In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was : Sentence Correction (EA only)

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

10 Dec 2021, 05:54

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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

nakib77 wrote:

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them

(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

(D) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them

(E) the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 172: Sentence Correction

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Annotation 2019-03-20 074036.jpg

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that in ancient Thailand local artisans' expended much of their creative energy on the creation of Buddha images and on the construction and decoration of the temples in which the statues were enshrined.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Tenses + Pronouns + Parallelism

• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this sentence) must be parallel.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• Present participles ("verb+ing" – “enshrining” in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships.

A: THis answer choice incorrectly uses "they" to refer to the "artisans" and uses "them" to refer to "images"; please remember, a pronoun and its derivatives can only be used to refer to one noun in a sentence. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between "for the creation of Buddha images" and "when they constructed and decorated the temples"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this sentence) must be parallel.

B: Correct. This answer choice uses the clause "much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended...on construction and decoration of the temples", conveying the intended meaning - that local artisans' expended much of their creative energy on the creation of Buddha images and on the construction and decoration of the temples in which the statues were enshrined. Further, Option B maintains parallelism between "the creation of Buddha images" and "on construction and decoration of the temples" and between "construction" and "decoration". Additionally, Option B correctly uses the simple past tense verb "enshrined" to refer to an action that concluded in the past. Besides, Option B avoids the pronoun error seen in Option A, as it only uses "they" to refer to "images"

C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "on the creation of Buddha images" and "constructing and decoration of the temples" and fails to maintain parallelism between "constructing" and "decoration"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "creating images of Buddha accounted for...constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them"; the construction of this clause illogically implies that creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also accounted for constructing and decorating the temples that enshrined them; the intended meaning is that local artisans' expended much of their creative energy on the creation of Buddha images and on the construction and decoration of the temples in which the statues were enshrined. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "enshrining" to refer to an event that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and present participles ("verb+ing" – “enshrining” in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships.

E:This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "the creating of Buddha images accounted for...construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them"; the construction of this clause illogically implies that creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also accounted for constructing and decorating the temples that enshrined them; the intended meaning is that local artisans' expended much of their creative energy on the creation of Buddha images and on the construction and decoration of the temples in which the statues were enshrined.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

16 Jan 2006, 12:57

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B. much of the local artisansâ€™ creative energy [color=darkblue]was expended on the creation[/color] of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

:yell

~~it has to be B~~~

A. much of the local artisansâ€™ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them

C. much of the local artisansâ€™ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined should be construction

D. creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisansâ€™ creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them is this parallel? Obviously not

E. the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisansâ€™ creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them that part doesn't fit

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

17 May 2011, 09:37

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sbsharma wrote:

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.

A. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them
B. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
C. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
D. creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them
E. the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

A simple approach to help you answer this question in <20 seconds is to recognize awkwardness with "expended for" and look for other answer choices with other options. I highlighted the important parts above.

Scanning down, I see (B) and (C) have "expended on"--which is what we want so I examine these two further.

In (C), "as well as" is a keyword so I look to the left and to the right.
On the left, "the creation of" is inconsistent with "constructing and decoration of."

Did (B) have this issue?
In (B), the keyword is "and."
On the left we have "the creation of"---which is consistent with "construction and decoration of"

So based on just these clues, I am already inclined to say (B).

After quickly browsing the other answer choices, I was able to conclude with (B).

Notice how I didn't read most of the question and most of the answer choices--just focused on important parts.

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

04 Aug 2011, 09:39

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In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them

a) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them : expended of Buddha is unidiomatic; expended on is the correct idiom.

b) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined - maintains //ism on all necessary counters and hence is the correct answer.

