Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice

Here the basic question is one of deciding between ‘to keep from’ and ‘to keep it from’. When we say that somebody does something to keep from being done, it might very well read that he does for himself rather than for any other. For e.g.

Tom hid the car to keep from being taken by the police; what is feared to be taken by the police? Is it the car or is it Tom? It is rather hazy. Here the lack of the object pronoun ‘it’ renders the plausibility that Tom hid to save himself. Similarly in the given text, the lack of the pronoun gives a twist that the chalice was probably buried by itself, rather a wrong premise. Hence for the sake of precision, the pronoun ‘it’ becomes necessary.

C is also to be rejected on the ground that the chalice was trying to avoid being stolen.

So, B, the precise answer without any distortion and verbosity is right.
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Ask yourself who buried the chalice and why. They buried it "to keep it from being stolen", not "to keep from being stolen". The second example sounds like they buried the chalice because they didn't want themselves to be stolen..
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that the chalice was buried so that it would not be stolen by invaders.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• "in order to" and "so that" are the correct, idiomatic constructions.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "to keep from being stolen"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the chalice had itself buried so that it would not be stolen by invaders; the intended meaning is that the chalice was buried by someone so that it would not be stolen by invaders.

B: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "to keep it from being stolen", conveying the intended meaning - that the chalice was buried by someone so that it would not be stolen by invaders. Further, Option B avoids the idiom error seen in Option D, as it does not make use of the "in order to" or "so that" construction. Additionally, Option B is free from any awkwardness or redundancy.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "to avoid being stolen"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the chalice had itself buried so that it would not be stolen by invaders; the intended meaning is that the chalice was buried by someone so that it would not be stolen by invaders.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "in order that"; please remember, "in order to" and "so that" are the correct, idiomatic constructions. Further, Option D uses the needlessly wordy phrase "in order that it would", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "in order to keep from being stolen"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the chalice had itself buried so that it would not be stolen by invaders; the intended meaning is that the chalice was buried by someone so that it would not be stolen by invaders. Further, Option E uses the needlessly wordy phrase "in order to", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Between B and C, B is my choice


B) ... a ... chalice, ..., was ... buried to keep it from being stolen ...

C) ...a ... chalice, ..., was ... buried to avoid being stolen...

Please note how effectively I got rid of irrelevant modifiers and other sentence parts(distractors); this helps isolate the problem.
"to keep.." phrase is an adverbial phrase(answers the question Why?).
Now, what is being stolen?; here, C is not just ambiguous, it is meaningless. We need a noun or pronoun to precede "being stolen"

B.

A sounds as if chalice itself is keeping from being stolen.
C also sounds as if chalice itself is avoiding.
D unidiomatic and wordy
E redundant and wordy and same flaw in its meaning as A

Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, which dates from the eighth century, was probably buried to keep from being stolen by invaders.

(A) to keep from(what was kept form being stolen? a pronoun should be used here)
(B) to keep it from
(C) to avoid (who or what is avoiding?)
(D) in order that it would avoid(the chalice whould avoid? not chalice itself should be avoided from being stolen)
(E) in order to keep from ( same as A)

OE: The phrase to keep from being stolen is incomplete and does not indicate what might be stolen. Inserting a pronoun makes it clear that it is the chalice that might be stolen.

B is correct - The sentence is clarified by inserting the word it, which refers back to chalice.
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Hello hammerofodin,

Thank you for reaching out to me through a PM.




Read the original sentence very carefully. The way it is worded, it is difficult to say who was being protected from being stolen - the chalice or the person who buried it.

Yes, I agree that it does not make sense to say that a person was buried to keep from being stolen. However, among the five answer choices, there is an answer choice that explicitly uses the pronoun it to make it absolutely clear that the intention was to keep the chalice from being stolen, and hence it was buried.

The answer choice that leaves no scope for any kind of ambiguity is always superior than the other choices.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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We may actually see this by replacing each answer option in the original sentence.

Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, which dates from the eighth century, was probably buried to keep from being stolen by invaders.

Original Sentence.
Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, was probably buried to keep from being stolen by invaders.
Who kept chalice from being stolen????? Did Chalice keep itself? Meaning is distorted....
Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, was probably buried to keep it(chalice)from being stolen by invaders.
The pronoun makes it much clearer, that someone else kept chalice somewhere to prevent from being stolen.
Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, was probably buried to avoid being stolen by invaders.
Similar to A.
To wordy and awkward to be even considered as contestants.... B is the best option available.

i have learned that it refers to the antecedents along with all the modifiers attached to it. so in this case does it refers to 'recently discovered chalice'?
please guide experts.

