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555-605 Level|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Subject Verb Agreement|   Verb Tense/Form|                                 
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To me in option E"making the sloth ....." adverbial modifier making same sense with subject 'fossils of the arm of sloth' like in option A, 'fossils of arm sloth made sloth...' .please correct me if i am wrong.
I don't see "making the sloth ....." in E. Can you restate your question?
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(D) ... have been dated ...

Doesn't "have been" mean that the fossils are continuously been dated ? Wouldn't the correct way to say this to be "was dated" ? (Sorry, I can't understand why D is correct here)

Maybe GMATNinja can help ? :)
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[quote="nakib77"]Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands.


(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
Wrong:
- Pronoun: the antecedent noun is "Fossils of the arm of...", not a sloth itself

(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
- Pronoun: who are they?
- SVA: fossils - has been
- thus making it: redundant
(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
- Pronoun: this
(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
- Correct
- Fixed the pronoun error
(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of
- Run on sentence: 2 verbs
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GMATNinja
I’ve always had a soft spot for this question, just because it has such a wide variety of issues and errors. It also has an interesting little verb tense thing that really doesn’t matter at all: you could easily fixate on the difference between "was dated" (past tense) and "has/have been dated" (present perfect tense), but you don't have to choose between them at all. There are plenty of other issues to worry about instead.

Quote:
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense. How the heck would the fossils of a sloth make the sloth the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles?

The much smaller issue is that I see no real need for that first comma, but that’s unlikely to ever be a deciding factor on a GMAT question. But the nonsensical main clause is enough to wipe out (A).

Quote:
(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
This time, the pronoun “they” is the first thing that catches my eye. Who the heck is “they”? The fossils?

Plus, we have a subject-verb problem: “fossils… has been dated” is spectacularly wrong. (B) is gone.

Quote:
(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
Subject-verb fail again: “fossils… was dated.” Nope.

But there’s more: the phrase “that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991” seems to modify the sloth itself, and that makes no sense. Unless you think that the sloth had actually been alive for 34 million years. Maybe moving really slowly helps you live longer?

Finally, the word “this” is used as a singular pronoun, and that’s an unacceptable use of the word “this” on the GMAT. I’ve only ever seen “this” used as an article on the GMAT (“this week” or “this magnificent GMAT forum”), but never as a pronoun.

So we have lots of good reasons to eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
This one looks pretty good. The subject-verb agreement works: “fossils… have been dated at 34 million years old…” Cool. The modifier “found in Puerto Rico in 1991” is nicely set apart with commas, so it seems to refer to the entire phrase “fossils of the arm of a sloth”, and not just the sloth itself, as we saw in (C).

And the last part of the underlined portion (“making the sloth the earliest known mammal…”) actually names the sloth instead of using a pronoun, and that adds a bit of extra clarity. It might not be strictly necessary, but it’s nice. We can keep (D).


Quote:
(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of
Thanks to the modifier “which”, which typically modifies the immediately preceding noun, it really sounds like the sloth itself was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and that makes no sense. (I also can’t make much sense of the comma placement in that part of the sentence, but again, comma placement isn’t really a major emphasis on GMAT SC.)

We also have the same problem that we had in (A): “fossils… made the sloth the earliest known mammal…” That’s nonsense, too.

So we can ditch (E), and (D) is our answer.

GMATNinja egmat

Dating of the fossils is not an ongoing process + it is a thing of past else it wont make sloth earlies known mammal, can you please help me understand taking into consideration this as to why the usage of "have been" correct

Also, as per GMATNinja - The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense.

My view : It is just saying that particular evidence made the sloth the earliest know mammal? What is wrong with the usage of "it" referring to sloth? How else to put this?
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GMATNinja
I’ve always had a soft spot for this question, just because it has such a wide variety of issues and errors. It also has an interesting little verb tense thing that really doesn’t matter at all: you could easily fixate on the difference between "was dated" (past tense) and "has/have been dated" (present perfect tense), but you don't have to choose between them at all. There are plenty of other issues to worry about instead.

Quote:
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense. How the heck would the fossils of a sloth make the sloth the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles?

The much smaller issue is that I see no real need for that first comma, but that’s unlikely to ever be a deciding factor on a GMAT question. But the nonsensical main clause is enough to wipe out (A).

Quote:
(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
This time, the pronoun “they” is the first thing that catches my eye. Who the heck is “they”? The fossils?

Plus, we have a subject-verb problem: “fossils… has been dated” is spectacularly wrong. (B) is gone.

