Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation

It doesn't actually make sense, because diabetes isn't "surpassing" only the other two causes of death. Instead, diabetes is surpassed by those other two causes.

More importantly: that's not actually one of the answer choices! So why worry about it?

some verbs in english is considered LIGHT in that they need another action noun or verb to be complete semantically
there is
have
take
are the Light verb.

light verb "have" in choice C makes meaning unclear besides wordy. diabetes can have / own the rank . this is unclear meaning, a nature of light verb. choice C is gone

Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer
Here "together with its serious complications"," ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death" and "surpassed only by heart disease and cancer" are modifying Diabetes. however, It is not a full sentence

for example :- George Bush, as well as Dick Cheney, are politicians ---- "are" is a linking verb used to make it a sentence .
:- George Bernard Shaw, as well as Mahatma Gandhi and River Phoenix, was a vegetarian-----"was"is a linking verb used to make it a sentence.


why there is no need of linking verb in this answer choice A) to make a complete sentence?

need help on this GMATNinja ChrisLele sayantanc2k EducationAisle

Hi Smitc007,

Yes, surpassed is a modifier, but ranks is a verb here:
Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

For example, in "the GMAT ranks ahead of the GRE...", ranks is the verb for the GMAT. More examples:

The economy ranks second in the latest surveys on the issues voters care about the most.
The students ranked the companies.

Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer

(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed

The singular noun Diabetes requires singular verb form. In this consideration, options B, D and E will go off.

We can see an unnecessary wordy expression (has the rank of) in option C.

Putting the word ‘only’ before the word ‘surpassed’ distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. This error is prevalent in options B, C, and E.

The correct answer is A.

(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only - Correct
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - Wrong: 1) SV 2) Modifier
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - Wrong: 1) Modifier 2) Wordy
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only - Wrong: 1) 2 SV Issues
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed - Wrong: 1) 2 SV Issues 2) Meaning

Take a moment to truly absorb the usage of ONLY.

@sayantan2k daagh AjiteshArun generis GMATNinja egmat VeritasKarishma

What is 'surpassed' modifying here?

Since it should modify noun phrase it touches, it should be modifying 'cause of death'

And since

Cause of death = diabetes

Therefore surpassed is modifying diabetes right?

Can someone confirm?

Thanks!

Posted from my mobile device

Although generally the past participle words such as surpassed (with or without a comma before) are supposed to logically modify the subject, normally GMAT has taken a technical stand that the 'ed' modifiers should only modify the noun or the noun phrase before. The reason for this weird logic is best known only to GMAT. In addition, in the Diabetes case, the word 'surpassed' has to jump over a verb to find its match Diabetes, which is a foul.

Therefore none of the choices is correct if one were to reason that 'surpassed' modifies the subject Diabetes. The take away is that GMAT urges us not to be fastidious about the modifier aspect of past participle modifiers.

My stand is that we shouldn’t unnecessarily get bogged down by something that GMAT itself does not care much about by putting the controversial point under the non-underlined part.

This question can be tacked by just the underlined part under the SV number agreements and the use of the limiting modifier ‘only’ and its scope of modification.
This is a rare case, where meaning analysis actually leads people astray.

A. “Diabetes…ranks…” – good
a. “surpassed only by x and y” – good
B. “Diabetes…rank…” – no.
C. “Diabetes…has…” – good.
a. First part is wordier than A’s correponding piece
b. “…only surpassed by heart disease and cancer”
i. Only surpassed by x and y? Not diminished by x and y? Not exceeded by x and y?
ii. “Only” is modifying “surpassed”
1. We want the “only” to modifying the two diseases that the other disease (diabetes) passes
D. “Diabetes…are…” – no.
E. “Diabetes…have…” – no.

Diabetes is the subject and is singular
(a) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only - CORRECT ANSWER
(b) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - singular subject
(c) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed - too wordy
(d) are the nation's third leading causes of death, surpassed only - singular subject
(e) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed - singular subject

VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

Please explain the usage of only I'm not able to understand how only changes meaning.

Posted from my mobile device

Let's solve two examples.
1. He drives only red car. ( Here, only is placed before red car. That means, he drives only that specific colored car, not does blue car or white car.)
2. He only drives car. (Only is placed before verb 'drives'. That means, he only drives, not does other sort of things like washing or maintaining his car.)


Check the original question.
Diabetes ranks.....surpassed only by heart disease and cancer. (Only is placed before other two diseases. There are three diseases. In terms of death, Diabetes is the third. Diabetes is surpassed only by other diseases.)

Diabetes ranks...., only surpassed by heart disease and cancer. (Only is placed before v-ed modifier 'surpassed'. Diabetes is only surpassed. No other event is taken place)

Dear AnthonyRitz TheGMATCo GMATGuruNY DmitryFarber MartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun GMATNinja IanStewart,

Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer

I wonder whether "COMMA + Verb-ED" at the end of the sentence can apply to the SUBJECT of the preceding clause?

Some experts say "COMMA + Verb-ED" can only modify the preceding NOUN.
So, "COMMA + SURPASSED" modifies the nation's third leading cause of death.
(I've seen this reasoning has been used to reject some incorrect answers)

On the other hand, some experts say "COMMA + Verb-ED" (just like "COMMA + Verb-ING") at the end of the sentence can modify the SUBJECT of the preceding clause.
So, "COMMA + SURPASSED" modifies Diabetes

I'd simply invoke the rule that a participle phrase, at the end of a sentence, set off by a comma modifies the preceding clause and not the adjacent word.

Note that the closest noun is not "cause" but in fact "death" -- there is no way that this participle phrase modifies the closest noun. (You're arguing that it modifies the closest noun phrase; that is at least arguable.)

Dear AnthonyRitz,

OA : It can hardly be said that educators are at fault for not anticipating the impact of microcomputer technology: Alvin Toffler, one of the most prominent students of the future, did not even mention microcomputers in Future Shock, published in 1970.

However, in this OA, "published" modifies "Future Shock" (not the subject "Alvin Toffler").
Are both possible?

Dear AnthonyRitz,


I've been told that sometimes OE is not perfectly precise.
However, in this instance, OE tries to say that COMMA + VERB-ED modifies the closest noun (as attached below).

I'm curious whether there are any other OAs in which COMMA + VERB-ED modifies the subject?