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555-605 Level|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Pronouns|   Punctuation|                        
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 18 Aug 2020, 10:18
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A. As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision.
That first “it” looks like a problem to me. Because it is the subject of the second clause, “it” will generally refer back to the subject of the first clause – in this case, “a baby.” (For more on this, check out our YouTube webinar on pronouns, or keep an eye on our Topic of the Week list for more articles about GMAT pronouns.)

Anyway, if that first “it” refers to “a baby”, it’s illogical: “a baby would be rated about 20/500…” That doesn’t make sense. It’s the vision that’s rated 20/500. (A) is gone.

Quote:
B. A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision that would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind as an adult.
The pronoun thing isn’t an issue anymore, but the meaning is still warped: “… a rudimentary sense of vision that would be… legally blind as an adult.” The vision wouldn’t be legally blind; the baby would. (B) is out, too.

Quote:
C. As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision would be rated about 20/500; qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult.
I think we could argue about that “it” after the semicolon. It arguably refers to “vision” here, and that wouldn’t make sense.

But far more importantly, the semicolon doesn’t work, because “qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult” is just a modifier, not a full independent clause. (C) can be eliminated.

Quote:
D. A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision that would be rated about 20/500; an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind.
Hm, this seems fine. The vision is “rated about 20/500”, and that makes sense. We have full independent clauses on each side of the semicolon. It’s a little bit funky to see the last clause (“an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind”) so radically transformed from the other answer choices, but there’s nothing at all wrong with it. It’s as clear as it gets. Keep (D).

Quote:
E. As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision, which would deemed legally blind for an adult, would be rated about 20/500.
Again, we have a “rudimentary sense of vision, which would be deemed legally blind for an adult…” And that makes no sense. (E) can be eliminated, and (D) is the correct answer.
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Hi GMATNinja @e-gmat

IN option D, why isn't the modifier "with a rudimentary sense of vision" an issue bcoz it seems to modify "womb" with a rudimentary sense of vision, and this is nonsensical.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Sep 2020, 14:23
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Hi GMATNinja @e-gmat

IN option D, why isn't the modifier "with a rudimentary sense of vision" an issue bcoz it seems to modify "womb" with a rudimentary sense of vision, and this is nonsensical.
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Prepositional phrases are flexible -- they can modify nouns or actions, so if it's not 100% clear what a particular phrase is modifying, you'd certainly want to be aware of it, but the phrase isn't necessarily wrong. For example:

    Tim gestured towards his children with great energy and enthusiasm as the truck barreled towards them.

Here, "with great energy and enthusiasm" describes how Tim gestured. Is it possible someone could read that sentence and wonder if Tim were gesturing to his energetic children as opposed to his low-energy kids? Sure. The potential ambiguity isn't ideal, but it isn't definitively incorrect either. The sentence still has a logical meaning and you were likely able to use context to figure out what the prepositional phrase was supposed to describe.

The same is true in answer choice (D). You're right that it doesn't make sense for a womb itself to have rudimentary vision, but it's perfectly fine for a baby to emerge with rudimentary vision.

That said, I think it's fine to be skeptical of the prepositional phrase. Just don't eliminate answer choices on that basis alone. If you had, you'd be left with just (C) and (E), both of which contain a glaring error. In (C), there's no independent clause after the semi-colon. In (E), "which" seems to refer to "vision," but it doesn't make sense to say that the vision itself is blind. It's the person with damaged vision who's blind. Anytime a decision leads you to a scenario in which you're left with answer choices that you know are definitively wrong, it means you need to revisit your thought process.

The takeaway: If an answer choice contains an issue that's debatable, hang on to it while you eliminate the ones with more concrete errors.

I hope that helps!
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 06 May 2021, 05:12
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If it were vs If it would ... might be helpful to not decide this sort of stuff "mathematically".

If it were mine, I would sell it to you.

If it would have jumped higher, we might have seen it.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Oct 2021, 02:16
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(D) A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision that would be rated about 20/500; an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind.
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Can anyone explain how is the 2nd clause independent?

"an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind." Standing alone, what is the meaning of this statement? Such what?
When linked together, it does make sense but I'm not convinced about its independence.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Oct 2021, 05:16
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Can anyone explain how is the 2nd clause independent?

