Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by

Hi,

Take a look at these sentences:

1. Wearing a designer outfit, Mary went to the party.

2. Arranging the books on the shelf, grandfather narrated a fairy tale to the children gathered in the room.

3. John decided to take his car to a garage, detecting problems in the engine.

4. The callers can avoid toll on home phones, using their mobile phones to make long-distance calls on weekends.

In all the above sentences, the verb-ing, either in the beginning of the IC or after the IC, modifies the doer of the action in the IC. If we use only the verb form of these verb-ing modifiers and rewrite every sentence in two simple sentences, then they would read:

1. Mary wore a designer outfit. She went to the party.

2. Grandfather arranged the books in the shelf. He narrated a fairy tale to the children.

3. John detected problems in the engine. He decided to take his car to a garage.

4. The callers can use their mobile phones to make long-distance calls on weekends. This way they can avoid toll charges on their home phones.

In a nutshell, the action shown through the verb-ing is performed by the doer of the IC. So we need a doer for that action denoted by the verb-ing.

Now let’s take the OG question answer choice B:
Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy, using a Doppler ultrasound device.

Now let’s see if the action denoted by the verb-ing modifier in this sentence can be attributed to the subject of the IC or not.

Fetal heartbeats can use a Doppler ultrasound device. Fetal heartbeats can be detected this way. Does the first sentence even make sense? Obviously no. So the verb denoted by the verb-ing cannot be attributed to the subject of the IC we need a doer of that action. Hence this answer choice is incorrect.

Now let us take a look at the correct answer choice:
Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy.

Now let us repeat the same exercise:
A physician can use a Doppler ultrasound device. He can thus detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
Makes all the sense, right?

Hope this helps.
Shraddha


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Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.[/u]

(A) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
Incorrect: This is a dangling modifier. Who is using the ultra sound device? We can assume that the physician is, but with the way this sentence is structured (with fetal heartbeats coming after the initial clause), it is saying that fetal heartbeats use the ultrasound device, which is illogical.

(B) Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy, using a Doppler ultrasound device.
Incorrect: Because the two clauses are only separated by a comma, this is basically rewording the above sentence, it does not refer to who is using the ultrasound device

(C) Detecting fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy, a physician can use a Doppler ultrasound device.
Incorrect: A little tricky. It's another dangling modifier. From the first clause, you ask yourself "who/what is detecting fetal heartbeats. It makes sense to say a physician detects the heartbeats, but really the ultrasound device is what detects the heartbeats. A physician uses the ultrasound, but the ultrasound does the actual detecting.

(D) By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.
Incorrect: Again, it has a modifier problem. By the twelfth week of pregnancy, physicians can detect the fetal heartbeats

(E) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
Correct: Correct use of a modifier, physician directly follows the initial clause.

Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.[/b]
(A) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
(B) Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy, using a Doppler ultrasound device.
(C) Detecting fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy, a physician can use a Doppler ultrasound device.
(D) By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.
(E) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy.

Please explain why (B) is wrong.




IMO, in (B), using a Doppler ultrasound device is modifying Fetal heartbeats, which means that (B) can also be rephrased as

Fetal heartbeats, using a Doppler ultrasound device, can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.


The main reason B is wrong is that, the sentence is constructed in passive voice. From my reading, I remember that all of the choices can be correct but one will be the most correct. So never choose passive when there is alternative without passive among the choices.
Also, (B) Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy BY using a Doppler ultrasound device
so the underlined BY is missing as well

My understanding is that it is not a 'crime' to use passive voice in GMAT. ManhattanGMAT says: The reason for not using passive voice is that it tends to be wordy. It is usually used in technical and scientific passages/sentences. The above SC is surely a scientific SC. I am still looking for a convincing reason why answer choice (B) is incorrect although (E) is in active voice. Can someone please clarify my doubt? Thanks.

