Pankaj0901 wrote:
AndrewN - Request you to please explain options A and C.
In the option C- a section of media, politically biased,..
"politically biased" modifies "media" or "section of media"- how do we identify which one it is? as both of them can make sense logically.
Hello,
Pankaj0901. This is one of about five times I have been called in to comment on a debatable
Experts' Global question. To be clear, as I have written in other posts, I do not mean this as a slight to the company or the question-writer. I only mean to draw attention to how difficult it is to write a question that closely mimics an official one. To my eye, this question appears to have been written to make a point about modifiers.
At the heart of the question is the placement of the adjective
biased, since
politically is just an adverb that modifies the adjective and could be swapped out with any number of different adverbs (e.g.,
severely,
ideologically). I would suggest removing the adverb temporarily while combing through the answer choices. Between (A) and (C), we then get the following:
(A) a section of biased media criticized [something]
(C) a section of media, biased, criticized [something]
I appreciate the point that others in the thread have made about the meaning of (A), but I do not agree that the adjective must be placed after the noun for clarity. As for your question about modification, we understand that only
people can be biased, and
section acts in the capacity of a counting word such as
number or
proportion in a different sentence.
Finally, answer choice (E) is just as viable as either (A) or (C), regardless of which one you favor there. You cannot point to the part of the original sentence
that is underlined and say that that conveys the intended meaning. Anything that is underlined is negotiable, and for all we know, a section of media criticized the views of one group only. The sentence is grammatically and semantically sound.
I will call for students to
prepare using official Verbal questions until I hang up my boots as a tutor. If you see a similar split come up in an official question, call for an Expert response if one has not already been provided.
- Andrew
_________________
I am no longer contributing to GMAT Club. Please request an active Expert or a peer review if you have questions.