The basic tenet of //ism in two-part clauses is that, both the arms should be // in from and function. C, D, and E fail to do that precisely

c) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined : ‘On the creation of’ should be matched by ‘on constructing of’ ( a gerund) and ‘on decoration of’

d) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisan's creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them: ‘creating images of’ should be matched by ‘constructing of and decorating of; ‘accounted for’ should be matched by and ‘also for constructing and decorating’

e) the creation of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisan's creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them: ‘creation of’ should be matched by ‘construction of’; in addition, E changes the meaning that the creation of Buddha images accounted for both the creative energy and (the construction and decoration); also ‘accounted for’ should be matched by ‘as well as for’

Logically, what can ‘they’ refer to in B and C? Can ‘they’ refer to artisans? Can the artists or for that matter can the the construction and decorations be enshrined in a temple?

I think the pronoun reference of ‘they’ is not an issue here.

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

10 Jan 2012, 19:16

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Yes, the phrase "in which they are enshrined" is 100% grammatically correct. This is a properly constructed subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses (a.k.a dependent clause) are a HUGE topic on GMAT --- I would suggest consulting whatever review materials you are using.

Very briefly, if this clause were a stand-by-itself independent clause, it would be "they are enshrined in the temples."

Now, consider the ending of the last big sentence, with this piece as a separate sentence.

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples. They [the Buddha images] are enshrined in the temples.

That's very wordy, which is why folks use subordinate clauses. The rule is:
(a) find the word that will be the anchor, the referent, in the big sentence. Here, that word is "temples."
(b) replace that word in the smaller second sentence with "which": "They were enshrined in which."
(c) Now put the "which" and anything attached to it (here, the preposition "in") at the very beginning of the clause, so it's right next to the anchor word in the original sentence:

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined.

Does that make sense? Again, if you are unfamiliar with the the idea of a subordinate or dependent clause in a sentence, then I strongly recommend carefully reading any GMAT review materials you have on the subject.

Here's a similar GMAT SC practice question, just for more practice.

https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1126

The question on at this link should be followed by a video explanation of the answer.

I hope that helps.

Mike

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

26 Jul 2013, 13:55

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WaterFlowsUp wrote:

hey Mike,

Can we eliminate A on the ground of "when" ?
D and E for the verb-ING modifier at the beginning which has no subject and then choose between B and C?
i also did not understand the ll structure that you have referred ..Could you please explain that again

Dear WaterFlowsUp,
I'm happy to respond. BTW, I like your paradoxical screenname. :-)

Question #1: yes, choice (A) is a trainwreck on a number of grounds. The "when" clause is a blatant violation of parallelism, so that's just as good a reason to reject it as is the idiom mistake.

Questions #2: the "-ing" form of a verb has three potential roles
(a) part of a present progressive verb
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-verbs ... ive-tense/
(b) a participle (i.e. a modifier)
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/participle ... -the-gmat/
(c) a gerund (which acts as a noun)
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-phrases/
In choice (D) the word "creating" is a gerund, and in fact, the gerund phrase "creating images of Buddha" is the subject of the verb "accounted".
This post discusses distinguishing these three easy-to-confuse grammatical constructions:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/the-ing-form-of-a-verb/

Questions #3: because the parallelism is faulty in many of the incorrect choices, I will diagram the parallelism in choice (B), the OA. First, here's the whole sentence:
In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
Now, an attempt at a clear diagram ----
(main clause of sentence:) In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended
(first branch of parallelism:) on the creation of Buddha images
(conjunction linking the two parallel branches:) and
(second branch of the parallelism:) on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

Both branches of the parallelism begin with the preposition "on", and the words in dark green are the parallel words. Notice, all three here are "-tion" nouns, whereas in incorrect answer choices, some are "-tion" noun while others are gerunds or phrases.

Does this make everything clear and answer all of your questions?
Mike :-)

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

11 Jan 2012, 09:46

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Mike’s explanation is damn good. However, if you are in a rapid fire round in the Test, then perhaps the following short work strategy might be handy

This is essentially a test of //ism, and then perhaps style; but I am not sure about the idiom part of ‘expend for’ or ‘expend on’ as according to the freedictionaty.com ‘expend for’, ‘expend on’ and ‘expend in’ are all usable (https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/expend)

A. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them – wrong because of the un//ism of “creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated”

B. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined – ‘expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of’ ---Correct //ism

C. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined - was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration--- wrong //ism

D. creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them—wrong becos ‘and also’ is redundant; additionally the meaning is changed in that creating images accounted for 1. The creative energy 2. constructing and 3. decorating

E. the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them--- wrong because of altered intent as in D

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

08 Mar 2012, 17:57

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I have chosen B as the answer:

A. This answer choice breaks the parallelism requirement. Also, what is the purpose of "when" as a relative pronoun here? It doesn't seem to refer to any time or date.