Whenever you see a participial modifier, especially an introductory one, then the first task is to ask who or what is doing that function in the modifier phrase; Here the relevant question is who is using the Doppler device. If you do not have an answer within the sentence, then the issue is a classic case of a dangling modifier and we are required to introduce the modified immediately after the comma that sets off the participial phase. I think this aspect of the passage has not been brought out in the discussion. I repeat this is a case of a dangling modifier, with the modified subject missing from the sentence. The physician can be an appropriate user of the Doppler device

B is essentially wrong because of missing the physician. By bringing in the physician, the dangling modifier has been sorted out in E. That is the correct choice.

Although C accommodates the physician, the order of using and detecting is illogically reversed. Hence C is wrong.
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Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
(A) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
(B) Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy, using a Doppler ultrasound device.
(C) Detecting fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy, a physician can use a Doppler ultrasound device.
(D) By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.
--> Passive

(E) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
--> CORRECT

GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo VeritasPrepBrian egmat

can you please guide what is wrong with D? It seems to me that the doppler device is being used by the physician and the "By the twelfth week of pregnancy" is correctly placed before "fetal heart beats"

(D) By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.

If we stopped at "detected," the sentence would be fine, but it falls apart after that. It's not clear who is using the device, since the physician is not included in the earlier action. Also, the modifier "by a physician" is not clearly connected to the action "can be detected." To get a sense of this structure, look at how it can be used with very different words:

By the twelfth day of school, students can be found smoking cigarettes by the Taco Bell.

Notice that here, "smoking cigarettes" shows the activity the students were found doing, and "by the Taco Bell" indicates where they were smoking. Now imagine applying this back to the original sentence. The heartbeats were detected, and what were the heartbeats doing? Using a device. Where were they using this device? By a physician!

Obviously, this is an absurd reading of the sentence, and it's not necessary that we read it that way, but this reading shows some of the problems that occur when we try to stack our adverbial modifiers together at the end. Notice that we could make this sentence work with a small change:

By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heartbeats can be detected through the use of a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.

Now "through the use" clearly modifies "can be detected," and we could stop after the word "device" without having to specify who is using tyhe device (since we didn't say "using"). When we add "by a physician," it clearly modifies the preceding noun phrase ("use of . . . device").
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why is A wrong? apparently the doer doesn't exist in the original sentence. "Using x, y can be detected".. example : using a cloth, a shirt can be made.

Now the one who does this can be anyone, can be a tailor or a person who is not a tailor.

as per my understanding, had there been a doer in the original sentence, then option E would have been correct.

*can be detected by the end of .....* seems awkward in A....

I am confused !

GMATNinja egmat aragonn GMATNinjatwo daagh

adit

Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy.

(A) Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy

In adjectival modifiers such as " using x' it is imperative that after the end of the modifier, the actual doer is must be mentioned forthwith. We must pay our obedience to grammar first. As per the tenets of the modification grammar, in the 'Doppler device' case, the construction may wrongly mean either that the fetal beats are using the device to detect something or that the twelfth week of pregnancy can detect fetal beats using the device. The importance of the passive voice using the specific phrase 'by the twelfth week of pregnancy' must be taken into account.

In sum, it may be noted that if there is an established and visible grammar error, we must acknowledge it, accept it, and go forward to save those golden few seconds in the exam.
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When I saw "a physician" in choice (C), (D), and (E), I first thought these are wrong because it is a "new information", which is not present in the original sentence. It took me some time until I eventually compromised with my initial thought and chose (E).

So, is it okay to add "new information" in SC GMAT?

Option A has no special significance. It is not any more (or less) likely to be correct than the other options are. That means that we should look at all 5 options and choose the one that conveys the intended meaning, without worrying about whether that meaning differs from the meaning in option A.
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OG Solution:
Choice A presents a dangling modifier. The phrase beginning the sentence has no noun that it can logically modify and hence cannot fit anywhere in the sentence and make sense. Coming first, it modifies heartbeats, the nearest free noun in the main clause; that is, choice A says that the heartbeats are using the Doppler ultrasound device. Choice B contains the same main clause and dangling modifier, now at the end. Contrary to intent, the wording in choice C suggests that physicians can use a Doppler ultrasound device after they detect fetal heartbeats. In choice D the phrase using ... device should follow physician, the noun it modifies. Choice E is best.
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Hi GMATNinja, AjiteshArun

Hope you are doing great!

