According to United States Air Force officials, a cannon shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large birds.

(A) shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate

(B) shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved itself helpful as a demonstration of

(C) shooting dead chickens at airplanes proves itself helpful as demonstrating

(D) that shoots dead chickens at airplanes proves itself helpful to demonstrate

(E) that shoots dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful in demonstrating
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When i Speak in English, and it happens very rarely, i use "helpful" with preposition "for" " i.e. helpful for something


helpful to do something - is not idiomatic expression, i never heard that combination. if it were "helps to demonstrate" that would be fine


Since i excluded "help to demonstrate' hence i will exclude A and D.


Now left with B, C, E

in B "itself" is rebundunt "the gun didnt prove itself"

in C same issue

In E - everything looks fine to me.

so i will choose E

Method applied in solving SC is POE (PREDICT: OBSERVE: ELIMINATE) WAY OF SAMURAI

adkikani , look very carefully at the modifiers of the subject of the sentence.

This official sentence is strange.
Its strange quality deepens when the modifiers are understood.

adkikani , one further hint: isolate the modifiers of the subject and the subject.

Of the two options with modified subjects, which modified subject is clearer?

Frequently, we can condense relative clauses (such as a THAT clause) to participles or participial phrases (such as a verbING word or phrase),
but at times meaning is clearer when we do not condense.
If the participle has multiple meanings that create ambiguity, even if that ambiguity is cleared up by the rest of the sentence, choose the
construction that has no ambiguity.

Noam Chomsky, a famed linguist, captured the essence of the issue with this truly ambiguous example:
Flying planes can be dangerous.
Are the objects moving around in the sky dangerous? [flying planes = planes that are flying]
OR
Is being a pilot dangerous? [Pilots are the people who are flying planes.]

In this question, the modifier in the incorrect answer arguably is neither misplaced nor technically ambiguous.
But its potential to confuse should make the correct choice easier.

Hope that helps.
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Tense + Logic

A can be eliminated due to use of “to demonstrate” rather than “in demonstrating”.
The correct idiom is:
Helpful in demonstrating
Help to demonstrate

B is wordy in “as a demonstration of”

C and D can be eliminated because of the use of ‘proves’. (There’s no universal law being talked about here)

E is the best choice.

generis

Please accept my humble apology for not comprehending your hint.







In both A and E:
Opening modifier: According to United States Air Force officials
correctly modifies the noun: a cannon

In A, a verb-ing modifier without coma i.e. shooting (note that shooting is placed next to cannon) will correctly modify only preceding noun: cannon.
There is no question of coma+verb-ing (causal/ how aspect of preceding clause here)
This is a classic case of verb-ing acting as an adjective.
What type of cannon: the one that shoots dead chickens.

This is similar to your example:
Flying planes can be dangerous.
What types of planes: Flying.
Noun: planes
Verb: can be

In E, the noun modifier that correctly refers back to a cannon
Since cannon is singular and the verb for that (shoots) is correct, I see no ambiguity here too.

Let me know your two cents.
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That'll get you the answer. In this case. However, it is easy to make sentences in which helpful is followed by something other than in, and the sentence is still correct. Context is important.

It'll be helpful for us to know the meaning behind her words.
That explanation was helpful to us.
You were very helpful.

Look for the in only if there is something that the helpful bit "provided".
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Not every cannon but a particular cannon that shoots chicken so "that" is required
Narrow down to D and E

itself in D change the meaning of sentence
So E Is correct answer

OFFICIAL ANSWER

• Option A is incorrect because a cannon shooting imprecisely
suggests either an event, the shooting of dead chickens at airplanes, or
what appears to be intended, [that is,] a description of
the cannon that specifies its use.

• Choices B and C also include this error.

• In addition, choices A, C, and D use unidiomatic constructions, to demonstrate and as demonstrating,
after helpful, rather than the correct in demonstrating.

• The phrase as a demonstration of in choice B is idiomatic but
inappropriate because it suggests a single event rather than a
purpose.

• Choices B, C, and D all introduce an unnecessary itself as well, and

• C and D wrongly use the present tense proves rather than has proved to indicate recently completed
action.

• The best answer is choice E.



AdityaHongunti , for a good restult and for graciousness. Let's hope that your courtesy and graciousness spread.

dave13, for a good answer and consistently a good sense of humor

adkikani, a good answer, persisitence and curiosity


Finally, rever08 and
shibanis01 = good answers

Happy kudos, All!
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Why should A) be incorrect then? It gives a description of the canon, I mean that's what modifiers do.
I also don't get why the most upvoted answer states that "shooting" is a progressive, I've rarely seen a progressive -ING form on the GMAT and if so, it ususally was preceded by a helping verb "Jane IS swimming"
Totally confused why we now interfer from a modifier that it might imply the action of CURRENTLY doing something.

Could you shed light on my doubts please?
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