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555-605 Level|   Modifiers|      
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mSKR
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 31 Jul 2020, 23:39
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Will2020 The issue is not really that "with" is wrong in A and required in E. It's simply a matter of overall usage, meaning, and structure. I think we can make a case that the adverbial modifier "selling" more clearly modifies the main action than the passive "with 90,000 tons sold." However, it's hard to say that this part of A is really wrong. A really fails in the second half. Even if we accept that "which" refers to honey and not markets (this isn't great), we simply can't say "half of which going." We have to say "half of which goes" or "with half going."
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Hi sir

A clarification:
Quote:
Even if we accept that "which" refers to honey and not markets (this isn't great), we simply can't say "half of which going." We have to say "half of which goes"
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Is not "half of which goes " OR "half of which going" always WRONG in this question? Because going is with which and which is modifying "half "but not acting as a verb to that clause.
So why did you say "We have to say "half of which goes""? I think i miss something?

please suggest.
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 07 Sep 2020, 02:17
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Hi egmat GMATNinja, is the usage of "which" in the original sentence, correct?
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 26 Jan 2021, 01:05
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Hi , is the usage of "which" in the original sentence, correct?
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Hi Maverick94, the usage of which in the original sentence has two issues:

i) which should mark the start of a relative clause (there should be a verb in following which). In A however, the structure is:

...almost half of which going to the United States
- There is no verb here.

At the very least, A should have been:

..almost half of which goes to the United States
- goes is the verb

ii) which seems to nonsensically modify markets (the nearest grammatically eligible word)

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues of "which", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 29 Jan 2021, 18:05
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imSKR

The issue is that "of which" is a bit of an odd construction. When we say "half of which," we basically proceed as if we had said "and half of this/these." I could say "She earns $10,000 per month, half of which goes to pay off her debts" or "I wrote over 100 novels, most of which were bestsellers."

We can do the same thing with "of whom": "The city has a large population of homeless people, most of whom would benefit from mobile medical clinics."

Does that help?
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 05 Mar 2021, 01:10
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In Option D, a common explanation to reject the option is given as pronoun number mismatch.

D. selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes

I understand it should refer back to 90k tons, but I don't understand why 90k tons is required to be plural.

Consider this:
20 years is a long time.
10k dollars is a lot of money.

In both sentences, they are treated as singular.

Due to this, I didn't discard D.

Also, I discarded E for the same reason I discarded A, B, C. Prep modifier sounds like running parallel and not really connected to the previous event.

Quoting an e-GMAT expert below:
IMHO, options A, B, and C are incorrect for the usage of with modifier in the beginning of each choice as the phrase fails to connect logically with the main action. Usage of this modifier seems to suggest that Argentina has become something along with some other action taking place.

Can some expert clarify please GMATNinja egmat
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 05 Mar 2021, 01:15
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In Option D, a common explanation to reject the option is given as pronoun number mismatch.

D. selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes

I understand it should refer back to 90k tons, but I don't understand why 90k tons is required to be plural.

Consider this:
20 years is a long time.
10k dollars is a lot of money.

In both sentences, they are treated as singular.

Due to this, I didn't discard D.

Also, I discarded E for the same reason I discarded A, B, C. Prep modifier sounds like running parallel and not really connected to the previous event.

Quoting an e-GMAT expert below:
IMHO, options A, B, and C are incorrect for the usage of with modifier in the beginning of each choice as the phrase fails to connect logically with the main action. Usage of this modifier seems to suggest that Argentina has become something along with some other action taking place.

Can some expert clarify please GMATNinja egmat
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 05 Mar 2021, 05:52
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Hi AndrewN Sir

Need your inputs on this. Too many discussions are in round and round.

Even while solving this question, i end up in moving in circles among options.

I rejected D and E because I thought:
has become, verb+ing ( as end results)
but intended meaning is sold , becoming xx.
ii. as GMATNinja pointed in above post: selling – indicates they are still selling .