Quote:
(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
Subject-verb fail again: “fossils… was dated.” Nope.

But there’s more: the phrase “that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991” seems to modify the sloth itself, and that makes no sense. Unless you think that the sloth had actually been alive for 34 million years. Maybe moving really slowly helps you live longer?

Finally, the word “this” is used as a singular pronoun, and that’s an unacceptable use of the word “this” on the GMAT. I’ve only ever seen “this” used as an article on the GMAT (“this week” or “this magnificent GMAT forum”), but never as a pronoun.

So we have lots of good reasons to eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
This one looks pretty good. The subject-verb agreement works: “fossils… have been dated at 34 million years old…” Cool. The modifier “found in Puerto Rico in 1991” is nicely set apart with commas, so it seems to refer to the entire phrase “fossils of the arm of a sloth”, and not just the sloth itself, as we saw in (C).

And the last part of the underlined portion (“making the sloth the earliest known mammal…”) actually names the sloth instead of using a pronoun, and that adds a bit of extra clarity. It might not be strictly necessary, but it’s nice. We can keep (D).


Quote:
(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of
Thanks to the modifier “which”, which typically modifies the immediately preceding noun, it really sounds like the sloth itself was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and that makes no sense. (I also can’t make much sense of the comma placement in that part of the sentence, but again, comma placement isn’t really a major emphasis on GMAT SC.)

We also have the same problem that we had in (A): “fossils… made the sloth the earliest known mammal…” That’s nonsense, too.

So we can ditch (E), and (D) is our answer.

GMATNinja egmat

Dating of the fossils is not an ongoing process + it is a thing of past else it wont make sloth earlies known mammal, can you please help me understand taking into consideration this as to why the usage of "have been" correct

Also, as per GMATNinja - The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense.

My view : It is just saying that particular evidence made the sloth the earliest know mammal? What is wrong with the usage of "it" referring to sloth? How else to put this?

Hello Rickooreo,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "have been dated" is not a present perfect continuous tense verb, rather it is the passive form of the present perfect tense verb "have dated".

We hope this help.
All the best!
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Rickooreo
GMATNinja egmat

Dating of the fossils is not an ongoing process + it is a thing of past else it wont make sloth earlies known mammal, can you please help me understand taking into consideration this as to why the usage of "have been" correct

Also, as per GMATNinja - The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense.

My view : It is just saying that particular evidence made the sloth the earliest know mammal? What is wrong with the usage of "it" referring to sloth? How else to put this?


Hello Rickooreo,

Hope you are doing good. I will be glad to help you with this one. :)

The use of the verb "have been dated" is correct in Choice D. It is so because this action did not take place at one particular point in time. Experts must have taken some time to figure out how old the fossils are. Since the action of dating has taken place over a period of time, the sentence calls for the usage of the present perfect tense verb. You can make a note of this usage of the present perfect tense verb in case you were not aware of it.

Now, let's talk about "fossils made the sloth the earliest known mammal". IMO, the reference of "it" is not problematic. The SV pair - fossils made the sloth - is problematic. The subject and the verb do not make sense with each other. Just the fossils cannot grant any animal any status. Fossils cannot make the sloth the earliest known mammal. The sloth has been identified as the earliest known mammal because the fossils are so old - they are 34 million years old. Choice D presents this meaning and hence, is correct.

Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Quote:
GMATNinja egmat

Dating of the fossils is not an ongoing process + it is a thing of past else it wont make sloth earlies known mammal, can you please help me understand taking into consideration this as to why the usage of "have been" correct
We often use the present perfect to mean an action that was first performed in the past and has been performed occasionally since then.

For instance, if I say, "Tim has traveled to many countries that have since banned him," it doesn't mean that Tim is traveling to those countries right now. It means that he started his travels sometime in the past, and those travels have continued, on and off, until the present.

Same deal with "have been dated." It just means that the fossils were initially dated in the past, and have continued to be dated over time. (It would be pretty exhausting to spend decades doing nothing but dating fossils. :) )

Quote:
Also, as per GMATNinja - The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense.

My view : It is just saying that particular evidence made the sloth the earliest know mammal? What is wrong with the usage of "it" referring to sloth? How else to put this?
The discovery of fossils can make the sloth the earliest known mammal, but the fossils themselves can't. After all, if no one finds them, they're not going to shed any light on the sloth's age, right?

