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505-555 (Easy)|   Verb Tense/Form|                  
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EducationAisle
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 23 Apr 2021, 03:41
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TorGmatGod
Seem like, in GMAT, there has no hard-and-fast rule for COMMA+V-ed
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Thanks for bringing this up TorGmatGod. At the onset, I would completely agree with GMATNinja that it often becomes an exercise in futility, to try to reduce GMAT sentence correction to a straitjacket set of grammar rules.

What is however interesting, is that GMAT does drop clues in many official questions. Let's look at few of them:

An incorrect official sentence:

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.

Official explanation: Placement of modifier fashioned.... suggests that the Empire (the closest noun) not the images of the deities, was fashioned out of these materials.

There are of course numerous examples in which the past participial phrase correctly modifies either the immediate preceding noun or the immediate preceding noun phrase (whichever makes sense). Couple of examples:

An officially correct sentence, where the past participial phrase correct modifies the immediate preceding noun:

Building on civilizations that preceded them in coastal Peru, the Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and seafood, and the exploitation of other wild and domestic resources.
- Notice that the past participial phrase based on... correctly modifies the immediate preceding noun society.

An officially correct sentence, where the past participial phrase correct modifies the immediate preceding noun-phrase:

Fossils of the arm of a sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands.
- Notice that the past participial phrase found... correctly modifies the immediate preceding noun-phrase Fossils of the arm of a sloth.

Lastly, let's look at an example, where past participial phrase seems to modify the subject of the preceding clause:

Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation’s third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.
- On first look, the past participial phrase surpassed.... seems to modify diabetes (subject of the preceding clause); however, if we look at it closely, surpassed.... could as well be modifying the nearest noun-phrase nation’s third leading cause of death, since in this sentence Diabetes is effectively the nation’s third leading cause of death.
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 30 Jun 2022, 09:11
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national and international speed records, and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be of dangerously experimental design.


(A) and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be

(B) earning them at a time that aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew were

(C) earning these at a time where aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were

(D) earned at a time in which aviation was still so new such that many of the planes she flew were

(E) earned at a time when aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were



(A) and she earned them
(B) earning them
(C) earning these
(D) earned
(E) earned

(A) (E) at a time when
at a time at which
(B) at a time that

so adj that
enough/too forS toV
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 04 Mar 2023, 06:03
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is this an independent sentence 'By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national and international speed records' ?
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 05 Mar 2023, 04:11
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KesRay
is this an independent sentence 'By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national and international speed records' ?
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Yes, it is an independent clause which could function as a sentence without the verb-ed modifier at the end.
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 24 Mar 2023, 05:12
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Hi GMATNinja egmat

This question is breaking my understanding. :cry:

At first, I understand that

S+V, participle has the rule that;
1. modify preceding clause
2. the doer of participle is the subject of the preceding clause

Meaning that, from the rule, we can use some step to eliminate the choice

From 1, we can check that the participle makes sense to modify the preceding clause or not AND check the v.ing/v.ed form.
In this case;
1. JC held records, earning them at a time... -> make sense because 'earning them at a time...' is try to let us know that [i]how did JC hold these records[/i]
2. JC held records, earned at a time... -> not make sense because JC cannot be earned. it should be 'Records were held by JC, earned at a time...' because 'Records' can be earned.
There's a slight difference between present participles (ending in -ing) and past participles (usually ending in -ed).

When an "-ing" modifier is placed after the thing that it's modifying with a comma in between, then it modifies the entire preceding clause. This is in line with your understanding.

On the other hand, "-ed" modifiers usually only modify a single noun on the GMAT. If the -ed modifier comes before the thing it's modifying, then it modifies the subject. If the "-ed" modifier comes after the thing that it modifies, it usually modifies the closest noun.

So, is it a hard-and-fast rule that "-ed" can never modify an entire clause? Well, I can't think of an OA that uses an "-ed" modifier to modify an entire clause (if anyone can think of one, let us know!). Does that mean that using an "-ed" modifier to modify a clause (i.e. "Tim paces back and forth, worried that he'll be blamed for his toddler's face tattoos.") is inherently wrong? I don't think so. That example with the face tattoos seems fine to me.

Overall, it's best not to stress over a "rule" that the GMAT may or may not violate at some point. Instead, ask yourself, "What does the "-ed" modifier seem to modify here? Does that make sense?" If so, leave it in the running and look for other decision points.

I hope that helps a bit!


Hi, just a quick question- Is there a comma before earned in the correct choice? If yes, can a verb-ed modifier go over and modify a noun? [quote="GMATNinja"]
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 24 Mar 2023, 05:39
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ankitapugalia
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Hi GMATNinja egmat

This question is breaking my understanding. :cry:

At first, I understand that

S+V, participle has the rule that;
1. modify preceding clause
2. the doer of participle is the subject of the preceding clause

Meaning that, from the rule, we can use some step to eliminate the choice

From 1, we can check that the participle makes sense to modify the preceding clause or not AND check the v.ing/v.ed form.
In this case;
1. JC held records, earning them at a time... -> make sense because 'earning them at a time...' is try to let us know that [i]how did JC hold these records[/i]
2. JC held records, earned at a time... -> not make sense because JC cannot be earned. it should be 'Records were held by JC, earned at a time...' because 'Records' can be earned.
There's a slight difference between present participles (ending in -ing) and past participles (usually ending in -ed).

When an "-ing" modifier is placed after the thing that it's modifying with a comma in between, then it modifies the entire preceding clause. This is in line with your understanding.

On the other hand, "-ed" modifiers usually only modify a single noun on the GMAT. If the -ed modifier comes before the thing it's modifying, then it modifies the subject. If the "-ed" modifier comes after the thing that it modifies, it usually modifies the closest noun.

So, is it a hard-and-fast rule that "-ed" can never modify an entire clause? Well, I can't think of an OA that uses an "-ed" modifier to modify an entire clause (if anyone can think of one, let us know!). Does that mean that using an "-ed" modifier to modify a clause (i.e. "Tim paces back and forth, worried that he'll be blamed for his toddler's face tattoos.") is inherently wrong? I don't think so. That example with the face tattoos seems fine to me.

Overall, it's best not to stress over a "rule" that the GMAT may or may not violate at some point. Instead, ask yourself, "What does the "-ed" modifier seem to modify here? Does that make sense?" If so, leave it in the running and look for other decision points.

I hope that helps a bit!


Hi, just a quick question- Is there a comma before earned in the correct choice? If yes, can a verb-ed modifier go over and modify a noun?
GMATNinja
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Verb-ed modifiers after a noun and comma usually modify the noun. So 'earned' modifies 'records.'

Another example:
The most important crop of this region is maize, sown in the month of Oct and harvested in Dec.
'sown' and 'harvested' are past participle modifiers modifying 'maize.'

In regular English grammar, a past participle phrase following a clause and separated by a comma (clause + comma + past participle phrase) could modify the entire preceding clause. But standardised tests are often not very keen on this usage; so we will avoid it. That said, remember that studying grammar rules in isolation is worthless. If the sentence demands such a construction, then it is correct to use it.
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national 24 Jun 2023, 00:24
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By 1940, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran held seventeen official national and international speed records, and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be of dangerously experimental design.


(A) and she earned them at a time when aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew to be

(B) earning them at a time that aviation was still so new for many of the planes she flew were

(C) earning these at a time where aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were

(D) earned at a time in which aviation was still so new such that many of the planes she flew were

(E) earned at a time when aviation was still so new that many of the planes she flew were


Just like a location is followed by where, similarly, time is followed by 'at', when etc. Hence E is correct.
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