In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of

Question

In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria, later generations lost all but the Iliad and Odyssey among Greek epics, most of the poetry of Pindar and Sappho, and dozens of plays by Aeschylus and Euripides. (A) resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria, (B) the destroying of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria resulted and (C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world, (D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world, (E) Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was Natural History Vol. 103, No. 2, February 1994 NATURE's INFINITE BOOK Jared Diamond Stinking Birds and Burning Books https://archive.org/stream/naturalhistory10301amer/naturalhistory10301amer_djvu.txt https://discovermagazine.com/1993/feb/speakingwithasin177 12.png NATURE's INFINITE BOOK Jared Diamond.pdf

Priyanka2018 · Answer

Hi,

I was selecting D, but I rejected it because I thought the largest of the ancient world is modifying Alexandria. Can you please shed some light on such kind of modifier?

Thanks

GMATNinja · Answer

It's often the case that a modifier doesn't touch the noun it describes, and when we see this, it's usually because there's a prepositional phrase separating the two. Take a silly example: "The car in my garage, a Toyota Corolla , hasn't had an oil change in 8 years." Notice that "a Toyota Corolla" is describing the car even though it's touching "my garage." This is fine, as no sensible reader would see that sentence and assume that my garage was the Toyota Corolla. Rather, we can think of "a Toyota Corolla" as modifying the entire noun phrase, "the car in my garage ," as opposed to, say, the car illegally parked at the Dunkin' Donuts down the street. (Mmm... doughnuts.) It's the same issue here. "The largest of the ancient world" is modifying the entire noun phrase "the library at Alexandria", as opposed to the library near the Dunkin' Donuts where my car illegally parked.

(Mmm... doughnuts.) Takeaway: if a modifier doesn't touch what it should modify, and an intervening prepositional phrase is the main culprit, the construction isn't inherently wrong. We always need to use context and logic when evaluating these answer choices. I hope that helps!

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

Official Answer:

Logical predication; Rhetorical construction; Grammatical
construction

Because it is introduced by a participle, the phrase that begins resulting from illogically modifies later generations. Substituting the idiom as a result of for resulting from corrects this error. The largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria is both cumbersome and ambiguous because it suggests that the ancient world was located at (and only at) Alexandria.

This problem is best corrected by breaking the series of phrases into two distinct parts: the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world. Here, the second phrase clearly modifies the first.

a. Resulting from illogically modifies later generations. The series of prepositional phrases is confusing and ambiguous.
b. The destroying of is wordy and awkward. And creates a second main clause, which would need to be appropriately punctuated with a comma before and.
c. Because of the result of is redundant.
d. Correct. As a result of begins the phrase clearly and correctly in this sentence; the library rather than the ancient world is properly located at Alexandria; the largest of the ancient world correctly modifies library.
e. Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world is an illogical reference. The result was must be followed by that.

shen0150 · Answer

Hi all,

In regards to answer D, "because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world," , how do you know "the largest of the ancient world" is the modifier for "the library at Alexandria". Why could it not modify "the destruction of the library at Alexandria" or "the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world"?

DmitryFarber · Answer

shen0150  It's okay to use meaning to choose the target of a modifier, as long as there is nothing structural forcing us to apply the modifier in the wrong way. There's no clear meaning to calling the destruction or the result "the largest of the ancient world," and there certainly is a clear meaning if we apply that modifier to "library," which also has the benefit of sitting right next to the modifier.

amritakeswani · Answer

I chose option B. The reason was that in "AD 391" an event happened and "later generations" suffered. In the original sentence and in other options, it looks that later generations suffered in AD 391 only.
Am I reading it wrong?
Please tell.

Posted from my mobile device

GMATNinja · Answer

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting your question correctly, but it sounds like your problem with (D) is that the meaning deviates from the meaning in (A)?

Remember, as explained in  this post , there is nothing special about the meaning in choice (A), and (A) does not give us the "intended" meaning! You have to FIND the sentence where the meaning makes the most sense, regardless of how that sentence compares to choice (A).

So which makes more sense: that later generations suffered ONLY in AD 391, or that an event happened in AD 391 and THEN later generations suffered?

I hope this helps!

samsung1234 · Answer

does "in A.D. 391" modify the clause following it or does it modify the non-underlined portion "later generations..."? I was leaning towards D, but I felt that the meaning conveyed was distorted... As in, "In A.D. 391, later generations lost all but the Iliad....". How can later generations lose something in A.D. 391? I suspect my understanding is flawed, so how can I determine in the future which portion of the sentence "in A.D. 391" would modify?

nikitamaheshwari · Answer

ron  - We can also present the result aspect by using "and thus"
The car hit the boy, and therefore he was injured badly?

