Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean, highly skilled art

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 197: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean,  highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe .

A) highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

B) stained glass, that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

C) highly skilled artisans, of the early Renaissance, crafted stained glass that still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

D) and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe, highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass

E) stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 197: Sentence Correction (SC1)

HIGHLIGHTS

• The introductory phrase is a tip-off that modifiers are being tested
When a long sentence is set off by an introductory modifier (a bunch of words at the beginning followed by a comma), pay close attention to the modifier.

This introduction is  anchored by the adjective "created"  and thus  must modify the  subject   of the next clause.

Dangling modifiers  violate the noun modifier " Touch Rule "—I discuss both italicized phrases below.

• Meaning? In the early Renaissance, highly skilled artisans used the finest sands of the Mediterranean to craft glass that still adorns thousands of cathedrals across Europe.

THE PROMPT

THE OPTIONS 
 
• The intro is a noun modifier:  what  was "created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean"?
-- Well, not "highly skilled artisans."  Stained glass  was created from the sands. 
Eliminate A
 
• the word  that  signals an essential modifier. 
By default, essential modifiers such as prepositional phrases and that-clause  are not set off  by commas because commas mean "this material is not essential."
On occasion, that is preceded by a comma. I give one official example below.

• if we were to remove the material between the commas, the core meaning of the sentence would be lost:
 Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean, stained glass still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe. 
The word "still" makes no sense unless we know that the glass was made a long time ago. 
Core meaning has changed.

• What to do?
Follow my rule. Because I cannot immediately decide whether to keep this option, I keep it tentatively. 
With the exception of the commas, the sentence is fine.
Unless the sentence is a comma splice, we do not eliminate answers based on comma placement.
KEEP, but look for a better answer

• the same dangling modifier error as that in (A)
• highlighted commas? Commas signal that the modifier is not essential to the core meaning of the sentence.
-- same problem as that in (B): without "of the early Renaissance," we have no idea why the word "still" is in the sentence
Eliminate C
 
  • The introductory phrase is parallel  
-- the words  created  and  adorning  are parallel adjectives. (discussed below)
• what was created from the finest sands and what adorns European cathedrals? NOT skilled artisans. Modifier error.
Eliminate D

E)  Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean,   stained glass   crafted  by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe. 
• Correct. The intro modifier "touches" its target,  stained glass  and
• essential information is  not  set off by commas, as it is in option (B). 
Option (E) is better than (B). Eliminate B

The answer is E

NOTES

• "dangling" modifier? 
The "Touch Rule" states that a  noun  modifier must be as close as possible to the noun it modifies.
Ideally, a noun modifier touches the noun it modifies.

"Dangling modifiers"? 
-- Either a noun modifier does not have any noun to modify  or,  more commonly, the noun is too far from the modifier.
-- After "Created from the finest sands . . .," we should be reading about something that was created by sand.
Options A, C, and D contain dangling modifiers: what follows the intro phrase is not the noun modified by that phrase.

• heads up: participles are GMAC's favorite way to set a dangling modifier trap
Participles? ___ED and ___ING words (verbED and verbING words)
When first part of a sentence begins with an __ED or ___ING word, you are almost certainly about to face modifier issues (among others).

• in option (C) how can past participle  created  and present participle  adorning  be parallel?
-- they are both adjectives that describe the noun. Full stop. 
--  participles themselves do not have tense.  We are  not  examining verbs. 
-- Those words are both adjectives and thus parallel.
 SPOILER ALERT  (the filigree question):  This official question, here,  also contains one past and one present participle that describe the same noun.

• that set off by commas?  Not often, but sometimes okay.
-- when a modifier is set off by commas, those commas indicate that the set off material is not essential to the sentence
-- although a that-clause is rarely preceded by a comma, sometimes "that" may be separated from its noun by a few words. 
 SPOILER ALERT  (the herbaceous plant question): One official question in which  that  is correctly preceded by a comma is  here .

A related issue is whether GMAC will continue to observe the that/which distinction.
In  this post, here,  I explain why I still assess answers on the basis of the distinction, though I do not eliminate them immediately on that basis. 
That post contains an example from OG  2020  in which the distinction is explicitly tested.

COMMENTS

I am glad to see that some of Butler's newer participants posted again.

These answers are really good. A few are outstanding.
I can't bump four answers to Best Community Reply, but I can say to those who read this explanation: read the rest of the thread.
You'll see distilled versions of this answer, but each author has a style that will help people who think like those authors do.

Nicely done.

hero_with_1000_faces · Answer

Fairly easy question,

The first part "Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean" is an opening modifier.

It can logically modify 'Stained Glass' B Hence and E remain, both quite similar.

B) stained glass, that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

B  can be eliminated, I am little wary of Comma before  that , and still adorns.

E is correct, only concern might the passive usage of  crafted by

E is correct IMO,

Tushrgupta · Answer

Its pretty easy if one cracks that modifier in first clause is refering to stained glass and only option B&E makes it clear..
B can be knocked for structure problem.

suchithra · Answer

A)  highly skilled artisans  of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
Incorrect subject. Artisans are not created .

