Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that man is good only when in “the

Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that compels man to compare himself to others.

A. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that
B. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that
C. man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted only by society, that
D. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which
E. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

This sentence tests two modifiers. First, "only" correctly modifies "when" Rousseau believed "man is good." Second, "that" is incorrectly used to introduce a non-essential modifier. "That" is used only with essential modifiers and is not separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. "Which" is used when introducing non-essential modifiers and these modifiers are separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

• (A) The sentence is incorrect because it repeats the original answer.

• (B) The new placement of the adverb "only" unacceptably changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence indicated the "only" circumstance in which "man is good." This answer choice, however, indicates that man is the "only" good creature in a certain circumstance. In addition, "that" should only be used to introduce essential modifiers that are not separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. "Which" is required in this case.

• (C) The new placement of the adverb "only" unacceptably changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence indicated the "only" circumstance in which "man is good." This answer choice, however, indicates the "only" circumstance in which "man is corrupted." In addition, "that" should only be used to introduce essential modifiers that are not separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. "Which" is required in this case.

• (D) This answer corrects the second modifier by changing "that" to "which," the appropriate start to a non-essential modifier. However, the new placement of the adverb "only" unacceptably changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence indicated the "only" circumstance in which "man is good." This answer choice, however, indicates that man is the "only" good creature in a certain circumstance.

• (E) CORRECT. This choice keeps the original (and correct) placement of the adverb "only" and also corrects the "that vs. which" modifier mistake by replacing "that" with "which," the appropriate relative pronoun to employ to start a non-essential modifier.
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The modifier "that" is used for restrictive modifiers. These are modifiers that help to specify what the subject is:

The course that I'm taking has a lot of homework.
The dog that bit me is in the corner.

In both cases, the subject is made more specific by the "that" modifier. In this case, we're not trying to specify which society we're talking about. We're just trying to add detail. This is a non-restrictive modifier, so we use "which."

My intro to psych class, which has a lot of homework, is ending on Wednesday.
My neighbor's dog, which bit me, is now barking at the mailman.

Also notice that we use a comma to precede "which" but not "that," since the "that" modifiers are part of the subject.
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This is about the use of the limiting modifier, namely ‘only’ plus a few more additional themes

• man is good only when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, that --- No problem with the placement of only; but the use of the relative pronoun after a comma is wrong. That is restrictive and does not take a comma before it


• only man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, that --- placemat of only before man implies that only man is good in a state of nature while all others re not so. Wrong menaing; that should not take a comma before it

• man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted only by society, that: implies that society is the only force that corrupts the man and nothing else can corrupt him. In addition, the comma before that is a problem.
• only man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, which; distorted menaing as in BH implying that all other organisms other than man are bad when in “the state of nature


• man is good only when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, which; Correct choice ; proper placement of the modifier only before when in “the state of nature”

Very good one
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Could you explain why is A incorrect? Thank you.

>> intended meaning was to further explain 'Society' as compelling man to compare himself to others. 'which' modifies preceding noun immediately before the comma. 'That' always explains about or point out type of the subject. So, use of 'which' is correct here and 'that' incorrect.

Good question,

The correct answer is E. Because the comma is seperating the two clauses, you need WHICH to refer to the society. The society is actually compelling man to compare himself to others.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that compels man to compare himself to others.

A. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that - seems ok. keep it,
B. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that - only is misplaced. changing meaning. Eliminate
C. man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted only by society, that - only is misplaced. changing meaning. Eliminate
D. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which -only is misplaced. changing meaning. Eliminate
E. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which - seems ok. hold it.

A & E both seems ok. now evaluate A vs E.
in option E, which is used, Which is used to signify that further information is not mandatory required. here, Which details the way man is getting corrupted. Which is perfectly used.
That is not required, given information after that is extra information and no need to use that.

E seems to be best fit.

ans E..
reason 'that' usually is not preceded by comma... only d and e are left
in D placement of 'only' changes meaning.. only E left
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me too A vs E. but my answer is A because the information provided after comma is not extra info, i think of as a conclusion part which is as important as the description before. So THAT is necessary.

chetan2u I agree on with u on the use of comma in 'that' clause. As 'that' is used as an essential modifier, it should not be preceeded with a comma; However, I'm not sure about use of comma in which. Can 'which' be used without a comma before it? Any info on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

hi styabish,
which has to be preceded by comma...
only place where it is not... 'in which'
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that compels man to compare himself to others.

A. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that
B. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that
C. man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted only by society, that
D. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which
E. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which

The answer is E .

B,C,D has misplaced only changing the meaning o the original sentence .
A contains that which seems to modify the entire clause . -- Which is properly introduced to modify society

We need "which" in this case as the preceding part of the clause can stand alone --> Answer "E"

However, this is not a good GMAT question, as the GMAT would never ask you to choose between two answer choices solely based on which vs that.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that man is good only when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, that compels man to compare himself to others.
• man is good only when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, that.............that plays the role of spoilsport here.
• only man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, that.............only word misplaced. only man deviates the meaning of the sentence from the intended one. It apears onl man is good not any other creature.
• man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted only by society, that............only word misplaced. only by society gives meaning error.
• only man is good when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, which.........error in B repeats.
• man is good only when in “the state of nature” but is corrupted by society, which.........correct choice resolving that and only issues

A defining question of the use of relative pronouns and the placement of limiting adverbial modifiers
Normally no comma precedes a comma when we want the relative pronoun ‘that’ to refer to the previous noun. In A, B and C, the relative pronoun ‘that ‘is separated by a comma, which is ungrammatical.

A. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that --Although 'only' is placed appropriately, still ',+that' is a problem

B. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, that – ‘Only man is good’ gives wrong meaning

C. man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted only by society, that --- only by society is also placed inaptly.

D. only man is good when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which – which dutifully modifies its previous noun society, but only man is good is improper placement.

E. man is good only when in "the state of nature" but is corrupted by society, which – only is correctly placed. -- correct choice.

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For me it looks like A

A-should be the correct usage
B-only modifying man
C-only should be correctly modifying "state of nature"
D-same as B
E-that is better than which

dennissam

There is a difference between using which and using that.

The rule is:
Essential modifier: use that without comma: essential modifiers are essential to define the noun it modifies; omission alters the meaning of the sentence.
Non-essential modifier: use which with comma: non-essential modifiers says something more, something extra, about the noun it modifies; omission does not alter the meaning of the sentence.

Example:
I hate dogs that bark. ( Suppose there are 100 dogs, out of which may be 40 bark. I hate only those 40 dogs. The essential modifier that bark defines what I hate. Omission of the modifier changes the meaning of the sentence)
I hate dogs, which bark. ( Suppose there are 100 dogs. The sentence means that I hate all the 100 dogs. The non-essential modifier says something more about those 100 dogs: they bark. Omission of the non-essential modifier ,which bark does not change the meaning)

In this sentence since we already have a comma we are compelled to use a non-essential modifier with which. We are saying something more, something extra, about the society.

Hi Souvik,

I have a very stupid query on the usage of"which"..

My understanding is that "which" modifies the word immediately before the ","

For example :-

The war of 1903, which .....

In this "which" modifies < 1903 > . Kindly correct me in case i am wrong
Apologies for such a basic query

Regards,
Abhishek

Hi,

If you have a phrase having 'of', look at the word that can take which..
Here 1903 cannot take which but war can, so it's OK..

Example..
The book of Mr x, which won a prize, was.... modifies BOOK
The king of Iran, which is in middle East.... modifies IRAN...
Both are OK ...
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