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him - the usage of "which" twice is awkward (D) some Black’s returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom - the usage of a gerund (returning) preceding the possessive noun is correct, but it's missing "that," which should follow after "advocated" (E) some Black’s return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him, Africa - word order is awkward and the sentence is missing "that" preceding the possessive noun
Feel free to comment if any of my explanation is questionable!
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
05 Jul 2013, 14:19
rakp wrote:
In A, is it alright to use comma right after 'that'?
that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom
Hi rakp
As far as I know, there is a rule that requires you Not to put a comma before "that" between essential modifiers and their nouns .
**But there is also an exception rule: if there is a short and non-essential phrase intervenes ==> the comma before "that" is acceptable. For example: I love eating fruit, such as orange, that has plenty of vitamin C. Because "such as orange" is short and non-essential phrase ==> you could put it between noun "fruit" and "that".
However, I do not know any rule that requires "no comma" after "that". So A is correct.
Hope it helps.
_________________
Please +1 KUDO if my post helps. Thank you.
"Designing cars consumes you; it has a hold on your spirit which is incredibly powerful. It's not something you can do part time, you have do it with all your heart and soul or you're going to get it wrong."
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
Updated on: 20 Jul 2016, 01:17
evensflow wrote:
take this..
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A)that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that,to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom (B)that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him (C)that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him (D)some B1ack's returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E)some B1ack's return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him,Africa
(A)that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that,to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom Correct !! (B)that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him
(C)that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him Which must be preceded by a comma
(D)some B1ack's returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom change in meaning
(E)some B1ack's return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him,Africa Awkward construction and possessive
IMO A
Originally posted by CounterSniper on 20 Jul 2016, 00:23.
Last edited by CounterSniper on 20 Jul 2016, 01:17, edited 1 time in total.
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
20 Jul 2016, 01:13
evensflow wrote:
take this..
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A)that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that,to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom (B)that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him (C)that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him (D)some B1ack's returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E)some B1ack's return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him,Africa
I first go to the choices and then look vertically at the differences, comparing one element at a time.
Advocated that some blacks vs. advocated some Black’s. When in doubt about the intended meaning, lean on A. Definitely Blacks vs. Black’s. Eliminate D and E.
A/B/C. I like to work with the end of each choice. Possibility of freedom vs. possibility of freedom to him. Again, when in doubt about the intended meaning, lean on A. For that reason, “freedom to him” has to go. Eliminate B/C.
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
20 Jul 2016, 11:54
evensflow wrote:
A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black leader Marcus Garvey advocated that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that, to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom.
(A)that some Blacks return to Africa, the land that,to him, symbolized the possibility of freedom (B)that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him (C)that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him (D)some B1ack's returning to Africa which was the land that to him symbolized the possibility of freedom (E)some B1ack's return to the land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him,Africa
Looking at the meaning of sentence, it looks as the sentence is intended to say:-
Blacks return to Africa. To the mentioned leader, this return to the land symbolized the possibility of freedom.
D and E are out because of 'Black's'
(B)that some Blacks return to the African land symbolizing the possibility of freedom to him. 'Symbolizing' modifies 'land' incorrectly. Also freedom 'to him' is not desired.
(C)that some Blacks return to Africa which was the land which symbolized the possibility of freedom to him. freedom 'to him' is not desired. _________________
I welcome critical analysis of my post!! That will help me reach 700+
Re: A controversial figure throughout most of his public life, the Black
[#permalink]
Show Tags
22 Sep 2017, 12:22
LucyDang wrote:
Can anyone please help me to explain what's the role of " A controversial figure throughout most of his public life"? To which does it complement? I get confused with this noun phrase!
In this case "A controversial figure" is acting as an adjective (modifier), which is providing more information about (modifying) the noun "Marcus Garvey"
Hope this helps
_________________
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Best AWA Template: https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6-0-awa-my-guide-64327.html#p470475
close
78% (01:10) correct 
