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505-555 Level|   Parallelism|                  
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure 21 Sep 2022, 06:59
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sourabhgx
can we consider phrase "humidity within them" as referring to antecedent "chambers" only. Because, it is not meaningful to consider- "tourists raised humidity within them".
please give your opinion.
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Sentence correction is a lot about identifying what really matters, in a question.

A and B are obviously wrong because both these options use "its" (singular) for "chambers" (plural).

C, D, and E all use the same phrase "humidity within them". Hence, you know that any purported ambiguity associated with "them" is a non-issue here.
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure 14 Oct 2023, 03:10
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.


(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing


Show Spoiler
As per the OG explanation, 'them' in C and D seems to refer to 'tourists', but in E 'them' clearly refers to chambers.
Can someone please explain the concept of the pronoun reference in this case?

What I understood is that:
in the case of E tourists is the noun in the modifier 'exhaled by tourists'. So, 'tourists' loose the significance as it is out of scope for the remaining main sentence/clause. But is is the right creteria to reject the pronoun reference to noun 'tourists'.

PS: I know why the OA mentioned is correct, but need clarification on the above concept of pronoun reference.
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KarishmaB, GMATNinja, Any Other Experts

Is it fair to say that "C" is wrong ONLY because, as written, the sentence conveys that the event "stone would crystallize" happened after "chambers...were closed"

I don't think we can eliminate "C" because of parallelism as different verb tenses can be parallel (based on multiple OG examples).
Please let me know if there are any other errors in "C".
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure 14 Oct 2023, 23:50
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sudeep
In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.


(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing


Show Spoiler
As per the OG explanation, 'them' in C and D seems to refer to 'tourists', but in E 'them' clearly refers to chambers.
Can someone please explain the concept of the pronoun reference in this case?

What I understood is that:
in the case of E tourists is the noun in the modifier 'exhaled by tourists'. So, 'tourists' loose the significance as it is out of scope for the remaining main sentence/clause. But is is the right creteria to reject the pronoun reference to noun 'tourists'.

PS: I know why the OA mentioned is correct, but need clarification on the above concept of pronoun reference.

KarishmaB, GMATNinja, Any Other Experts

Is it fair to say that "C" is wrong ONLY because, as written, the sentence conveys that the event "stone would crystallize" happened after "chambers...were closed"

I don't think we can eliminate "C" because of parallelism as different verb tenses can be parallel (based on multiple OG examples).
Please let me know if there are any other errors in "C".
Show more


(C) is incorrect because of multiple reasons.

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

- 'which' refers to the entire clause 'tourists were exhaling moisture'. That is not great.
If you ask "What had raised the humidity?" the answer would be "the moisture exhaled by tourists," not just "moisture"

- We have a plural subject in the subordinate clause:
The chambers were closed for repairs because tourists were exhaling moisture which had raised the humidity within them...

Looks like 'them' refers to 'tourists,' plural subject of the subordinate clause.

Why is option (E) better?
The chambers were closed for repairs because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them...

We have used passive in the subordinate clause (by putting 'tourists' in the prepositional phrase) and hence the reference of 'them' does go back to 'chambers' naturally.

- 'Would' doesn't work here.

'would' shows hypothetical future in the past e.g.
If it were true, he would tell me.
It would be hard to convince her.

or

Typical behaviours in the past e.g.
We would visit my grandma every week.

Two things were taking place:
salt from the stone was crystallizing
and
fungus was growing on the walls (non underlined part)

It makes sense to put them in the same form and hence (E) works.

Overall (C) is much inferior to (E).
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In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure 06 Aug 2025, 19:03
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