Could you please explain why option B and D are Incorrect. I understand why option E is best of the lot in terms of quality, grammar and meaning. But I am not able to wrap my head around the deterministic errors in option B and D.
I know that both the below options are passive.

(B) Fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy, using a Doppler ultrasound device.

(D) By the twelfth week of pregnancy, fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.

Hi Deadpool3,

B. If we lead with them, these types of adverbial participles need a logical noun as the subject of the clause that they modify. If the clause precedes the participle, as it does in B, we could consider a noun before the participle as well. But the subject is fetal heartbeats and the noun phrase before the participle is the twelfth week of pregnancy. Neither of those fits. A much simpler way to say the same thing is "we need a physician in this sentence". You should look at this as being essentially the same error as in option A.

D. This option is passive (and therefore not preferred), but there's another error. If we switch to the passive voice in option E (Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats), we get:

1. Fetal heartbeats can be detected by a physician using a Doppler ultrasound device. ← We should do this because we don't want to end up with (2).

2. Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by a physician. ← Fetal heartbeats isn't a good subject for this sentence.

In (1), it's important that we use using... after a physician, because now using... is a participle acting as a shorter relative clause ("a physician using" = "a physician who is using"). In other words, it's an adjective, not an adverb. We can't use it before its noun the way D does.

3. Fetal heart-beats can be detected using a Doppler ultrasound device by a physician.
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Hi egmat,
I just read 5 strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning. In that, Strategy #4 (Change of voice) mentioned something on the lines of 'we need to look at intended meaning of choice A'. I'm attaching the screenshot of the second example of the Strategy #4, and I think that example directly contradicts with the OA of this Question; By that logic, E can't be the right answer because it's introducing new information that wasn't in the original choice. I know that logic triumphs rules in Verbal, and this one contains opening modifier error (conveys Illogical meaning) but this contradiction can be highly confusing. It would have been great if that article talked about the instances in which this strategy (or others) won't be effective with a few examples.

Although I found that article highly useful and I think you should read it too, I think this is a good example of why blindly learning, following and using rules won't get you anywhere, why logic > rules and why context matters, what precisely the reasoning skills are. Rules can't be applied all the time and we need to look for other errors as well. I hope fellow test takers find this useful.

The original article:
5 Strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning : Verbal Guides and Resources
https://gmatclub.com/forum/5-strategies ... l#p1022036

Hello raahulthakur,

Thank you for reading the article.

Well, we do extract the intended logical meaning from the original sentence as the original, complete sentence contains the context that clarifies the intended meaning.

Now, if we look at this official sentence, we see that the original sentence is written in the passive voice. When do we use the passive voice? We do so when the action is more important than the doer of the action or when the doer of the action is very obvious. For example:

The robbers were arrested last night.

The above-mentioned sentence needs no explanation. Now, if I write this sentence in the following way, will it be called incorrect for adding additional information not present in the original sentence?

The local police arrested the robber last night.

The answer to the question I asked before is "no" because it is obvious that only the police can arrest people. In the same way, it is pretty inherent in the official sentence that a physician uses the Doppler ultrasound device to detect the heartbeat of a fetus. This inherent piece of information is mentioned in the correct answer choice because the structure of the sentence demands this mention. So, the rule is not contradictory. It's application changes per the structure and the context of the sentence.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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raahulthakur

I agree with egmat that E doesn't really change the intended meaning, but rather adds a needed element. However, I don't believe there's any evidence for the idea that we should use A as our guide to the intended meaning. Of course we need to read the entire sentence, but if the meaning of A is off, then it must be changed! I think a clearer way to look at SC is that we may need to look at all the answer choices to get a clear sense of the author's intended meaning. The way I see it, some struggling writer showed me 5 attempts that they made at creating a sentence, and I'm trying to select the one that conveys clearly what that writer seems to have been trying to say.
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Hi egmat, thank you for taking the time to explain things. I agree, I think you put it in a better way. It doesn't contradict but the application changes as per the sentence. Thank you!