The answer should be along the lines of:

energy was expended on:
-the creation
-the construction
-the decoration

B. This sentence clearly describes the 3 elements that artisan's spend energy on.

C. Again, this answer choice breaks the parallelism requirement. The word "constructing" is wrong here.

D. We want 3 elements that describe what the artisan's spent their energy on. In this case, it splits the "image creation" from the other 2 elements: "constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them." Also, I noticed that after the comma and coordinating conjunction, and, the words do not form an independent clause. This is incorrect because 2 independent clauses should sandwich a comma and a coordinating conjunction. As a result, this sentence is also a fragment.

E. Although I could not find any grammatical errors with this one, the meaning was very confusing. It sounds like "the creation...accounted for...creative energy...as well as construction and decoration." This did not make sense to me at all, so I felt this answer was incorrect.

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

07 Aug 2012, 11:28

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farukqmul wrote:

Mike,
Can you explain Choice E ? I thought 'for much of' and 'construction and decoration of' are parallel.

..

Here's the original prompt with choice (E)
In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.
E. the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

Let's plug in choice (E) and look at the sentence:
In ancient Thailand, the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them
Superficially, the terms "creative energy" and "construction and decoration" are all nouns, so they could be grammatically parallel. The problem is: they are not logically parallel.

Consider the overall structure:

X accounted for Y as well as Z

means

X accounted for Y
and, separately, X accounted for Z

Consider that here:
the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy
and, separately,
the creating of Buddha images accounted for the construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

That's not the meaning the original sentence is trying to express. What is it trying to say is that ----
the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy
and, separately,
the construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them accounted for much of the local artisans’ creative energy

We are trying to create a parallelism between the three types of work, each of which occupied the creative energy of the artisans. Those three types of work were
(a) the creating of Buddha images
(b) the construction of the temples
(c) the decoration of the temples

Logically, those three need to be in parallel, and they are not in (E). It's not enough to have superficial grammatical parallelism if that parallelism does not reflect the deeper logic of the situation. Grammar and logic must always point to the same conclusions.

You may find this blog germane:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... n-english/

Does all this make sense? Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Mike :-)

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

26 Feb 2015, 11:43

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nanasgis wrote:

Hi everybody,

I am struggling with the correct answer choice B, which I mistakenly crossed off when doing this problem. From MGMAT SC, I learned that you must not put simple gerunds (construction and decoration) and complex gerunds (THE creation) into a parallel construction? Has anybody an explanation?

Thanks!

Dear nanasgis,
I'm happy to respond. :-)

With all due respect, my friend, I think you are misunderstanding what a gerund is. A gerund, very specifically, is a verb form, the "-ing" form of a verb. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-phrases/
creating
constructing
decorating
Those are gerunds. What MGMAT says about these is perfectly true --- with an article (a, an, the), one becomes a "complex gerund" which could be in parallel with an ordinary noun. Furthermore, we wouldn't put a simple gerund in parallel with a complex gerund. That't the rule for gerunds.

You seem to be confusing all action nouns with gerunds. Anything that ends with "-tion" is a noun. Nouns and gerunds are mutually exclusive. A gerund is a verb-form that is taking the role of a noun, but it is very different from a bonafide noun. Many "-tion" nouns are action words, but those are all nouns: they are NOT gerunds.
creation
construction
decoration
Those are nouns, not gerunds. The rules for gerunds (simple vs. complex) are 100% irrelevant to nouns. We are perfectly able to put any noun in parallel with any other noun. The logic & meaning would provide constraints to what would make a legitimate parallel structure, but the presence or absence of articles doesn't matter in the least. Option (B) does not contain a single gerund, so any rules governing different types of gerunds is 100% irrelevant to option (B).