Then among A, B and C
I rejected B : because of “and” in 2nd part implies disconnected information from 1st part.
I rejected C : xx has become no.1 , with xx, with xx.--> with doesn’t seem to match the intended meaning
Ambiguity of : xxxx , with modifier(1st) , with modifier(2nd) ,2nd modifying 1st or 2nd modifying main clause.
I rejected A because : half of which is too far from its intended subject.

Then I moved back to D and E .
For D: It refers to 90,000 tons ( a single quantity); half goes to matches. But rejected because of "and"
Then E: again back to "with"

Questions:
1. which one is preferred: half goes or half going?
2. Can "it" refer to 90,000 tons ( a single quantity)
3. Selling is better or with the sale is better? –selling implies: end result / currently selling or consider as modifying previous clause.

How did you solve this question? AndrewN GMATGuruNY DmitryFarber GMATNinja
Please cover my queries while solving the question.

Thanks!
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 05 Mar 2021, 13:49
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Hello, mSKR. I will respond in-line below:

mSKR
Questions:
1. which one is preferred: half goes or half going?
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I would not use this consideration as a point for elimination, but I would test each one in the context of a given sentence. Note that half goes, without a prepositional phrase to qualify what is going, may be a bit too casual for the GMAT™, even if I could see someone saying something with an implied of [something]: The Salvation Army collects donations every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Half [of the proceeds/money] goes to [fill in the blank].

mSKR
2. Can "it" refer to 90,000 tons ( a single quantity)
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In the sentence at hand, it is confusing, since it seems to agree much more readily with the earlier honey. In general, that is more versatile, standing in for multiple words quite frequently both within and beyond the GMAT™.

mSKR
3. Selling is better or with the sale is better? –selling implies: end result / currently selling or consider as modifying previous clause.
Show more
Well, selling is certainly more concise and expresses a similar meaning in the sentence. You should be cautious with with: the word appears, as it does here, in many incorrect answer choices, if for no other reason than that there is a clearer, terser way to convey the same notion. Seriously, if you go back over OG questions and look at how frequently the with prepositional phrase ends up being wrong when this point is tested, you will start to see it in a different light. Just be cautious: do not write off every such phrase.

mSKR
How did you solve this question? AndrewN GMATGuruNY DmitryFarber GMATNinja
Please cover my queries while solving the question.

Thanks!
Show more

Quote:
In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey, with nearly 90,000 tons a year sold to foreign markets, almost half of which going to the United States.

(A) with nearly 90,000 tons a year sold to foreign markets, almost half of which going
(B) with the sale of nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it that goes
(C) with the sale to foreign markets of nearly 90,000 tons a year, with almost half of it going
(D) selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes
(E) selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, with almost half going
Show more
I look for answers I know are incorrect first, then I start tallying up doubts, even if I am not thinking of any particular "rule" when combing through the other answers. When I place the clear and concise expression of vital meaning at the top of my list of considerations and work through my doubts, I end up going with the safest option. I am not always correct, but in no category is my accuracy below 90-something percent.

I hope that helps.

- Andrew
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 16 Mar 2021, 22:58
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Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey, half of 90,000 tons of honey going to United States.
is this the intended meaning of the second modifier?
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 20 Mar 2021, 08:16
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noman367
Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey, half of 90,000 tons of honey going to United States.
is this the intended meaning of the second modifier?
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I think you've got it! Argentina sells nearly 90,000 tons of honey a year to foreign markets. (Mmm... honey. :-P ) Almost half of that amount (half of ~90,000) goes to the US.
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 23 Mar 2021, 16:40
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nikhilnk01
In Option D, a common explanation to reject the option is given as pronoun number mismatch.

D. selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes

I understand it should refer back to 90k tons, but I don't understand why 90k tons is required to be plural.

Consider this:
20 years is a long time.
10k dollars is a lot of money.

In both sentences, they are treated as singular.

Due to this, I didn't discard D.

Also, I discarded E for the same reason I discarded A, B, C. Prep modifier sounds like running parallel and not really connected to the previous event.

