Gusty westerly winds will continue to usher in a seasonably cool air m

No, a 'while' construction is not logically equivalent to an 'if, then' construction.

'While' means, essentially, 'at the same time as.'

'While' ends up being used in two different ways.

"While my mom is at the store, I will go to the laundromat." Meaning, at the same time my mom is at the store, I will be at the laundromat.

"While most businesses struggle to make profits in their first three years of operation, Moneymakers Incorporated saw strong profits almost immediately." This construction sets up a contrast of sorts. Something like "While [it's true that] most businesses struggle..."

You can see how that's got a similar meaning to 'at the same time as,' perhaps. "Moneymakers Inc saw strong profits almost immediately; at the same time, most businesses don't see profits in their first three years of operation."

It's showing how something is unexpected while 'at the same time' the expected thing is happening.

In the sentence here, the broad area of high pressure builds at the same time as the winds bring a cool mass of air to the region.

Hello Guys. Just wanted to clarify one thing. In this question, someone stated that in "to usher vs ushering" both are correct but there is no comma placed after "continue" so does it not mean that ushering will modify the word continue which does not make sense?

Sorry if this sounds illogical

Hi Kanav, when we say "modify", we generally refer to adverbs or adjectives.

However, "ushering" is used as a "gerund" here. "Gerunds" are "Noun forms" and hence, don't really modify anything.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the differences between Participles and Gerunds, their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Hello KanavMehta,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here "ushering" is not exactly modifying the verb "will continue"; rather the present participle ("verb+ing" - "ushering" in this case) is a gerund that refers to the action that the winds "will continue" to do.

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

Hi GMATNinja

I understand that we don't need to invent a new rule to overcome SC.
I also do understand that there is no touch-rule and it is not worth to memorize all exceptions. It is ok that "which" can jump over many many nouns and prepositions to modify a noun/noun phrase as long as the meaning makes sense.
However, I have never seen a question that which is closet to a verb.
If I don't know the idiom "user into" how can I eliminate (A) and How do I know that " verb, which...." is much better than other choices? [ the first time I saw this question. I did understand that "which" in (E) intended to modify the entire clause. Thus, it is totally wrong.

Could you elaborate or provide thought process that you overcome this question.

The biggest problem with (A) is the extra preposition. Just as you wouldn't say, "Tim lured in his son into the doctor's office," you wouldn't say, "winds usher in a seasonably cool air mass into the region." (B) has the same problem.

(D) is a mess, and check out this post for (C): https://gmatclub.com/forum/gusty-wester ... l#p2512497.

So, to answer your question, it's all about process of elimination. You might not love the "which" in (E), but it's the best we've got!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Hi, Can you explain why do we need "building and bringing" as parallel themselves? Thanks..

Hi RonTargetTestPrep, MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja
Is the reasoning perfect? I did not see this sorts of things in any official questions.

GMATNinja
Sir, shouldn't the "for several days" part modify only ''...and bring fair and dry weather'' as this part is separated by 'and'? Am I missing anything here?

Hi Honorable Experts,
Can you explain how the 'which' modifies the verb 'builds' in choice E?
Thanks__

GMATNinja
Sir, I heard that 'which' can jump only over 'prepositional phrase'. This is the first time I saw that 'which' can jump verb (builds) too!

Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To clarify, although such a construction is not ideal, since the noun phrase "a broad area of high pressure" and its accompanying verb "builds" are both part of a modifying phrase, the "which" phrase can refer directly to the noun phrase.

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

I think this is a choice to avoid something like:

"As a broad area of high pressure, which will bring fair and dry weather for several days, builds."

To get the 'which' modifier adjacent to the noun it modifies ('a broad area of high pressure'), you have to leave the word 'builds' at the end. I don't think it's technically wrong to do that, but since it's just one word (and not a noun), apparently we can still think that 'which' can jump a verb to modify the noun before it.

(A) Meaning (usher in … into)

(B) Meaning (usher in … into); Subject-Verb (area … build)

(C) Modifier / Meaning (broad area…)

(D) Parallelism (X and Y); Idiom (usher in)

(E) CORRECT


First glance

The beginning of each choice is either to usher or ushering, indicating a potential structural or idiomatic issue. (Note: It turns out that this particular split is a red herring; either form could be okay in the sentence. Use other differences to solve this one!)