Does all this make sense, my friend?
Mike :-)

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

07 Nov 2018, 11:36

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Hello Everyone!

This looks like a great example of one of the tougher questions you might see on the GMAT! Let's start by taking a quick look at the options, and highlight the major differences we can focus on to start:

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them
(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
(D) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them
(E) the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few things we can focus on:

1. expended for / expended on / accounted for (idioms & meaning)
2. and / as well as
3. how each ends (possible issues with parallelism & intended meaning)

Let's start with #1, which focuses on choosing the right verb for the job! We have two verb options here, and we need to choose the correct one to convey the intended meaning. The verbs "expended" and "accounted for" mean slightly different things here:

the artisans' energy was expended on/for creating Buddha images = artisans used up a lot of creative energy to create these pieces of art
creating Buddha images accounted for the artisans' energy = artisans got their creative energy by making artwork about Buddha

For this sentence, it makes more sense to say that the artists used up their creative energy by creating so many pieces of Buddha imagery. It doesn't make logical sense to say that artists gained even more creative energy by creating tons of artwork - that's not really how creative energy works. Therefore, we can rule out options D & E because the verb "accounted for" changes the intended meaning.

Now, let's look at the other part of #1: expended for vs. expended on. It is not idiomatically correct to say that people "expend energy for" a task. It IS correct to say that people "expend energy on" a task! Let's see how each option handles this:

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them
(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

We can also rule out option A because "expended for" isn't idiomatically correct.

Now that we're left with only 2 options, let's take a closer look at parallelism. Remember that when we talk about a list of 2+ items, they both should be written using parallel wording, verb tense, structure, etc. Let's see how each option handles this:

(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

This is CORRECT! The phrases "on the creation of Buddha images" and "on construction and decoration of the temples" are written using parallel structure and wording!

(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

This is INCORRECT because the items are not worded using parallelism! The three actions (creation / constructing / decoration) aren't worded the same. We also don't like using "as well as" in place of the much less wordy "and" here. Remember - the GMAT prefers concise language whenever possible, so why use 3 words when 1 will do?

There you have it - option B is the correct choice!

Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

B

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

07 Jul 2020, 23:54

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(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them - incorrect usage of for

(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined - CORRECT PARALLELISM

(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined - not parallel

(D) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them - too wordy

(E) the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them - creation of is better

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

21 Oct 2016, 10:45

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metaphola wrote:

EBITDA wrote:

B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined.

Can you please explain the use of 'in which' in the sentence?

Dear metaphola,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

With all due respect, my friend, you have asked an unclear question. From your question, I have absolutely no idea of what kind of help you need.

I will say that "which" is a relative pronoun, and the job of a relative pronoun is to open a kind of subordinate clause known as a relative clause. A relative pronoun always plays a grammatical role in its relative clause, and may be the subject of the clause, the direct object, or the object of a preposition, as it is here.

That's the high level overview explanation. I don't know whether you know all this already and need explanation of something else, or whether you need more detailed explanation of this.

It's perfectly fine if there are topics in grammar that you don't understand, and it's perfectly fine that you ask experts on GMAT Club about what you don't understand. We experts love to answer questions and explain things to folks who want to know! :-)

The problem, though, is that an ambiguous or unclear question, a super-brief question lacking in all details, is a poor question. It's a question that probably didn't take you a lot of effort to write, and it gives me almost no information about what you need. It's a question that doesn't do its basic job. You see, one of the habits of excellence is the habit of asking excellent questions. See this blog:
Asking Excellent Questions
I'm going to challenge you to write an excellent question: tell me exactly what you do understand, exactly what confuses you, what you think the structure means in that sentence, what you don't understand about its use, etc. Give me as much detail as possible. That would be an excellent question. One advantage of writing such a question is that it makes it much easier for me or another expert to give you the specific help that you need. Something that many students fail to appreciate, though, is that when you are reflecting on your own understanding and putting all this into words, you actually are establishing important connections in your brain, and all the effort you put into writing an excellent question actually primes your brain for deeper learning. You ask an excellent question, not primarily for my benefit, but for your benefit.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)

