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

Hi there! I'm happy to help.

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

Very sad, the destruction of the great library at Alexandra --- that tragedy set Western civilization back several centuries.

Notice, first of all, that the clause after the underline forms a bonafide stand-on-its-own sentence by itself --- what is grammar is called an independent clause. Either this will remain an independent clause in the full sentence, or it will become a dependent clause and (this is crucial) something in the underlined part would have to be the independent clause of the sentence. You can turn an independent clause into a dependent clause by putting what is called a subordinating conjunction in front of it; some examples of subordinating conjunctions are: after, although, as, as far as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, if, in order that, since, so, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, and while.

In (A), the original prompt, the word "resulting" is a modifier, and makes the whole underlined phrase a modifying phrase. The problem is: it modifies the closest noun, which is "later generations." "Later generations" are not doing the "resulting", so (A) is out.

(B) is unbelievably awkward: the destroying of the library resulted, and . . . This answers is proposing two independent clauses, linked by the word "and" – a perfectly valid grammatical construction, but nobody would say "the destroying of X resulted" as a sentence by itself. We would say "X was destroyed" or "so-and-so destroyed X." Because of this awkward phrase, (B) is out.

(C) has the phrase "because of the result" --- this phrase, in and of itself, is redundant, because both "because" and "result" specify a cause-effect relationship. One would say "P happened because of Q", or "As a result of Q, P happened." C has this awkward phrase, and is out.

(D) is smooth ---- "as a result of", then gives the proper cause (destruction of the library), then gives the result. Dependent clause, then independent clause --- a perfectly valid construction.

(E) has the awkward phrase “Alexandria's largest library of the ancient world was destroyed.” This implies that Alexandria had several ancient libraries, and here we are talking about only the largest of them. This distorts the meaning. It’s not that the library was one of many in Alexandria and happened to be the largest of them; rather, the library, which happened to be in Alexandria, was *the* largest of the entire ancient world. Furthermore, the way the end of this choice meshes with the rest of the sentence is awkward: “ . . , and the result was, later generations lost . . .” (Notice the comma that follows the underlined phrase: that will be there regardless of which answer choice is correct.) (E) is out.

(D) is the only answer choice without a major problem, and it works smoothly.

Does that answer your questions?

Mike

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning of the sentence is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning is that due to the destruction of the library at Alexandria, which was the largest ancient library, later generations lost a large number of significant literary works.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "resulting from the destruction"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the later generations were the result of the destruction of the library; the intended meaning is that later generations losing a large number of significant literary works was the result of the destruction of the library. Moreover, Option A further alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria"; 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.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria"; 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. Moreover, Option B further alters the meaning of the sentence through the construction "results and later generations lost"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the destruction of the library occurring and later generations losing a large number of significant literary works were two separate actions; the intended meaning is that later generations lost a large number of significant literary works due to the destruction of the library. Further, Option B uses the passive voice construction "the destroying...resulted", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "because of the result of the destruction"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that later generations lost a large number of significant literary works due to some unnamed result of the destruction of the library at 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, itself.

D: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrases "as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria" and modifies the "library at Alexandria" with "the largest of the ancient world", conveying the intended meaning - that later generations losing a large number of significant literary works was the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, which was the largest of all ancient libraries. Further, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice 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.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi Elevinty,

Buddy, We don't have any idiom like "result was that". The idiom for result are below :
as a result (of something)
because of something that has happened. As a result of the accident, Tom couldn't walk for six months. We couldn't afford to borrow money for a house as a result of the rise in interest rates.

result from something
to emerge from something; to be the outcome of something. It will be interesting to see what results from your efforts. Nothing resulted from all that work.

result in something
to achieve something; to bring about something; to cause something to happen. I hope that this will result in the police finding your car. All my effort resulted in nothing at all.

Hi superfreak,
Let's analyze original sentence after removing all middlemen (prepositional phrases).

In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction [strike]of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria[/strike], later generations lost all [strike]all but[/strike] (just using "except" for idiom "all but") the Iliad and Odyssey among Greek epics, most of the poetry[strike]of Pindarand Sappho[/strike] , and dozens of plays [strike]by Aeschylus and Euripides[/strike].
so sentence is :
In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction, later generations lost all except the Iliad and Odyssey among Greek epics,most of the poetry and dozens of plays.
Now we can see clearly that "resulting from the destruction" is modifying "Later Generation" which is wrong. The meaning of sentence is more or less that later generation which is resulting from the destruciton.
So A is wrong.