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja
I’ve always had a soft spot for this question, just because it has such a wide variety of issues and errors. It also has an interesting little verb tense thing that really doesn’t matter at all: you could easily fixate on the difference between "was dated" (past tense) and "has/have been dated" (present perfect tense), but you don't have to choose between them at all. There are plenty of other issues to worry about instead.

Quote:
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense. How the heck would the fossils of a sloth make the sloth the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles?

The much smaller issue is that I see no real need for that first comma, but that’s unlikely to ever be a deciding factor on a GMAT question. But the nonsensical main clause is enough to wipe out (A).

Quote:
(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making it the earliest mammal known on
This time, the pronoun “they” is the first thing that catches my eye. Who the heck is “they”? The fossils?

Plus, we have a subject-verb problem: “fossils… has been dated” is spectacularly wrong. (B) is gone.

Quote:
(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the earliest known mammal of
Subject-verb fail again: “fossils… was dated.” Nope.

But there’s more: the phrase “that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991” seems to modify the sloth itself, and that makes no sense. Unless you think that the sloth had actually been alive for 34 million years. Maybe moving really slowly helps you live longer?

Finally, the word “this” is used as a singular pronoun, and that’s an unacceptable use of the word “this” on the GMAT. I’ve only ever seen “this” used as an article on the GMAT (“this week” or “this magnificent GMAT forum”), but never as a pronoun.

So we have lots of good reasons to eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on
This one looks pretty good. The subject-verb agreement works: “fossils… have been dated at 34 million years old…” Cool. The modifier “found in Puerto Rico in 1991” is nicely set apart with commas, so it seems to refer to the entire phrase “fossils of the arm of a sloth”, and not just the sloth itself, as we saw in (C).

And the last part of the underlined portion (“making the sloth the earliest known mammal…”) actually names the sloth instead of using a pronoun, and that adds a bit of extra clarity. It might not be strictly necessary, but it’s nice. We can keep (D).


Quote:
(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of
Thanks to the modifier “which”, which typically modifies the immediately preceding noun, it really sounds like the sloth itself was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and that makes no sense. (I also can’t make much sense of the comma placement in that part of the sentence, but again, comma placement isn’t really a major emphasis on GMAT SC.)

We also have the same problem that we had in (A): “fossils… made the sloth the earliest known mammal…” That’s nonsense, too.

So we can ditch (E), and (D) is our answer.
Still option D suggest that the fossil made the Sloth The earliest known mammal
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A2D2
Still option D suggest that the fossil made the Sloth The earliest known mammal
Using an -ing modifier to describe the entire preceding clause is extremely common. For example:

    "Tim figured out a way to turn soiled diapers into gold, making him the richest man on Earth."

Did Tim make Tim the richest man on Earth? Not exactly. What makes Tim the richest man on Earth is the fact that Tim figured something out -- it's what Tim did, not just Tim himself. In other words, "making" modifies the entire clause, not just the subject of that clause (Tim).

Similarly, what made the sloth the earliest known mammal isn't the fossils themselves. Instead, it's the fact that the fossils have been dated at 34 million years old. So "making" logically modifies the entire preceding clause, not just the subject.

Is it technically possible for "making" to jump over the entire clause to illogically modify the fossils themselves? Perhaps, but why force an illogical meaning when the sentence structure suggests a much more reasonable interpretation? Besides, if we were trying to tie the "making" part directly back to the fossils, we'd probably want to use a parallel list of verbs to make that clear (i.e. "Fossils have been dated at 34 million years old and make the sloth...").

I hope that helps!
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behemoth21
egmat- I had a follow up query to this question.

I rejected option D, since the the "doer of the clause modified with verb-ing phrase should make sense with the verb-ing clause. "
Here the doer is unknown due to the passive nature of the tense.
Thinking about the framework " Who/Whose actions resulted in Verb-ing modifier?", the fossils do not fit the mold.
This is similar to examples such as: "Joe became the CFO of the company, increasing his pay significantly"

Can you please elaborate a little further on why the rule does not apply here?

egmat - I also have this same question. For comma + verb -ing modifier, shouldn't the subject be the doer of the action? Here Fossils are not the doer of the action.
I can understand that other options have deterministic errors and that this modifier provides the result of the pervious clause.

I am struggling to understand the doer part.
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ARSarkar
behemoth21
egmat- I had a follow up query to this question.