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mikemcgarry

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

17 Jul 2017, 15:28

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adkikani wrote:

Hi mikemcgarry GMATNinja / Experts

Can you help me with below query:
Why do we need two ANDs in OA- B. Does below sentence make sense:
In ancient Thailand,
much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended
on the creation of Buddha images ,
on construction and
decoration of the temples in
which they were enshrined
OR
In ancient Thailand,
much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended
on the creation of Buddha images ,
construction and
decoration of the temples in
which they were enshrined
let me know if replacing AND coma makes more sense since only last element need to
be connected using AND in parallel list.
WR,
Arpit

Dear Arpit adkikani,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, the short answer is no. Neither of your versions is good: we really need what the SC question OA had.

You see, the word "and" appears twice because we have nested parallelism, that is to say, one parallel structure nested inside another. The GMAT absolutely loves to nest structures inside each other.

Parallel structure #1:
much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on V and on W
V = the creation of Buddha images
W = parallel structure #2

Parallel structure #2:
on Y and Z of the temples in which they were enshrined
Y = construction
Z = decoration

This is NOT a list of three parallel elements. It is something very different. There is parallelism at two different levels. The first "and" is for Parallel structure #1, and the second is for Parallel structure #2.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

04 May 2018, 11:16

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GMATNinja wrote:

Quote:

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them

The biggest issue in (A) is the mess of pronouns toward the end of the sentence. That first “they” logically needs to refer to “local artisans”, but that raises two problems. First, “Buddha images” is the closest plural noun, so that raises a potential ambiguity issue. Second, “local artisans” is actually a possessive noun here, and in general on the GMAT, it’s not ideal to have a non-possessive pronoun (“they”) refer back to a possessive noun (artisans’).

If you need a refresher on pronouns, feel free to check out this YouTube webinar. To be fair, pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute rule, so you could keep (A) if you really wanted to be conservative. But in this case, I think we can agree that the pronouns are legitimately confusing, or at least we can agree that there are better options below.

And if that isn’t enough for you, there’s arguably a little parallelism issue in (A): “…the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated…” I’m not 100% certain that it’s WRONG, exactly: I guess it’s OK to say that “the local artisans’ creative energy was expended… when they constructed and decorated the temples…” But technically speaking, “for the creation” is a prepositional phrase, and “when they constructed” is not.

If you’re not convinced by that last paragraph, no worries: the pronoun thing is probably enough to allow us to get rid of (A), particularly since we’ll have better options in a moment.

Quote:

(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

This one seems much better! The pronoun “they” logically need to refer to “Buddha images”, and there’s no real reason to worry about ambiguity here: “Buddha images” is really the only plausible plural referent, since “local artisans’” is possessive, and “temples” isn’t really an option, since “they” couldn’t plausibly refer back to temples in the phrase “temples in which they were enshrined.”

The parallelism is also much better here: “much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration…” Yup, that’s parallel.

So we can keep (B).

Quote:

(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

(C) isn’t all that different from (B), but it does warp the parallelism a little bit. Let’s put the key part of the sentence side-by-side so we can see the differences:

on the creation

and

on construction and decoration

on the creation

as well as

constructing and decoration

(C) isn’t totally awful, but I see absolutely no reason to use “as well as” here, when a nice, simple “and” does the trick. Plus, (B) is parallel throughout: the artisans’ energy was expended on the creation, construction, and decoration. That’s nice. In (C), it gets wonky: we have “on the creation”, but then “constructing and decoration.” That’s less nice.

Again, I wouldn’t argue that (C) is WRONG, exactly. But it’s clearly inferior to (B), so we can eliminate (C).

Quote:

(D) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them

This is a confusing mess. Basically, we can’t make any sense of the parallelism: “and” is followed by “constructing and decorating”, but I can’t figure out what “constructing and decorating” is parallel to. “Creating” is structurally similar, but if we’re trying to make “creating” parallel to “constructing and decorating”, then why aren’t all of them at the beginning of the sentence?