"an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind." Standing alone, what is the meaning of this statement? Such what?
When linked together, it does make sense but I'm not convinced about its independence.
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Hi Nis20,

An independent clause (as a unit) is a combination of a subject and predicate (verb). Look at this as a structural call, not a logical call. For example, in "Ashu took the exam and he got a good score", he got a good score is an independent clause even though he refers to a noun in the first independent clause.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Oct 2021, 05:26
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OPTION D

Can anyone explain how is the 2nd clause independent?

"an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind." Standing alone, what is the meaning of this statement? Such what?
When linked together, it does make sense but I'm not convinced about its independence.
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You can watch our video on Independent and Dependent Clauses.

Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Independent and Dependent Clauses, their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 26 Apr 2022, 09:19
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision.


(A) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision.

(B) A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision that would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind as an adult.

(C) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision would be rated about 20/500; qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult.

(D) A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision that would be rated about 20/500; an adult with such vision would be deemed legally blind.

(E) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision, which would be deemed legally blind for an adult, would be rated about 20/500.
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A has ambiguous pronouns. "it" could reference "vision", "a baby", "the darkness"

B isn't concise in what is legally blind, and the use of "as an adult" is incorrect since there's no "as X as Y"

C has the same issue as A

E same issues as A and C

D is concise, and direct in what is "rated 20/500" and clarifies the second part of the original sentence.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Jul 2022, 07:36
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Option A: "As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision"

I was confused between A and D. I somehow felt that there is a meaning change in option D and chose the wrong answer A.

Is the ambiguous usage of "it" the only mistake in option A?


Please clarify.
The usage of "it" is worse than ambiguous in (A). Because "it" is the subject of a clause and "a baby" is the subject of the previous clause, it seems as though "it" is referring to "a baby." Rating a baby 20/500 isn't just nonsensical, it's downright mean. (On a good day, my baby would rate at least a 120 on a 500 point scale.)

Worse still, the clause "if it were an adult with such vision" suggests that a baby could be an adult! I would not want to live in such a world. And neither would that man-baby's poor mother... :oops:
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But (A) it also logically refers to a rudimentary sense of vision.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 14 Jul 2022, 22:01
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I still don't understand how "it" is a problem in A as "it" can't refer to baby, but in choice C and E, "its" referring to baby is not a definite error. "Its" referring to baby or womb won't make sense, so that should be enough to eliminate C and E. I understand there are other errors in C and E.

Can "its" referring to "baby" considered okay?

Thanks for your help!

YT




I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)


Let's take a look at the original sentence:

As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision.

In the structure it would be rated..., pronoun it cannot refer to a baby because this reference does not make logical sense. A baby cannot be rated 20/500. Per the context of the sentence, only the sense of vision can be rated so.

Now, the way the original sentence is written, the antecedent of both the instances of pronoun it must refer to the same noun entity. However, pronoun it in the structure if it were an adult... cannot refer to the sense of vision because a sense of vision cannot be an adult.

So, in Choice A, usage of pronoun is incorrect because their reference is not logical.


Now let's talk about Choice C and E. IMHO, usage of pronoun it in Choices C and E are not ambiguous because the sentence won't make sense if it is deemed to refer to any other noun entity apart from a baby. But yes, these two choices have other very definite errors and hence, can be rejected easily.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi Egmat/Shraddha,

Want 1 clarity.

In option D, the sentence after semicolon has the word 'such' in it. Can an independent clause have elements that are actually dependent upon the previous sentence? If the criteria of independent clause is that it should stand alone, does the clause after semicolon in option D qualify to be an IC?
If I just wrote this sentence alone, how would someone know what does 'such' refer to?
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 15 Jul 2022, 04:39
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egmat
yt770



I still don't understand how "it" is a problem in A as "it" can't refer to baby, but in choice C and E, "its" referring to baby is not a definite error. "Its" referring to baby or womb won't make sense, so that should be enough to eliminate C and E. I understand there are other errors in C and E.

Can "its" referring to "baby" considered okay?

Thanks for your help!

YT




I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)


Let's take a look at the original sentence:

As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision, it would be rated about 20/500, or legally blind if it were an adult with such vision.

In the structure it would be rated..., pronoun it cannot refer to a baby because this reference does not make logical sense. A baby cannot be rated 20/500. Per the context of the sentence, only the sense of vision can be rated so.

Now, the way the original sentence is written, the antecedent of both the instances of pronoun it must refer to the same noun entity. However, pronoun it in the structure if it were an adult... cannot refer to the sense of vision because a sense of vision cannot be an adult.

