Although the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe building their dwelli

Question

Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings  of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick, by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

A) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings

B) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, who built their dwellings

C) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe built their dwellings

D) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, built

E) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, which were built

SC94340.02

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Accepted Answer

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in  orange :

Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings  of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick, by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

A)  earliest inhabitants  of Mapungubwe , building their dwellings

B)  earliest inhabitants  of Mapungubwe , who built their dwellings

C)  earliest inhabitants  of Mapungubwe  built their dwellings

D)  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants  of Mapungubwe , built

E)  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants  of Mapungubwe , which were built

After a quick glance over the options, we have 2 main areas we can focus on:

1. “earliest inhabitants” vs. “dwellings of the earliest inhabitants” (Clarity & Modifiers)
2. How each option ends (Construction)

While it may be tempting to start with #1 on our list, we’re going to start with #2.

Why?

Whenever you see almost all of each option highlighted in orange, you’re likely dealing with a “big picture” grammar issue, such as construction, run-ons/fragments, misplaced modifiers, etc.  The either/or split in #1 won’t lead us any closer to the correct answer because we’re dealing with something larger. We need to make sure that our sentences have clear subjects and verbs, and that the non-essential phrases (the phrases with commas on either side of them) are truly non-essential to the intended meaning. To make problems easier to spot, let’s add in the non-underlined portions also.

A)  Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe ,  building their dwellings     of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick , by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

This is  INCORRECT  because it’s a sentence fragment! If we remove the non-essential phrase in the middle, what we have left doesn’t make sense as a standalone sentence. This means the phrase we crossed out actually NEEDS to be there. Any phrase that comes after “although” MUST be an independent clause, but in this case it is not.

B)  Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe ,  who built their dwellings     of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick , by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

This is  INCORRECT  for the same reason as option A. The “although” statement isn’t an independent clause, and if we remove the non-essential phrase, what’s left over doesn’t work on its own.

C)  Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe  built their dwellings   of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick, by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

This is  CORRECT ! The clause that comes after “although” (...the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe build their dwellings of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick…) can totally stand alone as an independent clause. Also, by eliminating the comma before “built,” we don’t have that extra non-essential clause problem!

D)  Although the  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe ,  built     of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick , by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

Again, we have a problem with splitting up the “although” clause into two pieces. Therefore, just like options A & B, this is also  INCORRECT .

E)  Although the  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe ,  which were built     of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick , by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

This is  INCORRECT  for the same reasons as options A, B, and D.

There you have it - option C is the winner!  It’s the only option that doesn’t have any issues with the overall sentence construction. By knowing when to focus on “larger” grammar issues, we avoided being distracted by an either/or split that wouldn’t have helped us get closer to the correct choice any faster.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

ArunSharma12 · Answer

Ans: C

A)  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings;  Although is followed by a clause, there is no verb for the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe. building their dwellings.. can not modify inhabitants so there is a modifier issue as well

B)  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, who built their dwellings;  same error as option A, modifier issue is resolved

C)  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe built their dwellings;  Although is followed by a clause, correct choice

D)  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, built;  there is no verb for dwellings

E)  dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, which were built;  same error as option D

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Grammatical Construction + Verb Forms

A:  This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "building" is a present participle ("verb+ing") acting as a modifier, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "inhabitants".

B:  This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "built" is part of a "comma + who" modifying phrase, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "inhabitants".

C:   Correct . This answer choice acts upon the independent noun "inhabitants" with the active verb "built" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence.

D:  This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "built" is a past participle acting as a modifier, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "inhabitants".

E:  This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "were built" is part of a "comma + which" modifying phrase, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "inhabitants".

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

itspC · Answer

30 sec approach :One common GMAT typical error: splice error i.e., A clause with No Verb>> making the sentence formation incorrect in all options except C

NiftyNiffler · Answer

Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings  of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick, by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

"by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear." is already an independent clause, so we need to  make sure the underlined portion of the sentence is also an independent clause  joined by conjunction "although"

A) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe,  building  their dwellings  -- sentence fragment

B) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe,  who  built their dwellings  -- sentence fragment

C) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe  built  their dwellings  -- CORRECT, an IC with main verb "built"

D) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe,  built   -- sentence fragment

E) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe,  which  were built  -- sentence fragment

Answer is  C

mba757 · Answer

MartyTargetTestPrep   GMATNinja   GMATNinja two  egmat

Hello - How is this a sentence fragment problem? Is this not a modifier issue? Isn't any statement following "although" a dependent clause? So the problem doesn't necessarily lie there.

