Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the On

Hi stomar67, that's is the issue with using terms like Verb-ed modifier. While GMAT obviously doesn't care about the exact name you use for these terms, if you continue to use this term, you need to be aware of the following:

i) Not all verb-ed are modifiers. For example:

Peter wanted a cake.

Here, wanted (a verb-ed) is not a modifier, but a simple past tense verb. Incidentally, in option C as well, sided is a simple past tense verb, and not a modifier.

ii) Not all modifiers end in -ed. For example: Verbs such as arise, give, go, grow etc. do not have any -ed modifier forms. These are called irregular verbs in Grammar.

Hence, rather than the term Verb-ed modifier, would suggest you make past participle a part of your lingo.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses a framework for distinguishing between Simple Past Tense verb and Past Participle. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Hi stomar67

Hope the structure of the sentence Choice C forms will help you see that sided is the main verb of the sentence and not a modifier.

Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland,
the Oneida

alone among the five-nation Iroquois League
sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

Now, the part "alone among the five-nation Iroquois League" acts as a modifier, elaborating on the "siding" action done by the Oneida. A parallel to such a sentence would be:

The CEO alone among the six board members agreed with the employees on the issue.

As you can see, "The CEO" is the subject and "agreed" is the verb for it - just as "The Oneida" is the subject and "sided" the verb for it.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Neeti

A- use of who is incorrect
B- they is incorrect
D- were is incorrect
E-had is incorrect
Ans: C

A is the Answer for the reasons pointed above

Can one of the experts GMATNinja @veritasprepkarishma
the wrong usuage of who in the above sentences.
There is a lot of ambiguity on the forum with respect to that

Hi GMATNinja , GMATNinja2 Can you help on why the usage of who is incorrect in Option A. Who can refer to Oneida as well as the league.
Is pronoun ambiguity the only issue here? Or am I missing anything else as well.

Dear GMATGuruNY MartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun IanStewart DmitryFarber ,

Q1. Is "the five-nation Iroquois League" a person or non-person (i.e. league/nation)?

Q2. According to OA:

Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided with the colonists during the American Revolution.

How can "among" be used with SINGULAR noun "five-nation Iroquois League"?

My understanding is that "five-nation" is just an adjectivial noun modifying "League"
Since "League" is singular, "five-nation Iroquois League" should also be singular?

Greatly influenced by the Protested missionary Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided with the colonists during the American Revolution. -

Step 1: The Oneida was the only nation that sided with Colonists during AR out of five nations.

Step 2:

a) In the original sentence, who is incorrect pronoun for nations- Pronoun Error
b)Who incorrectly modifies Five nations, instead of one. - Misplaced Modifer


(A) was the only one of the five-nation Iroquois League who sided - Incorrect as per Step 2.

(B) was alone of the five-nation Iroquois League when they sided - They refers to Five Nations, incorrect meaning.

(C) alone among the five-nation Iroquois League sided - Read the complete statement with this option.

(D) were the only ones out of the five nations of Iroquois League in siding - In siding - Awkward Construction. Were the only ones - SV agreement error.[color=#ff0000][/color]

(E) only of the five-nation Iroquois League had sided - Vern tense error, Had sided.


Few Things to Remember in SC:

1)Start with identifying the clauses & SV Pairs. Check each verb has a subject & vice versa.
2)Look for Pronouns & find antecedent. Make sure they match in number. Also check for Possessive/Non Possessive Pronoun error.
3)Look for unidiomatic expressions, remember "considered as" is incorrect.
4)Look for Modifiers; Mostly you will find Verb-ing. Check for wording & placement.
5)Look for Tense, Parallelism errors.
6)Most important of all, look for meaning,but this will be required in > 700 Level Qs(Mostly).
7)Always read the non underlined portion ; Read complete sentence with your option before marking.
8)Stuck between two options, then check again, you have missed one of above.

