Approved April 24, 1800, the act of Congress that made

normally , comma+doing/do-ed/adjective works ad adverbial, not as adjective. we need to find a logical relation between main action in the main clause and the action/condition in the comma+phrase. it is hard to judge whether the relation is logical but we have another choice, the official answer , as a suggestion and we can find the choice most logical.

comma+phrase, if it is in the middle of sentence, present a problem. this phrase modifies the preceding or following clause. this is ambiguity error. choice B present this case.

regarding choice d

do-ed phrase and doing phrase must be connected by "and" . this is not easy point. if the two adjectival phrases are long, they need "and". this is a rule simply. we find this rule hard because we see two adjective stand together without "and"

if two adjectives are short, they do not need "and". for example, "beautiful intelligent girl" are good.

The most important thing to realize here is that, as you noted, NONE of the options use the preposition "on" before the date.

Clearly the GMAT did not want us to worry about that point, so... let's not worry about it! In this case, the "on" is understood and omitted, but that certainly does not mean that there are concrete rules regarding the use of "on" before a date -- something like that won't be the sole decision point on a question.

I hope that helps!
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This question is based on Modifiers and Construction.

Option A has the appropriate placement of the modifier “Approved April 24, 1800”. This option correctly puts the two actions done by the act in a parallel form – made provision for the removal of the government of the United States to the new federal city, Washington. D.C., also established the Library of Congress. The only difference between this sentence and others that are based on the concept of Parallelism is that in this sentence, one of the actions done by the act is in the form of a modifier that describes the act. But the two actions still have to be parallel to each other. So, A is the best of all the options.

Option B indicates a relationship between ‘approved’ and ‘established’ and makes these two verb forms parallel to each other by using the word ‘also’ before the verb ‘established’ and by including a participle modifier “making provision….Washington, D.C.”. But ‘approved’ is a modifier in this sentence that is meant to modify ‘act of Congress’. The two actions done by the act of congress were ‘made provision’ and ‘established’. So, Option B changes the meaning and therefore, can be eliminated.

In Option C, the subordinate clause “which made provision…….Washington, D.C.” is supposed to modify ‘the act of congress’, but is placed too far away from it for the relative pronoun ‘which’ to logically refer to its intended antecedent. So, Option C can be eliminated.

Option D contains the error of dangling modifier. The modifiers “Approved April 24, 1800” and “making provision…..Washington, D.C.” modify ‘the act of Congress. However, the subject is placed too far away from the first modifier. It is generally seen on the GMAT SC questions that when there are two modifiers modifying the same subject, the subject is placed in between the two modifiers to make the meaning absolutely clear. So, Option D can be eliminated.

In Option E, the present participle ‘establishing’ implies a continuity that is not indicated in the sentence. It also seems to convey the idea that establishing the Library of Congress was a result of sorts of the fact that the act of Congress made provision for the removal of the government. Since the meaning thus conveyed is not logical, Option E can be eliminated.

Therefore, A is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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unable to understand the problems in choice B]

Why A] a better choice?

Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A alters the meaning of the sentence through the "making provision for the removal of..."; the use of the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing" - "making" in this sentence)" construction illogically implies that the Act of Congress was approved April 24, 1800, and as a result it made provision for the removal of the government of the United States to the new federal city; the intended meaning is that the Act of Congress was approved April 24, 1800, and as a separate action it made provision for the removal of the government of the United States to the new federal city; remember, the introduction of present participle ("verb+ing"- “making” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

To understand the concept of "Comma Plus Present Participle for Cause-Effect Relationship" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Hi CrackverbalGMAT,

In A, dont we lack a verb because as you mentioned both the verbs are part of modifier, so there is not verb in main clause