Marcab-

To answer your question about the into part of the section, not all leading phrases/clauses modify the subject. My first sentence here is a good example. If I wrote the sentence differently, it would modify the subject. Here you go: "Answering the question about leading modifiers, I wrote that not all leading phrases/clauses modify the subject." The GMAT uses participles at the start of the sentence to create leading phrases that modify the subject ("answering" above is a present participle).

If you go through OG questions, you will see plenty of examples of leading phrases (ending with a comma) that are providing context for the sentence and not modifying the subject. For example, the GMAT introduces plenty of sentences with date references: By 1840, Since 1830, etc.

In the question from this thread, "Added to..." is acting (incorrectly) as a modifier for the subject. When the GMAT uses the abstract "In addition to..." the introductory phrase adds context to the beginning of the sentence instead of modifying the subject.

Here is a thread from another question that displays how introductory phrases can pivot between context and modifier: based-on-the-growth-rates-of-large-modern-reptiles-such-as-76931.html

KW
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A - Faulty comparison. "increase in wages" compared to "railroad employees"

B is out for the same reason

C,D - both wrong because - "that were requested" instead of "that was requested"

I'll go with E.

To be honest, if I was under time crunch, I could easily haveeliminated E because it said "employees of the railroad" instead of "railroad employees"

I will go with D on this..

(A) Added to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.

- Out. Seems to indicate that railroad employees added to the increase.

(B) Added to the increase in hourly wages which had been requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
- Out. Same problem as A

(C) The railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits added to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July.

- Bad construction

(D) In addition to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits

I will stick with D.

(E) In addition to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
- Nothing is wrong here but "the employees of the railroad" does not make sense.

riteshgupta1,

In choice D, Do you think that "In addition to the increase in hourly wages that were requested "

is the correct use of pronouns?

AJB77,

It has no pronoun problem but a singular/plural verb problem.

I agree that the answer should be E.

Why I picked D is to verify the concept of restrictive clause?

Here is what I saw,

that were requested is a restrictive clause modifying the "wages". I want to make sure from guys like you that the restrictive clause not only modifies the object of the prepositional phrase but a subject which is a combination of subject + PP.

For example,

One of the students who are studying biology is in my class.
Or
One of the students who is studying biology is in my class.

Now if you look at 1st example, Restrictive clause "who were studying biology" is modifying student(s) is correct.

In second, Restrictive clause "who is studying biology" is modifying student(s) is not correct because the restrictive clause is modifying students which is plural.

I will go with E

D - 'that' is modifying wages but the request cannot be made by 'wages', so IMO a singular verb is required.

AJB, ritesh is right. D is not wrong because of verb tense following "that". Instead, it could be wrong simply because it uses a restrictive clause instead of a shorter, participial phrase in E. However, E also has problems of its own like saying "employees of the railroad" which sounds very bad to say the least.

I am going to choose the best of the worst, and having said that the answer should be E.

Choices that begin with In addition to are more appropriate than the rest, because it conveys that the railroad employees asked for not only a pay increase last year, but also retirement benefits. This narrows the choice to D and E. The only problem I have with D is the use of "that were requested". Instead if choice D used "requested" I would have chosen D rightaway. E conveys the sense of meaning better, even though it is a little awkward.

Another line of reasoning to consider here is 'WHO' requested increase in hourly wages.

(D) In addition to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
(E) In addition to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits

HEllo All,

In the options D and E, the phrase "In addition to.." unnecessarily modifies the employees.
AMong the A,B and C, option C looks more convincing than the other two-A,B.
THough option C is little awkard in its construction, no other option is conveying the meaning of the sentence bette than the C.

PLease let me know your opinin.

Regards
NAresh J

In addition to is not modifying the employees.. it is a prepositional clause for the the hourly wages.....

D and E both are preferred than A, B and C.... and E wins over D because of the "were requested" in D..... were is for Increase which is singular and it is wrong.....

You've done a great job guys! To summarize the issues in each answer...

Added to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.

(A) Added to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
Always try to understand what the very first word or couple of words in the sentence are doing. "Added" is a past participle (V3), which is a descriptive word, like an adjective. So we are opening the sentence with a subject modifier that suggests that the subject of the sentence is the thing that was "added". But our subject is employees, and employees were not "added" to anything, so we can stop reading here.

(B) Added to the increase in hourly wages which had been requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
Same subject-modifier problem as in A. ALSO, NOTE: There is no comma before the "which"!! "Which" must be preceded by a comma. The only exception is when you have a preposition+which (ex. to which, from which, by which, with which...etc.) This is the ONLY time "which" does not need to be be preceded by a comma.

(C) The railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits added to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July.
"program of retirement benefits added" indicates that the program really was added. Similarly "a cake baked on Sunday" is a cake that really was baked. But the program was not added; it was sought.

Also, the relative clause "that were requested" should refer to the increase (singular) that was requested.

(D) In addition to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
The relative clause "that were requested" should refer to the increase (singular) that was requested.

(E) In addition to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.

"The increase... requested (V3)" is correct. The play between "employees of the railroad" and "railroad employees" in D is there only to distract you from the major issues.[/quote]
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Verbal experts. Need your help.
Isn't "in addition to the increase in hourly wages" modifying "the employees"?
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I'm confused with the tenses here...suppose if we had following two options

X) In addition to the increase in hourly wages that was requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits.
Y) In addition to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits

Basically requested vs. was requested. Which one is better?

Actually, this isn't a verb tense issue, it's verb voice. Both options are in the past tense but they shift between passive and active voice: was requested (passive) and requested (active). The GMAT doesn't seem to have a preference between the two, so either one would be fine.

KW
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MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

There is a misplaced modifier in this sentence. As it stands it implies that the employees were the ones who were added to the increase in monthly wages. That means choices A and B are incorrect. Choice C has an obvious grammatical mistake in it. ‘Increase’ is singular so it should be ‘the increase in wages was discussed’. Choice D has the same error. Choice E is the correct answer.
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a. The sentence is in present continuous tense. So, ‘Added to’ doesn’t go well with the sentence.
b. Same error as ‘a’.
c. ‘Added to’ should be changed with ‘in addition to’ and ‘were’ should be changed with ‘was’ as ‘increase’ here is used as singular.
d. ‘was’ should be used instead of ‘were’ as explained in option ‘c’.
e. Grammatically correct.
Hence, e is the answer.

A) Added to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits. - incorrect modifier
(B) Added to the increase in hourly wages which had been requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits. - incorrect modifier
(C) The railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits added to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July. - awkward
(D) In addition to the increase in hourly wages that were requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits. were is incorrect as it is referring to the singular 'increase'
(E) In addition to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the employees of the railroad are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits- correct