Ancient stone pieces discovered at the Asforby site in England, an

Hello Abhishek009, sayantanc2k, nguyendinhtuong, souvik101990, daagh, mikemcgarry, carcass, chetan2u, Nevernevergiveup, JarvisR, VeritasPrepKarishma and other...
i deconstructed the statment as follows:

official veritas solution - The error in (E) is subtle but can be discovered with a careful decision point analysis. The placement of the participial phrase “including….” at the end of the sentence
creates nonsensical and ambiguous meaning. Those items listed after “including” are examples of the stone pieces found at the site; they are not a subset of the earliest
known tools. Because this participial modifier is at the end of the sentence, it is improperly linking those examples to the earliest known tools not the stone pieces at
the beginning of the sentence. Correct answer is (C).

Ancient stone pieces discovered at the Asforby site in England are examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, including
flint cores used for weapon creation, blades, flakes and 'debitage' (small chips from tool-working).

Ancient stone pieces - are examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe - MC
discovered at the Asforby site in England - modifier
, including flint cores used for weapon creation, blades, flakes and 'debitage' (small chips from tool-working). - modifier

comma + verb-ing modifer either gives result of action of subject and verb OR (as in this case) gives extra information about the preceding MC (sub + verb)
Thus, i think we get from option E -
Ancient stone pieces - include flint cores..., blades, flakes...
WHAT i don't understand is WHY everyone (including official Veritas solution) is saying that "flint, blades..." after include are modifying tools
as phrase "...of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe" is a prepositional phrase. So we would remove it while decryping the meaning of the sentence.

I hope i am able to convey my question/difficulty properly.
Grateful for any help in explaining this difficulty.
Thanks

Hi,

can be solved direct by S-V agreement. Ancient stones(subject)..include(plural).. only C.

Regards,
Dom.

Could somebody pls comment on this

Shouldn't "examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe" be next to "Ancient stone pieces"...Is it ok if it is far away as it is in option C.

manishtank1988 , ssr300


IMO E is wrong because there is a shift in the emphasis in the sentence. The original emphasis is on presenting the examples of ancient stone pieces. E changes that .
Also flint cores used for weapon creation, blades, flakes and 'debitage' (small chips from tool-working). are examples and including doesn't work like other ing verbs. Including is means to provide examples.
Any verb-ing verb as a modifier must make sense with the subject of the Preceding clause. Can you say here stone pieces did the act of including? No you cant. Its wrong.

Example of verb-ing modifier.

Joe reached office on time,running at a speed of 5 miles per hour.

here the act of running was performed by Joe and it presents us with extra information as to how Joe reached on time.

Hope this helps.

Ancient stone pieces found in England is a noun phrase. And it is correctly modified in Option C

Ancient stone pieces discovered at the Asforby site in England, examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, include flint cores used for weapon creation, blades, flakes and 'debitage' (small chips from tool-working).

Only (C) has correct Subject Verb agreement.

Hi all,
In my 2 cents,
"including" can be used to illustrate a list of items.In the construction of option E,it seems like "flint cores" are examples of "the earliest known tool";hence,the meaning is alter.

ps I did google and find that "flint core" is more likely raw material;hence option C is better.

egmat hi payal please see manishtank1988 question. I have a similar question.

Thank you

Comma followed by Verb-ing modifier ---->gives Result of or Explain preceding clause.
But here Including is used to present examples.
The desired meaning is not conveyed in E.
As mentioned above" it is improperly linking those examples to the earliest known tools not the stone pieces at
the beginning of the sentence."
C clears this mistake

Ancient stone pieces discovered at the Asforby site in England,examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, include flint cores used for weapon creation, blades, flakes and 'debitage'

Here there is no ambiguity or confusion

Hence C

This is more of S-V error than Modifier.
Once we spot on the S-V pair we will get the error on spot.
The pieces -- includes - X wrong
Verb not satisfying with plural subject
The pieces include is correct so. only option C is valid.

I want to know one thing, if option E would have been like, "England are examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, include" then will this option be wrong? If yes then can someone explain?

Thanks in advance

utkarshthapak
Then it will be a kind of fragment of double verbing for a single subject without a proper conjugation of the two verbs.

My understanding of this question is that since the modifier "examples of the earliest known tools" can only apply to "ancient stone pieces," the placement of the modifier is okay. If there were any ambiguity created by having two plural nouns (i.e. if the sentence read "Ancient stone pieces discovered at the excavation sites"), then the reader would have to assume (incorrectly) that the modifier applied to the closer noun (i.e. "sites").

Can anyone clarify my thinking here?

Although i felt it to be a simple question of SV agreement, I had my confusions as to whether the 'stone pieces' are the subjects or the 'example' . Finally decided to take the stones as subjects.

A) England, an example of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, includes - singular verb "includes" does not match with plural subject "Ancient stone pieces"
B)England are an example of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, including - The modifier "including...." illogically suggests that while being examples of tools, they included flint cores used to weapon creation, etc.
C)England, examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, include - Correct; plural verb "include" matches plural subject "Ancient stone pieces"
D)England are examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe and including - there is no verb in the second part of the sentence.
E)England are examples of the earliest known tools made in prehistoric Europe, including - same error as B

doesn't appositives should be immediately followed by a noun?