(B) the destroying [strike]of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria[/strike] resulted and
Here looks like, "destroying resulted" and "later generation" both lost something.
(C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
"because of the result of" comes many time in GMAT and this construction is wrong because of redundancy.
(D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
Correct and concise. as a result of destruction, later generation lost something.
(E) Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was[/quote]
"Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed" is a complete sentence so can not be followed with "and the result was",
moreover for coordinating conjunction "and", both part should be parallel which is not the case here.

If any question, please revert.


I hope my explanation helped, If indeed please give me Kudos.

As usual, let me give a forthright and simple pathway to this topic, which can get complicated by the way one looks at it.

Do not please bother for a moment about any other thing.
it is the library at Alexandria that is an issue. Any choice that separates library and at Alexandria is essentially therefore uses a wrong word-order. You can kick out A, B and E in one stroke. Between C and D, C is wrong because of the redundancy ‘of because of the result of’

Then make merry with D, the remainder.

the "library at Alexandria" is the subject in the sentence, not "Alexandria"

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!

Hello LoudGuardian,

I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Nonetheless, here is the explanation in case someone else has the same doubt.

It is true that when a verb-ing modifier starts a clause, it can modify either the subject or the entire clause.

Even if the opening verb-ing modifier modifies the entire clause, it must make sense with the subject of the modified action.

In this official sentence, the opening verb-ing modifiers seems to modify the clause later generations lost all....

So, the modified action is lost. Now who is the subject of the action lost? Later generations.

So does the modifier resulting from the destruction... make sense with the subject? Did later generations result from the destruction? Most definitely not.

This is the reason why use of the opening verb-ing modifier in this official sentence is incorrect.


We cover in excruciating details the correct usage of Verb-ing Modifiers with ample examples. In fact, the concepts dealing with these modifiers is part of our Free Trial course. You can just register yourself at e-gmat.com for free and learn about these modifiers.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Let me try

(C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
This changes the meaning, it seems that the result was something else and because of that result, later generation lost acces
(D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
This correctly states that the access was lost due to destruction.

Hope it helps!

Hi zoezhuyan!

I think your understanding is generally correct -- in general, it's perfectly fine to have a modifier which modifies the entire action, not just a noun. However, the problem here is resulting from. When we use "resulting from", it must always modify a noun or a noun phrase. If we instead use "as a result...", then that can modify an entire phrase/clause/action. For example,

CORRECT: Our bags got wet, as a result of the rain.
INCORRECT: Our bags got wet, resulting from the rain.

In both cases, we are modifying the entire action (our bags getting wet). However, we can't use "resulting from" to describe the whole action. This would be a correct use of "resulting from":

CORRECT: The damage to the house resulting from the rain was extensive.

Here, "resulting from the rain" is modifying "damage", which is a noun.

I hope that helps!

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!

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!

No, "that" cannot be omitted when that + [complete sentence] is used as a noun.

Hello cubs,

I will be glad to help you out with this one.

1. Usage of comma + and is very common in the following two situations across GMAT SC:

i. It is used to join two independent clauses.

The 19-year-old pianist and composer performed his most recent work all over Europe, Asia, and North America last year, winning prestigious awards in both London and Tokyo for his achievement at such a young age, and he hopes to continue composing now that he has returned to Chicago.


ii. It joins more than two parallel elements in a list.

Doctors generally agree that such factors as cigarette smoking, eating rich foods high in fats, and alcohol consumption not only do damage by themselves but also aggravate genetic predispositions toward certain diseases.



2. The answer to your second question is no. Never reject or select any answer choice only on the basis of presence or absence of a punctuation mark. Look for at least one deterministic error to reject an answer choice.




Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

MagooshExpert
Thanks Carolyn,
would you please list more words like "result", which only modify noun or noun phrases?

In case of I make the same mistake

Have a nice day
>_~

D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
Isn't "the largest of the ancient world" wrongly modifying Alexandria?

Can some one please explain this .

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

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.