A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston

Question

A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston family, Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss as material for pop science fiction.

(A) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss
(B) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy was due to his belief in canals on Mars, but with modern astronomers dismissing it
(C) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy, due to believing in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
(D) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy because he believed in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
(E) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, with modern astronomers dismissing it

For a discussion of Modifiers, various modifier problems, and the Touch Rule, as well as for the OE of this particular question, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/modifiers- ... orrection/

Mike :-)

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Official Answer

D

ankurgupta03 · Answer

A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston family, Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss as material for pop science fiction.

(A) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss
 which modifies the word it touches, hence its placement is wrong as here it is modifying Mars 
(B) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy was due to his belief in canals on Mars, but with modern astronomers dismissing it
 Here the educated member is pointing to Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy, hence wrong 
(C) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy, due to believing in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
 Here the educated member is pointing to Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy, hence wrong 
(D) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy because he believed in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
 Correct 
(E) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, with modern astronomers dismissing it
  with modern astronomers dismissing it is wrong

Carcass · Answer

Hi Mike

what is the level of this question ?? >= ???? thanks

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear carcass , To be honest, the hardest thing for me to estimate is the difficulty of a question I write. GC makes me guestimate a difficulty level when I enter the question, so I take a shot in the dark. You see, every question I write looks easy to me, because I know exactly how to do it, but I know it's not easy that way for everyone. It's very hard for me to estimate who knows or doesn't know what. For example, with this question, the difference between " because " and " due to " --- for someone who gets that, this question could be extremely easy, but how many people understand all the subtleties of that distinction? I guess I think this is a medium difficulty question, not super-hard, because besides the subtleties of " because " vs. " due to ", everything else is reasonably obvious. The modifier mistake at the beginning, in (B) & (C) is a big old softball. Maybe it's 600-700, or maybe it's < 600. What do you think? How would you rate the difficulty of this question? Mike :-)

zoezhuyan · Answer

Hi Mike
I read your explanation on Magoosh,https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/modifiers-on-the-gmat-sentence-correction/
and I am not familiar with a point you mentioned :
 Split #2: (B) & (E) have the structure “with” +   +  .  The GMAT does not like this construction.  If you want to describe a full action, use a full   +   clause.  These two are incorrect because of this.

appreciate if you give some examples about the replace  “with” +   +    with   +

thanks a lot

have a nice day
>_~

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear zoezhuyan , My friend, how are you? I'm happy to help. :-)

That blog, " Modifiers on the GMAT SC, " is an older blog. You extracted that quote from this blog. I should have included a link to this more recent blog: with + + on GMAT Sentence Correction This later blog article explains the issue in great detail. Take a look at that and tell me if you have any further questions. Does all this make sense? Have a wonderful day! Mike :-)

zoezhuyan · Answer

thanks Mike
I got it
have a wonderful day
>_~

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston family,  Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss  as material for pop science fiction.

(A) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, which modern astronomers dismiss
(B) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy was due to his belief in canals on Mars, but with modern astronomers dismissing it
(C) Percival Lowell’s interest in astronomy, due to believing in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
(D) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy because he believed in canals on Mars, a view that modern astronomers dismiss
(E) Percival Lowell was interested in astronomy due to his belief in canals on Mars, with modern astronomers dismissing it

1.  which  indicates that the information added may not be really important but it is important to indicate the intended contrast in comparison.

2. phrase modifier  A highly educated member. ................. refers to a person not his interest.
Thus B and C can be eliminated.

3.  with phrase  is incorrect as per discussion above

4. Also pronoun  it (in choices B and E) is a point of consideration

a. In B,  it  refers to interest thereby means that modern astronomers dismiss  Percival Lowell’s interest  as  material for pop science fiction.  this is not correct as they dismiss his belief on canals on mars not his interest itself.

b. In E, meaning is different. I read it as 
with modern astronomers(someone) doing something(dismiss), Lowell was interested in astronomy for some reasons. This is completely deviating from the intended meaning and does not make sense.

Thus D emerges out victorious out of all other choices and is the correct choice.

Argp · Answer

mikemcgarry  @martytestprep  AjiteshArun   GMATNinja

In Option (D), "a view that modern astronomers dismiss.." is an absolute phrase, so it modifies the entire previous clause.
I am a little unsure whether "Percival Lowell being interested in something because of X" can be called 'a view'. Is the belief not the view? Can absolute phrases refer to subordinate clauses?

What are your thoughts?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Argp ,

A view that modern astronomers dismiss...  is a noun phrase. Such modifiers ("summative modifiers") can be used to refer to entire subject-verb combinations like "he believed in canals on Mars".

A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

A highly educated member of wealthy and aristocratic Boston

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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