B) stained glass , that  was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
Here the modifier becomes an non-essential modifier due to the comma. But That is an essential modifier.

C)  highly skilled artisans , of the early Renaissance, crafted stained glass that still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
Incorrect subject. Artisans are not created .

D) and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe,  highly skilled artisans  of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass
Incorrect subject. Artisans are not created .

E) stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
correct

E is therefore the answer

exc4libur · Answer

MEANING
Created from the finest sands, stained glass still adorns thousands of cathedrals.

What was created from the finest sands? Stained glass (a material), not an artisan (a person);

Essential modifiers, those that are key to the meaning of the sentence, are not separated by commas and they are usually introduced by "that".

Non-essential modifiers, those that are not key to the meaning, are separated by commas and they are usually introduced by "comma + which".

Is it essential to the meaning of the sentence to know the type of stained glass? 
Yes, it is; otherwise, we could be referring to any other kind of stained glass. 
Thus, we must "that" without a comma.

Ans (E)

Doer01 · Answer

Hi,
IMO E.
Meaning: Stained glass was made from finest sands of Mediterranean by highly skilled artisans of some era and they (stained glass) still adorn thousands of cathedrals. 
Sentence starts with a noun modifier which is in non-underlined portion. So what follows comma must be the noun entity being modified. 
 Its not highly skilled artisans that were made from finest sands of Mediterranean. OUT

that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance  is an essential information and it should not be in a comma pair. Plus, that clause cannot be in a comma pair. Incorrect.
 Its not highly skilled artisans that were made from finest sands of Mediterranean. OUT

and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe  in comma pair makes it a non-essential modifier and highly skilled artisans as the noun entity being modified. Again, incorrect.

This is absolutely the one. Simple and concise. Correct.

TheNightKing · Answer

Let's get rid of definite errors. The question to be asked is : what was/were created from finest sands of "M"? The artisans or the glass? The answer is the glass. So we have a modifier issue here.

Let's get rid of A and C.

D is creating a false parallelism. And even if the Parallelism is correct, it is still modifying the artisans. So D is incorrect too.

I am unable to pick one over the other.

Option B: 
Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean , stained glass,  that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance , still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe.

I feel B makes perfect sense but I can think of 2 issues, which will make me pick E over this one. 1: I am not too sure if "crafted by..." is non essential information or not. Because the sentence makes sense either way. 2. "that" basically converts the sentence to "stained glass, stained glass was crafted...." which is weird.

For these 2 reason I pick E over B.

eakabuah · Answer

Meaning: Stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe. The opening non-essential modifier has to modify stained glass.

Incorrect. Highly skilled artisans cannot be crafted from the finest sands. We have a dangling modifier in option A. Eliminate A.

A that clause is almost always an essential modifier. Here in option B, a that clause erroneously sets off a non-essential modifier. Eliminate option B.

Highly skilled artisans cannot be crafted from the finest sands of the Mediterranean. The same dangling modifier problem in option A is repeated in option C also. Eliminate C.

Highly skilled artisans cannot be created and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe. Eliminate D for a modifier error.

Correct. As in B, the modifier error is corrected in option E. In addition, option E uses the essential modifier  crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Rennaissance  to modify stained glass. E is better than B. Hence, E right answer.

KhulanE · Answer

Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean, highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe.
main clause should begin with "stained glass", which is the subject of the dependent clause. hence A, C, and D are wrong.

B) stained glass, that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
"that" is a determiner of restrictive clause. instead of that, which should be used. therefore E is a right answer.

Raxit85 · Answer

Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean, highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe.

Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean, what was created (as a subject)??

A) highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe - Modifier error

B) stained glass, that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe
E) stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

C) highly skilled artisans, of the early Renaissance, crafted stained glass that still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe - Modifier error

D) and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe, highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass - connector and distorts the meaning.

E) stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe - Aha, perfect. No error.

Imo. E

zhanbo · Answer

Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday! This one is rather straightforward! I spent 31 seconds on it.

The answer is  (E) .

In reading the original sentence, I immediately noticed that the modifier "Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean" mandates that the main clause's subject be "Stained glass". So A, C, D are out.

In (B), "that" is incorrectly used in non-essential clause. It should be "which”.

E is the only choice through POE. But I did read it once to ensure it makes sense.

OC2910 · Answer

Created from the finest sands of the Mediterranean,  highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe.
 
modifier question : 
so straight away look for what is created a thing

Eliminate A,C,D as all mention skill artisans created by sands: Absurd

A)  highly skilled artisans  of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass, which still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

B) stained glass, that was crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance, still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

C)  highly skilled artisans , of the early Renaissance, crafted stained glass that still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

D) and adorning thousands of cathedrals all over Europe,  highly skilled artisans  of the early Renaissance crafted stained glass

E) stained glass crafted by highly skilled artisans of the early Renaissance still adorns thousands of cathedrals all over Europe

Between B and E , For Gmat , before that is never good so E
E

OC2910 · Answer