So, in E sentence the and used to present the result aspect is correct?

Can you suggest the other flaw in E option

thangvietnam · Answer

In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria, later generations lost all but the Iliad and Odyssey among Greek epics, most of the poetry of Pindar and Sappho, and dozens of plays by Aeschylus and Euripides.

(A) resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria,

(B) the destroying of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria resulted and

(C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,

(D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,

(E) Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was

we need a causal relation between two action. choice b and e do not show the causal relation and, so, are wrong.

"the destroying" as a pure noun dose not exist in english. "destroying" as gerund exist in english.

"because of the result of" is redundant but not a wordy. gmat dont like redundancy

Dufa · Answer

I have this same question. Any help please?

Posted from my mobile device

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Dufa ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt. Here, "In A.D. 391" is indeed modifying the clause " later generations lost..."; although this may seem illogical, this construction is simply a somewhat abstract way of saying that due to an event in A.D 391, it became impossible for future generations to possess or access the works of literature mentioned here. "later generations" can be said to have "lost" these works at that point in time, despite the fact that they did not exist at the time, because it became permanently impossible for anyone to access those works ever again.

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

harshsahay · Answer

Hi,
In D, isn't " In A.D. 391 ,  as a result of the destruction   of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world ,  later generations lost  .." imply that  later generations lost ..  in AD 391. Isn't that absurd? I know all other options are wrong, but how is D right? 
Please help  GMATNinja ,  mikemcgarry ,  sayantanc2k

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  harshsahay ,

We hope this finds you well.

As we mentioned in our post above, the construction "In A.D 391...later generations lost" is simply a somewhat abstract way of saying that due to an event in A.D 391, it became impossible for future generations to possess or access the works of literature mentioned here. "later generations" can be said to have "lost" these works at that point in time, despite the fact that they did not exist at the time, because it became permanently impossible for anyone to access those works ever again.

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

GMATNinja · Answer

I feel your pain here. You could even argue that by beginning the sentence with "In 391 AD" and then having the subject of the main clause be "later generations" there's almost no way to avoid a funky meaning. If, for instance, the verb phrase had been "would lose," it would seem as though the future generations hadn't lost the epics yet, but would in the future. But that wouldn't make sense either. If the epics were destroyed in 391 AD how could future generations lose those epics at a later date?

So the author must have meant that future generations were impacted by the events of 391 AD even if those future generations weren't around yet. I don't love it either, but I also wouldn't say it's inherently wrong.

But the real takeaway is less about why (D) is OK, and more about what to do when you encounter this type of situation.

Most importantly, the part of the sentence we don't love isn't underlined! We can't change it. And a big part of SC is figuring out where to focus our attention. In this case, you'd want to accept that you can't alter the odd meaning. Instead, we need to go in search of concrete errors that DO change from option to option.

I hope that helps!

Tanchat · Answer

Dear Experts,

I have no any problem with correct choice. However, I have a question on (E)

I understand that we can eliminate (E) because it literally changes the meaning.
But I want to make sure that

(E) Alexandria???s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was

Is the result was grammatically correct? I know that "the result was" but I am not sure whether it is correct to omit "that". I literally have a problem with a type of question that there is "ellipsis" or "omitted word" in the correct choice.

Please, help provide a guideline to overcome if there is ellipsis or omitted word

Thank you in advance

AlexSgmat · Answer

Can someone please explain why is E incorrect?

Posted from my mobile device

RonTargetTestPrep · Answer

No, "that" cannot be omitted when  that +    is used as a noun.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  AlexSgmat ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that later generations lost a large number of significant literary works due to the destruction of the largest of the ancient libraries,   specifically, in Alexandria  ; the intended meaning is that later generations lost a large number of significant literary works due to the destruction of the library at Alexandria, which was the largest library of   all ancient libraries  .

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

mlindak · Answer

(A) resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria,  What does it mean to be the largest library of the ancient world? wrong

(B) the destroying of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria resulted and  Same as A. Additionally, the destroying is modifying the later generations - makes no sense

(C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,   unnecessarily wordy - because of the result of and of the library

(D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,  okay

(E) Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was  missing a 'that' at the end

So D is right.

In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of

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In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of

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