In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII's ship Mary

Hi

Please edit your answer C to avoid sensless discussions.

Here is the correct version of C

C)When Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545 and, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board,

Thank you James. This reminds me.... "Best does not mean ideal" - quote MGMAT

There is one more quote "Awful is neither best nor ideal."

All the options are just awful. C is a grammatical nightmare.
C) When Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose sank in 1545 and, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board,

It can be rephrased as
When X sank in 1545 and, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found Y on board.

Now due to the use of words "When" and "and", it is clear that the 1st two clauses are not modifiers. Also the 2 clauses are not independent clauses.
So the only reason to have the conjunction "and" is to separate a list and whenever there is a list in a sentence then each of the list items individually must make sense in the sentence.

When X sank in 1545 archaeologists found Y on board. - Incorrect
When X was recovered in 1982 archaeologists found Y on board. - Correct

The 1st sentence makes no sense at all. How could the archaeologists have found something on board a ship when it sank. Sounds more like the job of a rescue/salvage team .

If we get rid of "and", the sentence becomes worse When X sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found Y on board.
What is the role of "was recovered in 1982". It's like saying "When something happened, something else happened, someone found something".
This is how a 2 year old speaks.

In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which, having sunk in 1545, with more than 17,000 artifacts on board, everything from arrows and longbows to a barber-surgeon's chest containing items commonly used by sixteenth-century medics.

A)In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which, having sunk in 1545, with more than 17,000 artifacts on board, --- which should introduce clause.
B)Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose sank in 1545 and, recovered by archaeologists in 1982, they found more than 17,000 artifacts on board, --- modifier error
C)When Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board, --- grammar + meaning fine
D)Having sunk in 1545, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists, finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, with --- -ing modifier incorrectly used.
E)Finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists and it had -- opening modifier is modifying Ship, such modification is nonsensical.

In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII‘s ship Mag Rose, which having sunk in 1545 with more than artifacts on board, everything from arrows and longbows to a barber-surgeon's chest containing items commonly used by sixteenth-century medics.

A) In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII‘s ship Mary Rose, which, having sunk in 1545, with more than 17,000 artifacts on board,
-> Wrong modifier. "Sunk in 1545" would be a proper modifier

B) Henry ship Mary Rose sank in 1545 and, recovered by archaeologists in 1982, they found more than 17,000 artifacts on board,
-> " recovered by archaeologists in 1982" seems to modify "they". " recovered by archaeologists in 1982" will not be modifying "ship" as we have "and" in between.

C) When Henry ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board, -> proper modifiers everywhere.
which modifies the closest noun ship.
when makes the first clause as dependent clause and properly joined with independent clause " archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board"

D) Having sunk in 1545, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists, finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, with
Having is redundant. "Sunk in 1545" will properly modify the ship.
finding modifies "archaeologists". so we can remove the modifier.
So the sentence becomes "Having sunk in 1545, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists with ". With work as adverbial modifier or subject modifier. in the first case, with seems to modify the verb - "recovered" which makes the sentence meaning less. In the 2nd case, with modifies "archaeologists" with doesn't make sense with rest of the sentence

E) Finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, Henry ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists and it had
Finding is not modifying ship.

Could you please clarify this question and problem with E.
Thanks

There seems to be some typographical errors in the question. They have now been rectified.

Option E is wrong because the modifier "Finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board" wrongly refers to "Henry VIII‘s ship Mary Rose", implying that the ship itself found artifacts on board.

I have a doubt regarding option B.

What is the antecedent of pronoun 'they'?

warriorguy, the only possible antecedent for "they" in B is "archaeologists." Up to that point, it's the only plural noun in the sentence. However, there's a huge problem with that! Since "they" is preceded by the modifier "recovered by archaeologists in 1982," B is saying that the archaeologists were recovered by themselves! Archaeologists can recover a ship and they can recover artifacts, but I'm pretty sure they can't recover themselves, unless perhaps one of them is Indiana Jones.

(D) Having sunk in 1545, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists, finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, with

Can an expert clarifies this option please. I am struggling to understand whether the use of finding as a verb-ing is right.
As per the e-gmat course - there should be the same doer before and after the comma.

Who was finding? the archaeologist - who recovered ? the archaeologist.

Please confirm if the use of verb-ing here is correct? thanks in advance

'Finding' is unmistakably wrong in D and E.

'Finding' in D modifies the ship's recovery as if the act of recovery found the artifacts. It should b some researchers or human beings.

In E, 'finding' modifies the ship.

Nice question. I guess, being able to understand the structure of a sentence can be helpful here. To that end, being able to cut out the fluff may make it easier to judge whether the foundation of the answer choices still "works". Will be focusing on structure going forward, though I'm sure some of you see the possessive apostrophe issue as well

In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which, having sunk in 1545, with more than 17,000 artifacts on board, everything from arrows and longbows to a barber-surgeon's chest containing items commonly used by sixteenth-century medics.

(A) In 1982, archaeologists recovered Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which, having sunk in 1545, with more than 17,000 artifacts on board, ---- Nope. A recovered M, which... what?

(B) Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose sank in 1545 and, recovered by archaeologists in 1982, they found more than 17,000 artifacts on board, ---- > M sank in 1545 and THEY(?)... I guess you could try to make an argument that THEY refers to archaeologists but the structure still doesn't hold.

(C) When Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982, archaeologists found more than 17,000 artifacts on board, --->.... When A was recovered, B did.... Not bad.

(D) Having sunk in 1545, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists, finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, with ---- > On my V48 I got didn't get a single counted SC wrong. Even now, I still wonder if HAVING has this element of causation, though I'm not absolutely sure how the GMAT looks at it. The GMAT may only think of HAVING as referring to something that happened previously. In either event in terms of structure FINDING doesn't link well with the previous clause.

(E) Finding more than 17,000 artifacts on board, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was recovered in 1982 by archaeologists and it had ---- The easy option to rule out. The ship didn't find anything. There is also a "is this really what the sentence would structurally want to say issue" with the usage of IT in that spot.

Ans. (C)

All the best.

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