For option A, (1) modifier error: “Although the earliest inhabitants of M.,  ,  by the thirteenth century  buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.”; “buildings” cannot logically be the “earliest inhabitants."

For option B, the same problem as A.

For option C, the best option.

For option D, doesn't properly show the contrast.

For option E, doesn't properly show the contrast.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

It is not the case that anything that begins with "although" is a dependent clause.

In this case, what follows "although" may seem to be a dependent clause but has no main verb. So, it's not a complete clause.

As a result, in all versions except for the correct version, "although" illogically connects a phrase with a clause.

If you want to call the first part a modifier, then maybe there's a modifier issue, but really, the sentence is just not logically constructed. The first part of the sentence, the part that follows "although," has no main verb. So, this version illogically uses "although" to connect a phrase with a clause.

Yes.

Like the version created via the use of (A) and that created via the use of (B), this version illogically uses "although" to connect a phrase to a clause.

egmat · Answer

@Samgyupsal-

You are definitely headed in the right direction- If we look at the sentence construction we can see the errors more precisely-

Although the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, 
 building their dwellings of either 
 wattle and daub or 
 unfired mud brick, 
 by the thirteenth-century 
 buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

From the structure, we can see that there is no verb for the subject inhabitants- which issue the number one, and the modifier "building their dwellings of either" modifies the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, which logically should be a part of the subject clause.

Looking at these key structural components like the SV issue we can quickly mover through the answer choices-

A. as discussed above
B. Again no verb
C. correct and has a strong structure
D. Lacks a verb
E. Lacks a verb

No need to go further with the fancy analysis of clauses and fragments etc... when the basic foundational components need to be addressed first.

I hope this helps clarify your doubts.

Cheers!
Stacey

mba757 · Answer

If you want to call the first part a modifier, then maybe there's a modifier issue, but really, the sentence is just not logically constructed. The first part of the sentence, the part that follows "although," has no main verb. So, this version illogically uses "although" to connect a phrase with a clause.

Thank you for the response - this helps a lot  MartyTargetTestPrep ! One clarification question though.. when you say "this version   illogically   uses "although" to  connect a phrase with a clause ." Why is it illogical? Is it illogical because of the embedded modifier issue? Or is it illogical because you grammatically/structurally cannot have a phrase (a subject that lacks a verb) connected to an independent clause? Is this a general rule (i.e., you cannot have phrases with independent clauses)?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

You can connect a phrase to a clause, but not with a conjunction.

For instance, you can't connect a phrase to a clause with "and" either. We can see the issue with doing so by considering the following:

John running across the field, and he almost tripped over the can of paint.

("Although," unlike some other conjunctions, can connect a noun modifier to a clause though, as it does in the following example.

Although tired, John was able to complete the assignment.")

All that said, I think you are looking to hard for a rule here. The versions created via the use of (A), (B), (D), and (E) are pretty messed up. There's really no modifier issue.You should be able to read and see that they need clauses after "although." What do they even convey?

mba757 · Answer

This completely makes sense. Thank you,  MartyTargetTestPrep !

BhaveshGMAT · Answer

Although is used to show contrast. In the OA, 'earliest inhabitants' is contrasted with 'dwellings of earliest inhabitants'.

This led me to choose incorrect answer option C, though in doubt caused by structure.

Please help with the 'contrast' part !  MartyTargetTestPrep   generis

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Look again, but this time read the sentence more holistically. It it truly illogical? What's actually contrasted?

BhaveshGMAT · Answer

Sure. The contrast here is how the dwellings were built. Got it.

So, the lesson here for me is not to be too mechanical with the contrast. Meaning should convey the contrast, rather than just the placement of words.

Thanks again!

paragamrutkar · Answer

Although the  earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings  of either wattle and daub or unfired mud brick, by the thirteenth century buildings of coral blocks in lime mortar began to appear.

A) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, building their dwellings

B) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, who built their dwellings

C) earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe built their dwellings

D) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, built

E) dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe, which were built

SC94340.02

The first word of the sentence is a subordinate conjunction. Hence, the first part of the sentence should be a subordinate/dependent clause. 
The most common mistake in the incorrect answers is the missing verb of the subordinate clause. Only option D, the correct answer, has a verb in the subordinate clause.

ppch · Answer

Choice A&B lacks main verb for  earliest inhabitants . Choice D is incorrect as it changes the meaning;  dwellings  is wrong subject for verb  built . E lacks the main verb. C is the right choice.

Although the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe building their dwelli

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the earliest inhabitants of Mapungubwe building their dwelli

Prep Toolkit

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

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