Plus, we could argue that “them” is more confusing than in (B). “Them” logically refers back to “images of Buddha”, which is waaaaay back in the beginning of the sentence in (D). The antecedent is much closer to the pronoun in (B). Again, pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute rule on the GMAT, and I wouldn’t necessarily argue that (D) is WRONG solely because of the pronoun – but the pronoun gives us another small reason to prefer (B) over (D).

Quote:

(E) the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them

We can make the same argument about the pronoun “them” in (E) as we did in (D): it isn’t WRONG for “them” to reach all the way back to “Buddha images”, but it isn’t ideal, either.

More importantly, the meaning of the sentence is warped by the phrase “as well as construction and decoration.” It sounds like the sentence is trying to say that “the creating of Buddha images” accounted for several things: “the local artisans’ creative energy” and also “the construction and decoration of the temples.” And that doesn’t make sense: the creating of Buddha images didn’t “account for the construction and decoration of temples.”

Plus, I suppose you could also argue that “the creating of Buddha images” is a not-so-ideal use of a gerund. There’s no need to use the gerund “creating” when the noun “creation” is available to us. Again, I don’t think that “the creating of Buddha images” is WRONG, exactly, but it’s one more small reason to feel good about eliminating (E).

So (B) is our answer.

Hi Charles Sir,

I have a question regarding the option C. As much as the idiomatic construction of "as well as" is incorrect, I have confusion whether the term "creating" is actually a simple or complex gerund. Because if it is a simple gerund (overlooking the faraway "of"), then it certainly cannot be parallel with the two action nouns: construction and decoration. But, if it is a complex gerund (considering the "of" to be common with "decoration"), then it certainly is very much parallel with the action nouns. So, if we ignore the "as well as" part, can the discussed reason be the "sole" criteria for eliminating an answer choice? (If at all the word "creating" is a complex gerund). Even though complex gerunds can be parallel to the action nouns, is it preferable to convert all terms into action nouns?

Please help, thanks in advance!

S

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Re: In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

12 May 2020, 07:06

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In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them
The and construction requires parallelism, “for the creation of Buddha images” and “when they” is not parallel.
Also, the structure is awkward.
What is they referring to ? Buddha Images ; Remember they can’t refer back to local artisans’ as it is a possessive pronoun.

(B) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined.
Parallelism is there.
Best of All.

(C) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images as well as constructing and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined
Parallelism Marker is X as well as Y.
Here X = on the creation of Buddha images ; Y = constructing…
Incorrect parallelism.

(D) creating images of Buddha accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy, and also constructing and decorating the temples enshrining them.
Use of And also in unidiomatic.
Correct Idiom – Not only X but also Y.

(E) the creating of Buddha images accounted for much of the local artisans' creative energy as well as construction and decoration of the temples that enshrined them
Parallelism Marker is X as well as Y.
Here X = creative energy; Y = construction
Incorrect parallelism.

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In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

26 Nov 2020, 22:42

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suganyam wrote:

Hi ,

I kindly request some one to guide me over this query .

Please

(A) much of the local artisans' creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images

much of the local artisans' creative energy -- isn't much of local artisans is already possessive, and the apostrophe+s is making it redundant.

I have drawn this reference from the following question were a similar concept is followed can some one kindly guide me please

https://gmatclub.com/forum/after-the-civil-war-contemporaries-of-harriet-tubmans-maintained-that-54885.html

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suganyam

Without the apostrophe, it is not possessive.

Note the structure of the sentence you mention. You can give possession in two ways:

contemporaries of Harriet Tubman
or
Harriet Tubman’s contemporaries

That is why 'contemporaries of Harriet Tubman's' is redundant.

This is not the same structure.

'much of energy' gives the quantity of energy. It doesn't tell you to whom the energy belongs.
So to show possession, you need to write
'much of energy of A'
or
'much of A's energy'

That is why 'much of the local artisans' creative energy' is correct.

gmatclubot

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was [#permalink]

26 Nov 2020, 22:42

GMAT Sentence Correction (EA only) Questions

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans' creative energy was