"The Oneida is a singular noun and hence cannot take the plural verb 'were' " is not necessarily true.
Take this question as an example:

In addition to being China's first administrators, in the sense that they developed a coherent bureaucracy for their empire, the first literate culture in East Asia were the Shang, and they were well known for crafting ornate bronze ritual vessels.
• A the first literate culture in East Asia were the Shang, and they were well known for crafting
• B the first literate culture in East Asia were the Shang, well known as the crafters of
• C the Shang, as the first literate culture in East Asia, is well known for its crafting
• D the Shang were the first literate culture in East Asia and are well known as the crafters of
• E the Shang were the first literate culture in East Asia and well known for its crafted

The correct answer is D

Sir,
In option C ,alone among the five-nation league is wrong I think ,if it would had been " alone among the five nations of the league " I think it would had been perfect .
So in option C, as per my understanding can we say that meaning is distorted

Posted from my mobile device

Good question. I think you're right that the "who" modifier is the biggest issue in (A), but I'd go further than calling it ambiguous. On first read, it sounds as though "who" is referring to the "Five-Nation Iroquois League." But that doesn't make any sense, as that would mean that the entire league sided with the colonists, when the whole point of the sentence is that the other members of the league didn't side with the colonists - it was just the Oneida.

Sure, if you reread the sentence you can figure out that "who" must be referring to the "Oneida," but, as others have noted, now we have the problem of "who" referring to the name of a tribe rather than, say, a person named Oneida. Definitively wrong? Maybe not, but at the very least, it's confusing.

But compare this with C:


Now it's crystal clear. No tribe other than the Oneida sided with the colonists. No confusing or illogical modifiers. Most importantly, this is definitively better than (A).

I hope that helps!

Dear GMATNinja,

I agree with your response.

However, why is "among the five-nation Iroquois League" in choice C. correct?
Among is used with plural noun (more than 3 entities).
Here "League" is singular noun.

Please clarify sir!

Hi varotkorn,

Among can be used with both plural nouns and singular nouns that refer to a group of people or things. For example:

among the jury
among the group
among the class of 2020

I would not expect among to be used with singular non-collective nouns though.

Dear AjiteshArun,

Do you mean that "the five-nation Iroquois League" is collective noun just like the French / the Chinese / the British / the rich / the poor ...?

Yes. The five-nation Iroquois League can read as ~the Iroquois League, a group of five nations. That may not be very precise, but the bottom line is that the sentence is referring to a group of 5 nations.

This question is based on Pronouns, Usage, and Construction.

In Option A, the pronoun ‘who’ is ambiguous; the pronoun ‘who’ cannot refer to “the Oneida”, which seems to be part of the five-nation Iroquois League, and therefore, must be a nation or tribe. So, Option A can be eliminated.

Option B contains an error of idiomatic usage – alone of. The appropriate expression is “alone among”.
This option also contains an error of pronoun usage – the plural pronoun ‘they’ cannot refer to the singular antecedent “the Oneida”.
The relative adverb “when” is also inappropriate as it refers to a specific time. So, Option B can be eliminated.

Option D contains a subject-verb disagreement; the plural subject ‘were’ does not agree with the singular subject “the Oneida”.
The phrase “in siding” is also inappropriate; the appropriate expression would have been “to side”. So, Option D can be eliminated.

In Option E, the past perfect tense is inappropriate. The past perfect tense is used to convey an earlier action in the past. Since there is no later action in the past, the usage of this tense is inappropriate.
Furthermore, the adverb ‘only’ cannot be used by itself to convey the meaning that the Oneida was the only one to side with the colonists. The appropriate expression is "the only one". So, Option E can be eliminated.

The adjective ‘alone’ describes “the Oneida” and conveys the intended meaning that only the Oneida sided with the colonists.
The verb ‘side’ is in the simple past tense, which is appropriate to convey the idea that the action took place at an indefinite time in the past. Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Hello!
I have a doubt regarding the use of who? Can who be used to modify the subject of the sentence? because in this question I thought Who to modify the Oneida.
Thanks