Quoting an e-GMAT expert below:
IMHO, options A, B, and C are incorrect for the usage of with modifier in the beginning of each choice as the phrase fails to connect logically with the main action. Usage of this modifier seems to suggest that Argentina has become something along with some other action taking place.

Can some expert clarify please GMATNinja egmat
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Hello nikhilnk01,

This is in response to your PM. Thank you for reaching out. :)

It is not a good idea to reject an answer choice because it uses the expression "90,000 tons". All the answer choices use this expression because we use the singular ton for "one ton" and plural tons for more than one such as "three tons", "two hundred tones", and "90,000 tons". The issue in Choice D is with the usage of the pronoun "it" that must logically and grammatically refer to the plural entity "90,000 tons". But we clearly see that the pronoun number does not match the antecedent number. Therefore, Choice D is incorrect.

In the example sentences that you have presented in your post, the plural nouns have been used as collective nouns. That's why they take singular verbs. But the structure of the official sentence is very different. here, we are looking for a proper pronoun reference. And the pronoun must refer to a noun that has the same number as the pronoun.

Hope this helps. :-)
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 24 Mar 2021, 18:33
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I still cannot understand the different explanations present in the discussion. Would really appreciate if GMATNinja can answer this one.
Apologies if we're too late to help you, jainbob, but if we are, hopefully this will be useful for somebody else.

Let's start with choice (B):
Quote:
(B) In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey, with the sale of nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it that goes to the United States.
Here, "that goes to the United States" modifies the [something]... okay, but what does the half (of something) do? The verb "goes" is locked up in the "that" clause, so there is no main verb for the subject "half". That leaves us with a sentence fragment.

Also, notice the use of the present perfect tense: "...Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey..." The present perfect tense suggests an ongoing action, but "with the sale" seems to refer to sales that were completed in the past. That certainly isn't a smoking gun, but, in light of the other issues, we can eliminate (B).

Quote:
C. with the sale to foreign markets of nearly 90,000 tons a year, with almost half of it going
As in choice (B), "with the sale" isn't ideal. And we also have the pronoun "it" to consider...

If we replace the pronoun "it" with "honey", we get, "... almost half of honey.." Well, half of what is actually going to the United States? Half of honey? Umm... what honey? All of the honey in the world? The sentence refers to honey in general, so it doesn't make sense to say that "half of honey" goes to the United States.

So, again, what is actually going to the United States? Half of "the sale"? That doesn't work either. Some amount of honey is sold TO the United States, but the "sale" isn't the thing that goes to the United States.

The thing that goes to the United States is some quantity of honey: half of the ~90,000 tons that are sold each year to foreign markets. So does the singular pronoun "it" refer to "90,000 tons"? In this context, we would say, "90,000 tons ARE sold each year", not "90,000 tons IS sold each year."

At best, the use of "it" is confusing and unclear. Let's see if we can find a better choice.

Quote:
D. selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes
(D) avoids the use of "with the sale", which wasn't ideal. Instead, "selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets" tells us exactly how "Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey" and implies that Argentina is still selling 90,000 tons a year (an ongoing action, which is consistent with the preceding use of the present perfect).

However, we run into the same pronoun issue that we saw in choice (C). Let's see if (E) is any better:

Quote:
E. selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, with almost half going
Choice (E) eliminates the pronoun issue altogether, so that's huge vote in favor of (E) over (D). Also, as described above, "selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets" is better than "with the sale" (as in choice C). This makes (E) the best choice.
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HI GMATNinja, In D, suppose there there is no issue with the pronoun 'it'. What do your think about the conjunction 'and' ? Is that OK?
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 30 Mar 2021, 09:36
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HI GMATNinja, In D, suppose there there is no issue with the pronoun 'it'. What do your think about the conjunction 'and' ? Is that OK?
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The issues are connected: the way "and" works shapes how we interpret the pronoun.

"And" has to connect like forms. In (D), the phrase that follows "and" is the full clause, "almost half of it goes to the United States." Because a full clause follows the conjunction, we need to link this clause to another that comes earlier. The only other clause is, "Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey."

