From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe abo

Think this Q tests on modifiers

its clearly between C & E

baggage, yet being so light here baggage is modified it means baggage is so light

E uses it properly

Examine the Main sub and verb.


Menomini crafted a canoe <about...blah blah blah>, which could carry... yet was so light

Canoe could carry .. Yet <canoe> was so light.

So light should modify "Canoe" not "baggage"

.... Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide [,with small ribs and rails of cedar, {which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage}] yet was so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.

here first bolded area tells about how big was a canoe, the second part contrasts that with such huge dimensions it was yet was so light

I thought "yet" was never a good choice. Please could someone explain the usage of 'yet"

If you really break this one down, the main clause in the sentence is:

The Menomini crafted a canoe (Memomini is the subject, crafted the verb, and canoe the object)

then the canoe, the object of the dominant clause, becomes the subject of the subordinate clause:

the canoe could carry...yet was so light...

So "could carry" and "was so light" are verbs that refer back to the canoe.


The good news, at least to me, is that once we've established that we are in the past tense and that we're talking about permanent qualities of the canoe (it WAS light...it wasn't temporarily BEING light), then we need that past-tense "was". So even if you're not fully diagramming that sentence (with apologies to East Middle School's English teacher Mrs. Bain, who did a great job, I absolutely hated diagramming sentences!) I think you can still determine that you need the word "was" and not "being" just through context.

Shouldn't yet' mentioned in option E be preceded with a comma? Without that, the construction doesn't make sense, in my opinion. Kindly explain.

Tough one IMO. As I am finding in many 700 level questions, and as the GOAT GMATNinja says, the best way to eliminate answer choices is based on MEANING.

siyer did a great job of reducing the sentence. Let's do that real quick.

"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage..."

Right off the bat, I'm noticing a construction of "could carry X or Y" Our answer choices are all after "Y" (baggage), so we need to figure out what the purpose is for everything after Y.

The quick answer? Everything after Y needs to be modifying "canoe", but some answer choices modify "baggage."



I fell for this answer. I misinterpreted the meaning.

"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids."

I thought that everything after "baggage" was just modifying "baggage." But what would that mean? The baggage was so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapid?

Wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense. The person wouldn't be portaging the baggage around rapids. They would be portaging the canoe around rapids. Therefore we need everything after baggage to be modifying canoe, not "baggage."

Eliminate based on MEANING.



BKimball did a great job explaining the problem with "being." Further, this answer choice makes the same mistake as (A). Everything after "baggage" would be modifying "baggage" instead of "canoe."

Eliminate based on MEANING and grammar.



Same issue as (B), "being" is wrong here. But since we have a comma after "baggage", I think we are actually OK from a meaning perspective, everything after "baggage" is referring to "canoe", which is good. Nonetheless, "being" is not needed.

Eliminate based on grammar.



Yuck. Let's look at our reduced sentence for this answer choice.

"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage, and so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids."

The "comma + and" is wrong here. If we're going to have a comma + and, I think we need an independent clause. But we don't have a verb after the comma + and.

Eliminate based on grammar.



I was unable to eliminate this one, but like I mentioned earlier, I sheepishly still chose (A). But when we dive into the meaning, this one is the most clear and concise.

The "yet" introduces a contrast.

"The Menomini crafted a canoe, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage yet was so light that a person could easily portage it around violent rapids.

*Thinking out loud:* So the Menomi crafted a canoe, it could carry X or Y, yet (the canoe) was so light that a person could portage it around violent rapids.

This makes sense from a meaning perspective. I kind of wish we had a comma before "yet." Maybe a grammar expert can explain why we don't need a comma?

Regardless, there's nothing clearly wrong with this sentence, and it's the only other answer choice aside from (C) and (D) that conveys the correct meaning by having the modifier after "baggage" refer to "canoe."

could anyone answer this question that I bold it in red color ???? I do not know why "yet" did not get comma in preceding ?!?! although conjunction need comma !

09173140521 A comma simply isn't needed. If the yet were followed by a clause (a new subject and verb), we'd want a comma. With just a verb, there's no need for a comma. All of the following are correct:

I planned to go but decided not to.
I planned to go, but I decided not to.
I got a great score yet was not admitted to the program.
I got a great score, yet I was not admitted to the program.

From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.

In this sentence, I am not able to figure out to what the word "which" is referring to. Is it referring to cedar because its a noun right before the comma or to rails of cedar or to the prepositional phrase "with small ribs and rails or cedar" or to canoe. Can someone pls help me with this ?

Strictly from a meaning perspective the "which" must refer to canoe, because rails / ribs / cedar cannot be easily portage around rapids.

daagh, VeritasKarishma, mikemcgarry IanStewart
Can you please explain how can "which" refer to such a far away noun?

ani

This is an official question. What is the point in doubting a non-underlined part that is not a decisive factor? We should concentrate on the real issue of the question about whether 'so light' can modify the baggage or whether it is parallel to use a coordinate conjunction with a modifying phrase such as yet in the second part while the first part is a clause, or why we do not require a comma before "and" in E, in which
a predicate follows the coordinate conjunction in the second half. (refer to Dmitry's comment" in this post.}

For academic interest, however, it is okay to say that 'which' can refer to the somewhat distant 'canoe" since it is the only structure available in all the five choices.

Many experts have already explained,

I would like to talk about 'being',being is a state that means that it is in a state of lightness,This makes no sense the canoe cannot choose to be light at sometimes and heavy in the others.. and thus don't make sense.

From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids.

(A) baggage so light baggage is so light? wrong
(B) baggage being so light same as A, baggage is being light and not the cannoe
(C) baggage, yet being so light explained above,wrong
(D) baggage, and so light and does not present a contrast to the situation.the meaning is not very clear with 'and'
(E) baggage yet was so light clear crisp meaning canoe was so light.

I was down to C and E. I chose C because I thought FANBOYS says you need a comma before the yet. Can anyone clarify?

Hi Whatthe17,

My reply is not specific to this question, but that's not an absolute rule. That is, there is a lot of disagreement over that issue. We'd probably be better off not using it to eliminate options.

Hi experts GMATNinja mikemcgarry generis,
Can someone please explain why the usage of "yet" in option E without the proper diction (comma or semicolon) is accepted over a more redundant option-option C +being - yet with better structure?
Thank you in advance.

Giorgosaek
There is no rule that "yet" must be preceded by a comma or semicolon. "Yet" is a conjunction just like "and" or "but," so whether we use a comma depends on what we are joining. We would not typically use a semicolon before a conjunction at all.

In this case, "yet" is joining two phrases: "could carry" and "was." This means a comma is not appropriate. (There's no list, and we're not starting a new clause.)
In C, we're joining "could carry" (verb) to "being" (modifier). This can't work. Also, note that the word "being" is often a danger sign. It's a real word, but it tends to be used in the GMAT to add confusion to a choice.