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28 Feb 2023, 07:38
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Hi GMATGuruNY - my question is on (A)
Providing and Milking are examples of comma + verb'ing
Now we know that, Comma + Verb'ing MODIFIES the closest subject and the closest verb.
The closest subject is the pronoun them (i.e. Holstein cows)
Closet verb is the infinitive verb (To keep)
Could you confirm if my analysis on this is accurate ?
Providing and Milking are examples of comma + verb'ing
Now we know that, Comma + Verb'ing MODIFIES the closest subject and the closest verb.
The closest subject is the pronoun them (i.e. Holstein cows)
Closet verb is the infinitive verb (To keep)
Could you confirm if my analysis on this is accurate ?
Updated on: 29 Mar 2023, 23:19
Originally posted by DmitryFarberMPrep on 28 Feb 2023, 13:01.
Last edited by DmitryFarberMPrep on 29 Mar 2023, 23:19, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by DmitryFarberMPrep on 29 Mar 2023, 23:19, edited 1 time in total.
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jabhatta2
Simple answer--there is no such rule. Adverbial modifiers have a fair amount of flexibility. As long as the intended meaning is clear, we can apply them where they make the most sense. You may have been influenced here by initial modifiers. It's true that if we start with a modifier, it should make sense with the subject that follows. In this case, if the sentence started at the underline, we'd expect the modifier "providing" to describe an action performed by the subject "cows." But of course that wouldn't make any sense, so we'd need a completely different version of the sentence.
In any case, what is your question about A? Are you just trying to learn from its structure? I wouldn't try to learn too much grammar from wrong answers.
Simple answer--there is no such rule. Adverbial modifiers have a fair amount of flexibility. As long as the intended meaning is clear, we can apply them where they make the most sense. You may have been influenced here by initial modifiers. It's true that if we start with a modifier, it should make sense with the subject that follows. In this case, if the sentence started at the underline, we'd expect the modifier "providing" to describe an action performed by the subject "cows." But of course that wouldn't make any sense, so we'd need a completely different version of the sentence.
In any case, what is your question about A? Are you just trying to learn from its structure? I wouldn't try to learn too much grammar from wrong answers.
29 Mar 2023, 02:47
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jabhatta2
The statement in red is incorrect: them is an OBJECT pronoun and thus cannot serve as a subject.
A: For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, Holstein cows are producing milk.
Here, the blue them serves as the direct object of to keep.
Since the agent of to keep is the farmer, option A implies that the FARMER is providing the cows with high-energy feed and that this action is the result of the preceding action (to keep them cool) -- an illogical meaning.
The act of keeping the cows cool does not lead to the act of providing them with feed.
Eliminate A.
01 Nov 2023, 06:45
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For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
Basis first, as this is an extreme use of modifiers coupled with pronouns and, most importantly, the meaning. To refresh our memories. "Ed" verbals are noun modifiers, and as noun modifiers, we need to place them as close to the noun they are modifying as we can. The prepositional phrases can be adverbial or modify the noun. Critical features of adverbials - we can place them a little far away as well. You'll see the implantation here.
For the ING, there are two ways to look at this sentence -
Comma + ING - it acts as an adverbial. It needs to make sense with the subject and verb before it.
ING + Comma - It acts as a noun modifier, modifying the immediate noun or subject.
Option Elimination -
(A) providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - Comma + ING is adverbial. What does it modify? "Farmer takes care." Does it make sense to say farmers keep cows cool by providing them food and milking them regularly? No. Check ING + Comma. Does it make sense that "cows" provide food and milk themselves? No. And we are saying "milk each per year," using continuous is wrong. This is the worst of all options. Full of mess.
(B) providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - same issues. While it's okay to use ed or ING verbals on either side of "and" but here doing so messes up the meaning. "them" is plural; we need "cows." As if we could deal with modifiers, we have pronouns to deal with as well.
(C) provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - "milking" the same issue. "are producing" wrong.
(D) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - We have good modifiers but then pronoun issues.
(E) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce - Finally. Let's see a structure here.
Prepositional phrase (adverbial), Ed verbal (modified noun), clause. Now, let's unpack it. The basic structure is -
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
Now, the ed modifier "provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly" can only modify one noun, that's "cows," as farmers are not provided with high-energy feed, and farmers are not milked.
So, if we clear up the mess, we have two modifiers for "cows," one adverbial and one noun modifier. The noun has to be placed as close as we can. So we could either place it after cows (but that'll make this problem less difficult, and GMAT will not like that), so the GMAT placed it before "cows" and even placed a prepositional phrase in the beginning, which, by the way, could have been placed anywhere. So the simplified version, which will make it a 600-level problem, is
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, Holstein cows, provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly, will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
Basis first, as this is an extreme use of modifiers coupled with pronouns and, most importantly, the meaning. To refresh our memories. "Ed" verbals are noun modifiers, and as noun modifiers, we need to place them as close to the noun they are modifying as we can. The prepositional phrases can be adverbial or modify the noun. Critical features of adverbials - we can place them a little far away as well. You'll see the implantation here.
For the ING, there are two ways to look at this sentence -
Comma + ING - it acts as an adverbial. It needs to make sense with the subject and verb before it.
ING + Comma - It acts as a noun modifier, modifying the immediate noun or subject.
Option Elimination -
(A) providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - Comma + ING is adverbial. What does it modify? "Farmer takes care." Does it make sense to say farmers keep cows cool by providing them food and milking them regularly? No. Check ING + Comma. Does it make sense that "cows" provide food and milk themselves? No. And we are saying "milk each per year," using continuous is wrong. This is the worst of all options. Full of mess.
(B) providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - same issues. While it's okay to use ed or ING verbals on either side of "and" but here doing so messes up the meaning. "them" is plural; we need "cows." As if we could deal with modifiers, we have pronouns to deal with as well.
(C) provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - "milking" the same issue. "are producing" wrong.
(D) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - We have good modifiers but then pronoun issues.
(E) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce - Finally. Let's see a structure here.
Prepositional phrase (adverbial), Ed verbal (modified noun), clause. Now, let's unpack it. The basic structure is -
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
Now, the ed modifier "provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly" can only modify one noun, that's "cows," as farmers are not provided with high-energy feed, and farmers are not milked.
So, if we clear up the mess, we have two modifiers for "cows," one adverbial and one noun modifier. The noun has to be placed as close as we can. So we could either place it after cows (but that'll make this problem less difficult, and GMAT will not like that
), so the GMAT placed it before "cows" and even placed a prepositional phrase in the beginning, which, by the way, could have been placed anywhere. So the simplified version, which will make it a 600-level problem, isFor the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, Holstein cows, provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly, will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