So effectively the parallel clauses are:

    "Argentina has become the world's leading exporter of honey....and almost half of it goes to the United States."

Because "it" is part of the subject of the second clause, the first place I look for the referent is the subject of the preceding clause, Argentina. But it's clearly illogical to say that half of Argentina goes to the United States. (Though if we're saying that half of Argentinians go to the United States, I would very much welcome that, mostly because I've never met an Argentinian I didn't like, but also because they might bring empanadas, or some good choripan. Or curanto! :-P )

Anyway, If I reread the sentence, I'll eventually find the more logical referent, "honey." And while I'd much rather say that half of the "90,000 tons" is going to the United States, I'm not 100% sure that writing half of the "honey" goes there is inherently wrong. So while I don't love this construction, I wouldn't eliminate it yet.

The other issue is that when "and" connects two clauses, those two clauses are usually independent ideas. If, for example, I write, "Tim goes to the gym, and he runs for hours," it sounds as though Tim has two different types of physical activity. He either goes to the gym, or he runs.

If I wanted to communicate the notion that he runs at the gym, I might use a modifier instead of that second clause: "Tim goes to the gym, where he runs."

In (D), the fact that we have two clauses gives the impression that we're introducing a new idea with that second clause. But it's not really a new idea, is it? The sentence is giving information about the amount of honey that Argentina exports overall, then providing additional information about where some of this honey is going. A modifier would communicate this more logically than a new clause.

In a vacuum, would I eliminate (D) at this point? No. But I'd bear in mind that if there's another answer choice that can clarify the meaning by getting rid of the confusing pronoun and using the second part of the sentence to function as a modifier -- instead of as an independent clause -- I'd prefer that alternative. Because (E) accomplishes both goals, it's a better option.

I hope that helps!
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 11 Jul 2021, 12:11
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Hey egmat, GMATNinja

I am very confused with what is stated here for incorrect/correct usage of ‘with’ modifier. As per egmat, usage of ‘with’ modifier in beginning is incorrect since it doesn’t modify action? Is this true? If not, under what conditions it fails. Also, in second part of sentence ‘with’ is modifying selling which isn’t action but it is rather gerund, so when do we know if usage of ‘with’ is correct for action or noun. Does it have to do anything with ‘with’ coming as opening modifier vs post clause. PLS HELP
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 14 Aug 2021, 23:38
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Hi All,

I am planning to take my first GMAT attempt in another 15 days or so.. I have taken 3 official mocks and I am consistently scoring low on verbal.. I am unable to cross the V28 mark.. My quant score is between Q47-Q50. I did write one official mock yesterday and I scored Q50,V25,IR-3 and I am disheartened. Any suggestions to improve the verbal score in 15 days time?

One thing I have observed is I am skimming through the prompts as I am running short of time for the last 6-8 verbal questions... Of the three mocks taken, last 4-5 questions were RC questions..

Any response will be much appreciated.

Thanks!
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 28 Aug 2021, 09:16
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AS21gmat
Hey egmat, GMATNinja

I am very confused with what is stated here for incorrect/correct usage of ‘with’ modifier. As per egmat, usage of ‘with’ modifier in beginning is incorrect since it doesn’t modify action? Is this true? If not, under what conditions it fails. Also, in second part of sentence ‘with’ is modifying selling which isn’t action but it is rather gerund, so when do we know if usage of ‘with’ is correct for action or noun. Does it have to do anything with ‘with’ coming as opening modifier vs post clause. PLS HELP
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Unfortunately there are no black and white rules telling us when "with" is correct or incorrect, and you should certainly look for other decision points before relying on this sort of idiomatic distinction.

This post explains how we can eliminate (B) and (C) without worrying that much about the "with." (A) has a similar problem: the simple past "sold" doesn't really fit with the present perfect main verb ("has become").

That said, let's talk about why "with" is probably not ideal here. As explained in this post (see choice D), "with" makes sense when one thing/person is accompanied by another or when we are describing/modifying an action (i.e. how, or the manner in which, is something done).