Issues

(1) Meaning: usher in … into

You can usher someone in or you can usher someone into your home—but you don’t usher in someone into your home. Use either in or into, not both. Eliminate choices (A) and (B) for using a redundant structure.

(2) Subject-Verb: area … build

Parallelism: building and bring

Each answer choice leads into the verb bring (the first word after the underline ends). Three of the choices end in and, indicating a potential parallelism issue, so check how this occurs.

(A) a broad area … will build and bring

(B) a broad area … will build that bring

(C) winds will continue to usher … and bring

(D) a broad area … building and bring

(E) a broad area … builds, which will bring

This one is going to be a bit tricky; start with the two definite errors. In choice (B), the singular subject area is paired with the plural verb bring (an area … bring). Eliminate (B) for a subject-verb mismatch.

Choice (D) has faulty parallelism, pairing the –ing word building with the regular verb bring. Eliminate (D) as well.

Choice (E) is the tricky one. A comma-which modifier refers to a noun and that noun has to be close enough to the modifier that the relationship is clear. In this case, a broad area (of high pressure) is that noun, and it is in fact only one word away from the modifier—but, unusually, a verb (builds) comes in between. A lot of people will cross this answer off because, typically, a verb does not intervene between a noun and a noun modifier.

This particular clause (while a broad area of high pressure builds) is itself a modifier of the main sentence that appears before it. In this case, the author must choose between these two constructions:

… while a broad area of high pressure builds, which will bring fair and dry weather for several days.

… while a broad area of high pressure, which will bring fair and dry weather for several days, builds.

Given the length of the noun modifier—and the shortness of the verb—an author might choose to place that verb first. Think of this as an extension of the convention that a noun followed by two noun modifiers will place the essential modifier first:

The box of nails, which is sitting on the table, …

It’s still clear that the second modifier refers to box, as in choice (E) it’s clear that the which modifier refers to the broad area of high pressure. So leave choice (E) in for now and compare the two remaining answers: (C) and (E).

(3) Modifier / Meaning: broad area of high pressure building

The words a broad area of high pressure building are set off by commas, so this is a modifier. What is it modifying?

It’s not entirely clear. The region? The air mass? The whole clause [Winds will continue to usher in a cool air mass to the region] ? Further, the sentence structure has changed in such a way that the gusty winds (not the area of high pressure) … bring fair and dry weather. This increases the confusion over what the area of high pressure is referring to in the sentence. Eliminate choice (C) for an ambiguous modifier.

The Correct Answer

Correct answer (E) fixes the redundancy error in the original sentence (usher into) and does not introduce any new errors, as choices (C) and (D) do. This choice unusually inserts a verb between a noun and its modifier, likely in an attempt to get people to cross off the correct answer. Keep

Sentence Analysis

Here’s the sentence structure:

• Gusty westerly winds will continue to usher in a seasonably cool air mass into the region, (Main Subject: winds, Main Verb: will continue to usher in)
• as a broad area of high pressure will build and bring fair and dry weather for several days. (Subject: area, Verb: will build and bring)

The sentence says that the westerly winds will continue to direct a cool air mass into the region, and simultaneously, a high-pressure area will build and will bring fair and dry weather.

The sentence has the following problems:

1) ‘usher in’ means causing the start of something [Example - Obama ushered in change in Healthcare in 2008...], whereas ‘usher’ means guide or direct something.

Logically, we can see that the required verb in the sentence is ‘usher’ and not ‘usher in’. Besides, when we use ‘usher in’ – meaning causing the start of something – we can notice that ‘into the region’ doesn’t fit into the sentence. With ‘usher in’, the clause needs to end at ‘cool air mass’ to make sense.

2) The tense ‘will build’ is incorrect since when we are presenting two events (will continue and will build) in the future, we use simple present tense (and not simple future tense) in the ‘as’ clause if the event is not far into the future. The use of “continue” in the verb “will continue” indicates that the events are in immediate future.

