jabhatta2 wrote:
Hi
GMATGuruNY RonTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun EducationAisle DmitryFarber GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AjiteshArun AnthonyRitzWhen it comes to (D) - Why are we all assuming the (which clause) has to modify the closest noun only ?
Noun modifers CAN JUMP over verbs
Here are official examples
Quote:
Source :
OG Question
Link hereIn the OA - the "THAT CLAUSE" is
jumping over the verb.
OA - B
New data from United States Forest Service ecologists show that for every dollar spent on controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of fire-management personnel, seven dollars are saved
that would have been spent on extinguishing big fires.The relative clause in blue per my understanding is JUMPING over the verb "are saved".
The blue is referring to
"Seven dollars"Also
Quote:
Source : Manhattan SC Guide
Correct : A new CEO has been hired who will transform the company by decentralizing authority to various division heads while increasing their accountability through the use of public scorecards.
Here the (Who relative clause) is jumping over the verb "has been hired"
The (Who relative clause) is referring to the subject (CEO)
This is marked correct in the Manhattan SC guide.
In this case too - option (d) - i thought the (which clause) was jumping over the verb (Rely).
The (Which clause) is referring to the closest PLURAL noun -
THOSE One could argue - there is another plural noun closer - i.e.
THAT, subject of
THAT rely on magnetic resonance, because
THAT (albeit singular in nature) can refer to plural subjects when
THAT is the subject of the relative clause (
that rely on magnetic resonance)
The rule as I understand and teach it for relative pronouns is as follows:
A relative pronoun almost always has to modify the closest noun of the right type. So "who" will modify the closest person; "where" will modify the closest place; and so forth.
Relative pronouns are agreement-neutral -- neither singular nor plural (or perhaps
both singular and plural would be a better way to say it). So you have to look at the verb of the relative clause to figure out how to treat them for agreement purposes.
"which produce" is going to modify the closest plural object. That's the pronoun "those," which stands for "cooking ranges." ("magnetic resonance" is singular and thus is not an option here due to "produce.") The problem is that, as a result, answer D is saying "[cooking ranges] produce heat more efficiently than natural gas does." This is a faulty comparison; we want to compare "magnetic resonance" to "natural gas" or else "cooking ranges that consume fossil fuels" to "cooking ranges that rely on magnetic resonance" -- not "cooking ranges" to "natural gas." Mind you, B isn't a great answer either. In general, a participle phrase ("producing...") at the end of a clause and set off by a comma will not modify what it's next to. But the best we can do here is to assume that B is an exception to that general rule and "producing" describes "magnetic resonance." I'll pick B on that basis, even though I'll hate doing it.
More broadly, I want to advise you to always take really, really old official questions with a grain of salt. GMAC changed vendors for Sentence Correction a dozen or so years ago, IIRC, and anything older than that is not guaranteed to be a good question by modern GMAT standards. GMAT Paper Tests are generally even far older. Like the 1990s, or even the 1980s -- back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Don't get too caught up in questions like these!
Oh, as for your example sentences...
Quote:
New data from United States Forest Service ecologists show that for every dollar spent on controlled small-scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of fire-management personnel, seven dollars are saved that would have been spent on extinguishing big fires.
The highlighted "that" correctly modifies the closest object, "seven dollars"; I see no difficulty here. This follows the general rule.
Quote:
Correct : A new CEO has been hired who will transform the company by decentralizing authority to various division heads while increasing their accountability through the use of public scorecards.
The highlighted "who" correctly modifies the closest person, "a new CEO"; I see no difficulty here. This follows the general rule.
I will agree that we don't prefer to have relative pronouns jump over verbs, but I don't think that's a hard-and-fast rule.
One other distinction, though, is that in your example sentences there is no noun after the verb and before the relative clause. But in the question at hand, the noun after the verb makes the situation more problematic. So perhaps that's another reason not to like answer D in this case.
close
21 Nov 2021, 02:14