Argentina certainly isn't accompanied by sales of honey. And I wouldn't say that the stuff about honey sales really tells us how -- or the manner in which -- Argentina has become the world’s leading exporter of honey.

Here, have an example:

    "With years of arduous practice at the Macarena, Tim has become the world's most famous dancer."

The "with" part tells us how (the means by which) Tim has become the world's most famous dancer. The "years of arduous practice" are the means to an end (the thing that allowed or caused Tim to become famous). The cause (the years of arduous practice) and the effect (becoming the world's most famous dancer) are distinct things, one of which led to the other.

Back to the Argentinian honey question:

    "With nearly 90,000 tons [of honey] a year sold to foreign markets, Argentina has become the world's leading exporter of honey."

Here's the problem: "90,000 tons [of honey] a year sold to foreign markets" aren't really a means to an end. Rather, "selling" and "becoming" are part of the same process, so it makes more sense to use the -ing modifier ("selling"), which suggests that "selling" and "becoming" are in fact concurrent actions.

Does that make the "with" definitively wrong? Maybe not, but "selling" seems like the better option given the context.

The moral of the story: you unfortunately won't be able to memorize and apply a simple set of rules governing "with" usage. Instead, you have to think really hard about meaning and context and decide what makes the most sense given the unique circumstances of each question.

I hope that helps!
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himanshu0123
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 03 Aug 2022, 01:22
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in chocie E] how do we justify the use of below modifier?

''with almost half going to US'' referring back to 90,000 tons located far away. acting as a noun modifier?

usage of 'with' in modifers seems very ambiguous. Please enlighten.
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 04 Aug 2022, 05:39
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himanshu0123
in chocie E] how do we justify the use of below modifier?

''with almost half going to US'' referring back to 90,000 tons located far away. acting as a noun modifier?
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WITH + [noun] + __ING...
should introduce a part, aspect, or component of whatever is stated in the preceding clause.
Choice E does exactly this: Half of something is certainly a component/part of it.

This type of modifier modifies the entire preceding clause, not just a noun.
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 16 Oct 2022, 12:01
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KarishmaB GMATNinja

Madam could you please help me in understanding why it is wrong in option D? Option D - "Selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes". Since when quantities represent a gooey mass, we consider them as singular. Ex. In their analysis, the researchers estimated that between 100 and 1,200 tons of plastic IS floating in the Arctic Ocean.

However, all experts have mentioned that we need them. Could you please explain this. Thanks!
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In little more than a decade, Argentina has become the world’s leading 16 Oct 2022, 21:24
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KarishmaB GMATNinja

Madam could you please help me in understanding why it is wrong in option D? Option D - "Selling nearly 90,000 tons a year to foreign markets, and almost half of it goes". Since when quantities represent a gooey mass, we consider them as singular. Ex. In their analysis, the researchers estimated that between 100 and 1,200 tons of plastic IS floating in the Arctic Ocean.

However, all experts have mentioned that we need them. Could you please explain this. Thanks!
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I wouldn't use 'them' here. My problem with (D) is the structure of the sentence and how that leads to ambiguity in the pronoun use.

Structure of (D): Two independent clauses are joined with 'and'

Argentina has become the leading exporter of honey, with sale of 90k tons a year to foreign markets

and

Half of it goes to US.

We join two independent clauses with ‘and’ to give two independent but related thoughts. Here, ‘half of it goes to US’ is a continuation of the prepositional modifier ‘with sale of 90k tons a year to foreign markets.’ It tells us that one country in the foreign markets is responsible for almost half of the 90k tons sale. Hence, it is not an independent thought and should not appear as an independent clause. 'Half of it ...' should modify the previous modifier 'with sale of 90k tons a year...'

Besides, when it appears as an independent clause, what does 'it' refer to? Does it refer to 'honey' or 'honey from Argentina' or 'sale of 90k tons'?

So all in all, (D) is not the best option. On the other hand, (E) resolves this problem beautifully.
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