I rejected option D, since the the "doer of the clause modified with verb-ing phrase should make sense with the verb-ing clause. "
Here the doer is unknown due to the passive nature of the tense.
Thinking about the framework " Who/Whose actions resulted in Verb-ing modifier?", the fossils do not fit the mold.
This is similar to examples such as: "Joe became the CFO of the company, increasing his pay significantly"

Can you please elaborate a little further on why the rule does not apply here?

egmat - I also have this same question. For comma + verb -ing modifier, shouldn't the subject be the doer of the action? Here Fossils are not the doer of the action.
I can understand that other options have deterministic errors and that this modifier provide the result of the pervious clause.

I am struggling to understand the doer part.
Regards,
Arup

Dear Arup, hope you won't chide me for stepping in,
Here comma + verb -ing modifier is showing the consequnce/result of the preceding clause. Fossils + verb phrase/modifier + have been dated at 34 million years old - is in passive construction, making actual actor implied. (I am using another 'making' modifier to show the result of the passive constuction). Fossil did not date rather, probably some anthropologists dated the fossil. As a result of whole acton, it is concluded that the sloth is the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands.
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GMATNinja
I’ve always had a soft spot for this question, just because it has such a wide variety of issues and errors. It also has an interesting little verb tense thing that really doesn’t matter at all: you could easily fixate on the difference between "was dated" (past tense) and "has/have been dated" (present perfect tense), but you don't have to choose between them at all. There are plenty of other issues to worry about instead.

Quote:
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense. How the heck would the fossils of a sloth make the sloth the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles?

The much smaller issue is that I see no real need for that first comma, but that’s unlikely to ever be a deciding factor on a GMAT question. But the nonsensical main clause is enough to wipe out (A).


Hi GMATNinja

Thanks for this. Is my understanding correct that IT in A is wrong, because a personal pronoun's antecedent cannot be part of a prepositional phrase, like it is here, and should always refer to the head noun in such a case? Would this always be the case on the GMAT?
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GMATNinja
I’ve always had a soft spot for this question, just because it has such a wide variety of issues and errors. It also has an interesting little verb tense thing that really doesn’t matter at all: you could easily fixate on the difference between "was dated" (past tense) and "has/have been dated" (present perfect tense), but you don't have to choose between them at all. There are plenty of other issues to worry about instead.

Quote:
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of
The “it” (which presumably refers back to the sloth) is the first thing that jumps out at me. “Fossils of the arm of a sloth… made [the sloth] the earliest known mammal…” Huh? That makes no sense. How the heck would the fossils of a sloth make the sloth the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles?

The much smaller issue is that I see no real need for that first comma, but that’s unlikely to ever be a deciding factor on a GMAT question. But the nonsensical main clause is enough to wipe out (A).


Hi GMATNinja

Thanks for this. Is my understanding correct that IT in A is wrong, because a personal pronoun's antecedent cannot be part of a prepositional phrase, like it is here, and should always refer to the head noun in such a case? Would this always be the case on the GMAT?

Hello TargetMBA007,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, there is no reason why a personal pronoun cannot refer to a noun that is part of a prepositional phrase.

The error in Option A is one of meaning; as we explain it, Option A incorrectly places information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence- the fact that the fossils were dated at 34 million years old - between two commas; as a result, Option A forms the clause "Fossils of the arm of a sloth...made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands", illogically implying that the fossils made the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands; the intended meaning is that the act of dating the fossils at 34 million years old made the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands; please remember, information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence must not be placed between commas.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Hi GMATNinja

Thanks for this. Is my understanding correct that IT in A is wrong, because a personal pronoun's antecedent cannot be part of a prepositional phrase, like it is here, and should always refer to the head noun in such a case? Would this always be the case on the GMAT?

Hello TargetMBA007,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, there is no reason why a personal pronoun cannot refer to a noun that is part of a prepositional phrase.

The error in Option A is one of meaning; as we explain it, Option A incorrectly places information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence- the fact that the fossils were dated at 34 million years old - between two commas; as a result, Option A forms the clause "Fossils of the arm of a sloth...made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles islands", illogically implying that the fossils made the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands; the intended meaning is that the act of dating the fossils at 34 million years old made the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands; please remember, information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence must not be placed between commas.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

ExpertsGlobal5 Thanks for responding on this. I did look at that aspect too, but my thinking was that the phrase "and dated at 34 million years old" is set off by a comma, due to the coordinating conjunction "and" that is linking two independent participial phrases, and not because it's a non-essential modifier. Could you please help me find the flaw in my thought process?
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Can you please explain how the usage of "have been" is correct in D?
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