3) The expression ‘a broad area of high pressure will build and bring fair and dry weather for several days’ could mean two different things:

(1) A broad area of high pressure will build, and a broad area of high pressure will bring fair and dry weather for several days (sensible meaning)
(2) A broad area of high pressure will build fair and dry weather for several days, and a broad area of high pressure will bring fair and dry weather for several days (non-sensical meaning).

Writing this part of the sentence in a way that the above confusion is avoided would be preferable.

Option Analysis

(A) Incorrect. For the reasons explained above.

(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

1. ‘continue ushering’ is not a preferred way of writing. Generally, ‘continue’ is followed by a ‘to+verb’ rather than a verb-ing.
2. ‘ushering in’ is wrong in this context, as explained in point 1 in the sentence analysis.
3. ‘and’ is followed by an independent clause. We need ‘comma+and’ to connect two independent clauses. The absence of comma before ‘and’ introduces a deterministic error.
4. SV Disagreement – ‘that’ refers to singular ‘a broad area’ but is followed by a plural verb ‘bring’.
5. The sequence of verb tenses – simple future (will build) followed by simple present (bring) – distorts the meaning. It should be either ‘a broad area of high pressure will build that will bring’ or ‘a broad area of high pressure that brings … will build’.

(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

1. ‘usher in’ is wrong in this context, as explained in point 1 in the sentence analysis.
2. The use of the preposition ‘into’ makes much more sense than the use of the preposition ‘to’ before ‘the region’.
3. ‘a broad area of high pressure building’ is a Noun+Noun modifier. The Noun in this modifier needs to refer to something in the clause before it. However, a broad area of high pressure building doesn’t refer to any noun in the clause before it.

4. With this option, ‘bring’ in the non-underlined part becomes parallel to ‘usher’. Thus, the sentence now means that the gusty westerly winds will continue to bring fair and dry weather for several days. This meaning is different from the meaning in the original sentence. However, since the current meaning is also sensible, we cannot reject the option for this reason, even though we can continue to have preference for the meaning in the original sentence.

(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

Same problem as 1st point of option B.

The use of the preposition ‘into’ makes more sense than the use of the preposition ‘in’ before ‘the region’.

Parallelism – ‘building’ and ‘bring’ are not parallel. This is a deterministic error. Please note that ‘bring’ cannot be parallel to ‘continue’ since a comma appears before ‘with’ but not after ‘with’. For ‘bring’ to be parallel to ‘continue’, the ‘with’ prepositional phrase should be enclosed within two commas.

(E) Correct. This option corrects all the errors in the original sentence without introducing any new error. ‘which’ here refers to ‘a broad area of high pressure’. Since the modifier ‘which will bring fair and dry weather for several days’ is long and the predicate ‘builds’ is short, we can write the modifier of the subject after the predicate. Besides, the sequence of the events also dictates that the modifier appears after the verb since first a broad area of high pressure will build and then the area will bring fair and dry weather.

Please note that this question is PRECEDENT-SETTING in that in no official question before, ‘which’ has jumped over a ‘verb’. However, I don’t think this example should be used to say that ‘which’ can always jump over verbs. The special thing that made it possible for ‘which’ to jump over the verb was that the predicate consisted only of the verb. Thus, while ‘which’ jumped over the verb, there was no confusion as to what ‘which’ referred to.

Hi GMATGuruNY - Regarding (C) -- You mentioned this in another forum.

I agree with your statement about "TEMPORARY" but I dont agree when you say in the yellow that the phrase "A Broad Area of high pressure building" itself is a "Weather system"

When you see the phrase "a broad Area of high pressure building" -- focussing on the word "Area"

I thought the "Area" is a square of land on the ground.

example -
Area of land
Area of the parking lot
Area of park
Area of the room

"Area" implies land/space

However - you seem to assume "Area" DOES NOT REFER to space / land / ground / soil -- but instead "Area" somehow refers to a "weather system".

How are you so sure that "Broad Area of high pressure building" -- this phrase itself is a "Weather system" ?

^^ GMATGuruNY

An visual example of what I mean when i think of "Area of high pressure"

On the Image below -- the green land with the CAPITAL H -- that is the "Area of high pressure"

However "Area of High Pressure" is still a piece of land on Earth

"Area of high pressure" itself is NOT REFERING TO a weather system