So, in Choice A, usage of pronoun is incorrect because their reference is not logical.


Now let's talk about Choice C and E. IMHO, usage of pronoun it in Choices C and E are not ambiguous because the sentence won't make sense if it is deemed to refer to any other noun entity apart from a baby. But yes, these two choices have other very definite errors and hence, can be rejected easily.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha


Hi Egmat/Shraddha,

Want 1 clarity.

In option D, the sentence after semicolon has the word 'such' in it. Can an independent clause have elements that are actually dependent upon the previous sentence? If the criteria of independent clause is that it should stand alone, does the clause after semicolon in option D qualify to be an IC?
If I just wrote this sentence alone, how would someone know what does 'such' refer to?
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Hello An78w,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, if two independent clauses are joined by a semicolon or the "comma + conjunction" construction, a pronoun in one can be used to refer to a noun that only appears in the other, as both clauses are still part of the same sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 22 Aug 2022, 20:55
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Please help to eliminate C.
(C) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision would be rated about 20/500; qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult.

1) In C, how to identify whether it is an IC or just a modifier?
2) I thought sentence after semicolon has ellipsis - So I read C as "If it were (ellipsis) an adult, qualifying it to be legally blind". Why it is incorrect?

Thanks in advance!
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 22 Aug 2022, 21:12
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GMATNinja

Please help to eliminate C.
(C) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision would be rated about 20/500; qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult.

1) In C, how to identify whether it is an IC or just a modifier?
2) I thought sentence after semicolon has ellipsis - So I read C as "If it were (ellipsis) an adult, qualifying it to be legally blind". Why it is incorrect?

Thanks in advance!
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Hi Sneha2021,

Subordinating conjunctions like if introduce dependent clauses, so we must look elsewhere for an independent clause. And although it's not a perfect test, we can use the fact that an independent clause is a subject-verb combination that can stand alone as a sentence to check whether qualifying... is a complete thought.

1. qualifying it to be legally blind

We can check whether "qualifying it to be legally blind" sounds like a complete sentence. We can also break the phrase down. In this entire phrase, there are only two things that are sort-of-verbs: qualifying and to be. Qualifying is a present participle, and to be is an infinitive. Although both participles and infinitives are verb forms, neither is capable of acting as a complete verb. This effectively means that we can't be looking at an independent clause, as (1) has no complete verb.
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 23 Aug 2022, 05:57
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GMATNinja

Please help to eliminate C.
(C) As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb, its rudimentary sense of vision would be rated about 20/500; qualifying it to be legally blind if an adult.

1) In C, how to identify whether it is an IC or just a modifier?
2) I thought sentence after semicolon has ellipsis - So I read C as "If it were (ellipsis) an adult, qualifying it to be legally blind". Why it is incorrect?

Thanks in advance!
Show more

Hello Sneha2021,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, a clause is considered independent if it meets three criteria:

1. It has an independent subject (noun or pronoun).

2. It has an active verb.

3. The active verb acts upon the subject to form a complete thought.

In Option C, there is no subject; the pronoun "it" is an object rather than a subject, as it does not take an action.

Further, Option C has no active verbs, only a present participle ("verb+ing" - "qualifying" in this sentence) and an infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + be" in this sentence).

Thus, Option C is not an independent clause.

Moreover, even if we assume that the rule of ellipses applies here, as you have suggested, Option C would not form an independent clause, as it still lacks a subject, and "were" would be part of a conditional phrase, not an active verb.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 13 Mar 2023, 00:56
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Can we eliminate A & B because before OR there is a comma. We should only use comma with and after three words. Such As: Right: apples, grapes, and mangoes.
Wrong: apples, and mangoes.

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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 13 Mar 2023, 01:55
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AbhishekDhanraJ72
Can we eliminate A & B because before OR there is a comma. We should only use comma with and after three words. Such As: Right: apples, grapes, and mangoes.
Wrong: apples, and mangoes.

Posted from my mobile device
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Hello AbhishekDhanraJ72,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of a comma is not the error in Options A and B; here "or legally blind..." is a modifying phrase, and the comma serves to connect it with the preceding noun to form the "noun + comma + phrase" construction; the error is that in this construction, the modifier illogically modifies the noun "20/500".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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As a baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sen 15 Oct 2025, 05:56
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