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28 Sep 2021, 08:25
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kunalarya
Pronoun ambiguity is not considered a concrete error on SC questions, so you want to treat this as a very very low priority, if at all. If there's no referent at all for the pronoun? Sure. That's an error.
But any definitive grammar or meaning issue will always take precedence over pronoun ambiguity. And (E) has a major meaning problem. Take another look:
Quote:
That opening modifier "by installing special electric pumps" appears to be describing the "one agricultural engineer." This makes no sense. The sentence is talking about what farmers, in general, can do to warm their homes. So one agricultural engineer is going to install these pumps for every farmer?
Moreover, this construction makes it sound as though installing the pumps allows the engineer to report something. Why would installing pumps make a report possible? It makes far more sense to write that installing the pumps allows the farmers to heat their homes, and that's the meaning we get in (D), the correct answer.
Because (D) is more logical than (E), it's a better answer, even if it has a pronoun that feels ambiguous.
I hope that helps!
26 Jun 2022, 09:06
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Does Preposition + Verb Ing Modifier function the same as Verb Ing modifier i.e., both modify preceding or the following noun? (For both cases: Modifier followed by a clause and preceded by clause)?
Can Preposition + Verb Ing modify the complete clause?
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Can Preposition + Verb Ing modify the complete clause?
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28 Jun 2022, 22:17
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phoenix2194
Typically, preposition + -ing forms an adverbial modifier, so it can certainly modify an entire clause. Even plain -ing words are often adverbial modifiers. When you have one of these modifiers at the beginning of a sentence, it does not necessarily modify the following noun. The issue is that it has to make sense modifying the clause, and the first noun is typically the subject of the sentence.
In this case, "by installing pumps" definitely modifies the entire clause. But who is performing that action? Farmers. So we need to make sure that farmers are the subject of the clause. Let's look at two examples that do NOT work:
Wanting to impress my girlfriend's parents, my blue suit was the perfect choice.
The initial modifier needs to modify the clause that follows. It's situating an action: what happened when someone wanted to impress their girlfriend's parents? Wait, now we're talking about a suit? I don't think a suit can have a girlfriend! If we had any doubt, we could look at the verb: "was." "Wanting to impress" does not modify how/why the suit was a good choice. It modifies why I wore the suit.
Correction: Wanting to impress my girlfriend's parents, I wore my blue suit.
Now what about this?
By failing the test, Jim was forced to repeat the course.
If we read the initial modifier as modifying "Jim," all seems fine. But "By failing the test" doesn't make sense as a noun modifier. It's not adding detail about who Jim is, for instance. It should be introducing what happened as a result of his failure. This still might seem fine. The result is that he was forced to repeat. But the two don't work together. He wasn't forced to repeat by failing. Even though the initial modifier is adverbial, it needs to match up with a clause performed by the person who failed.
We can't really correct this one with the current modifier. There's nothing JIM did by failing the test, unless we want something like this: "By failing the test, Jim doomed himself to repeat the course." In this case, it would be easier to turn the first part into a dependent clause: "Because he failed the test, Jim was forced to repeat the course." Since these are two clauses, the first does not modify the second; they just have to make sense as a cause-effect pair.
Short version: If you see an initial modifier, it may be a noun modifier or adverbial modifier. However, in either case it will have to make sense with the subject that follows. Also, preposition + -ing will typically form an adverbial. (Almost every such rule has an exception, but I can't think of a way to make a noun modifier in that form.)
Here's a good official q that tests this concept: https://gmatclub.com/forum/defense-atto ... tml#p54047
Typically, preposition + -ing forms an adverbial modifier, so it can certainly modify an entire clause. Even plain -ing words are often adverbial modifiers. When you have one of these modifiers at the beginning of a sentence, it does not necessarily modify the following noun. The issue is that it has to make sense modifying the clause, and the first noun is typically the subject of the sentence.
In this case, "by installing pumps" definitely modifies the entire clause. But who is performing that action? Farmers. So we need to make sure that farmers are the subject of the clause. Let's look at two examples that do NOT work:
Wanting to impress my girlfriend's parents, my blue suit was the perfect choice.
The initial modifier needs to modify the clause that follows. It's situating an action: what happened when someone wanted to impress their girlfriend's parents? Wait, now we're talking about a suit? I don't think a suit can have a girlfriend! If we had any doubt, we could look at the verb: "was." "Wanting to impress" does not modify how/why the suit was a good choice. It modifies why I wore the suit.
Correction: Wanting to impress my girlfriend's parents, I wore my blue suit.
Now what about this?
By failing the test, Jim was forced to repeat the course.
If we read the initial modifier as modifying "Jim," all seems fine. But "By failing the test" doesn't make sense as a noun modifier. It's not adding detail about who Jim is, for instance. It should be introducing what happened as a result of his failure. This still might seem fine. The result is that he was forced to repeat. But the two don't work together. He wasn't forced to repeat by failing. Even though the initial modifier is adverbial, it needs to match up with a clause performed by the person who failed.
We can't really correct this one with the current modifier. There's nothing JIM did by failing the test, unless we want something like this: "By failing the test, Jim doomed himself to repeat the course." In this case, it would be easier to turn the first part into a dependent clause: "Because he failed the test, Jim was forced to repeat the course." Since these are two clauses, the first does not modify the second; they just have to make sense as a cause-effect pair.
Short version: If you see an initial modifier, it may be a noun modifier or adverbial modifier. However, in either case it will have to make sense with the subject that follows. Also, preposition + -ing will typically form an adverbial. (Almost every such rule has an exception, but I can't think of a way to make a noun modifier in that form.)
Here's a good official q that tests this concept: https://gmatclub.com/forum/defense-atto ... tml#p54047
