A short political fable presented as a story of a group of animals

The word accepted takes either 'as a' or 'to be'

Accepted as a (noun)
Accepted to be (adjective)

This eliminates A, B & C

Between D & E, E is not preferable because of the comma, which is used to break clauses or add more information, which are redundant in this sentence.

Hence, D

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Experts ,

aragonn, generis, hazelnut

Can you explain why E is wrong ?

Hi MofeBhatia , thanks for tagging.
MeghnaIjjapureddy , belated welcome to GMAT Club.

Option E and all but the correct answer make it sound as if Stalin's betrayal of the Russian Revolution or the Russian Revolution itself
were now accepted as a classic.

The word "accepted" modifies one of those two nouns.

The simple past tense of accept and the past participle (verbED) of accept are the same word: accepted.

Past participles usually modify the immediately preceding noun (whether or not a comma precedes the verbED word).
In that case, accepted modifies Russian Revolution.

But a verbED word can also modify a very close preceding "main" noun, such as that in the phrase betrayal of the Russian Revolution. The main noun is betrayal.

The verbED word can "reach back" over the prepositional phrase because of the Russian Revolution is an essential modifier that cannot be placed elsewhere.
Essential modifiers trump nonessential modifiers such as "now accepted as a classic." So "accepted" could also modify betrayal.

So far, GMAC has followed a convention about past participles that is uncommon.
That is, on the GMAT,
1) past participles (verbED words) that are not part of an introductory phrase modify only the immediately preceding noun or main noun, a modification that we see in this question, and
2) past participles that anchor an introductory phrase must refer to the subject of the subsequent clause.
Frightened by the wind, the child hid under the bed. (Frightened modifies the subject, child.)

Guideline #1 is the uncommon convention.
-- Grammar and style books and websites that are not written specifically about the GMAT will give you a different guideline about verbED words.
-- Those sources almost always state that the construction comma + past participle (verbED)
can modify a whole preceding clause.
-- On the GMAT, up until and including now, that conventional and widely supported guideline is not accurate for the questions on the GMAT.

Answer D is correct because the second IS correctly connects "now accepted" to the book Animal Farm.

Babar28 , please see my post HERE in which I explain why (E) and all options except the correct answer make it sound as if the Russian Revolution itself or Stalin's betrayal of the revolution were "now accepted as a classic."

We have quite a few topic threads dedicated to the usage of commas.

Part of the initiative to which I refer at the bottom of the SC Butler announcement page, HERE, an initiative that will start this month, will include "concept" or "how to" topic threads.

I will consider posting a topic thread that outlines very basic rules of comma usage on the GMAT prior to the start date of the initiative.

At the same time, with a little research, you can find many of those posts and topic threads that relate to comma usage.

Past participles and commas?
-- If verbED words are not preceded by a comma, they modify the preceding noun
He has a heart filled with generosity.

-- If verbED words are preceded by a comma, they still modify the preceding noun.
The audience clapped, delighted by the actor's performance.

-- If verbED words anchor an introductory phrase, they must modify the subject of the subsequent clause. (Introductory verbED phrases are almost always set off by a comma. I cannot think of an exception.)
Soothed by his thoughtful words, she fell asleep quickly.

Just a heads up: in the non-underlined portion, animals WHO should be animals THAT.
WHO is for human beings. (And human beings do not take THAT.)
THAT is for all non-human things.

(Yes, in the book, the animals think and speak. They are anthropomorphized. Having human powers does not mean that the animals are human. )

Other than that error, the question itself is pretty good.

ExpertsGlobal
ExpertsGlobal5
KarishmaB,

In Option D,


Animal Farm is based on JS's betrayal of RR and
Animal Farm is now accepted as a classic.

These both are IC and I was looking for a comma before AND.

Regards

‘and’ joins two verb phrases, not two ICs. There is no separate subject for the second verb phrase. The same subject is common to both. You will not have a comma here.

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