That's correct. The it refers to the same chalice mentioned at the beginning of the sentence, the one that was discovered recently.
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To avoid ambiguity, we need the pronoun to refer to the chalice.
Of all the options given to us, Option B is superior.

Let’s scan the options:

(A) to keep from --> missing pronoun
(B) to keep it from
(C) to avoid
(D) in order that it would avoid
(E) in order to keep from

Eliminate Options A, C, D and E

Option B is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma AndrewN
Why pronoun is required in below sentence ?
It seems complete.
"Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice was probably buried to keep from being stolen by invaders.

Hello, Harsh2111s. To avoid getting tangled up in what may sound fine, it may help to focus on who buried the artifact, expressing the part of the sentence in question in the active voice instead:

Basic sentence (passive voice): The chalice was buried _____ being stolen.

Active sentence: [Someone] buried the chalice _____ being stolen.

Test the options:

(A) [Someone] buried the chalice to keep from being stolen. (This is the problem everyone is talking about above.)
(B) [Someone] buried the chalice to keep it from being stolen.
(C) [Someone] buried the chalice to avoid being stolen. (No different from (A) in the meaning expressed.)
(D) [Someone] buried the chalice in order that it would avoid being stolen. (Now the chalice wants to prevent itself from being stolen.)
(E) [Someone] buried the chalice in order to keep from being stolen. (No different from (A), just using the more formal in order to instead of the simplified to.)

That is the best way I can think to illustrate the point. I hope that makes sense. Although I am a proponent of engaging with the sentences as written, sometimes these shorter ones can be tricky, and in order to select an option based on sound reasoning, rather than my ear, I will tinker with the phrasing from time to time.

Please let me know if you have further questions. Thank you for bringing the question to my attention.

- Andrew
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Archaeologists in Ireland believe that a recently discovered chalice, which dates from the eighth century, was probably buried to keep from being stolen by invaders.

(A) to keep from (keep must go with an object)
(B) to keep it from (Good enough. correct verb phrase)
(C) to avoid (this subject of the action "avoid" is "chalice", it makes no sense)
(D) in order that it would avoid (it means chalice, this item could not "actively" avoid anything)
(E) in order to keep from (keep must go with an object)

Andrew,

Silly question about pronouns. There is not article 'the' that is infront of chalice. So when you plug in the the pronoun the sentence just doesn't sound grammatical.

"To keep chalice from being stolen" are we allowed to just plug in articles as we see fit?

Hello, sislam04. I do not think your question is silly at all. You should ask yourself what the referent of a pronoun is when seeking to justify the presence of that pronoun. Here, you are correct: it refers to the chalice that is mentioned earlier in the sentence. Since that one chalice has been discovered, we can logically place the ahead of the word in the latter part of the sentence (to refer to this one and only chalice):

was probably buried to keep [the chalice] from being stolen by invaders.

The article a is less restrictive in nature. I discuss some of the finer points in terms of conveyed meaning between the two articles in this post.

I hope that helps. Thank you for following up.

- Andrew
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There is a sentence in Manhattan SC book.
Coffee was drunk by her to stay awake. - this sentence is wrong.

However I can apply the same philosophy by asking:
who drunk the coffee - her (she)
why - to keep her stay awake.

Can you advise why this sentence is wrong?

Thanks

Hello, HarveyX. You have to be careful when looking to generalize teachings from an isolated sentence. In the coffee sentence, the passive voice is harder to follow, the to stay awake phrase almost seeming to point back to coffee. A rewrite of the sentence in the active voice, in which the explanatory to phrase more clearly modified the person drinking the coffee, would be better. In the sentence above about the chalice, all five answer choices fit into a passive construct, so there is really nothing to consider along those lines. You simply have to see which answer makes the most sense in the shell of the sentence, the part that you cannot negotiate around the underline. Is there some answer besides (B) that you would like to make a case for, or were you interested in comparing the sentence directly to one you were informed was sub-optimal in the Manhattan Prep guide? (Sometimes passive sentences appear on the GMAT™.)

- Andrew
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