Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's shor

Question

Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.

A. Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.

B. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of how he famously and masterfully uses irony, evident in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

C. Famed for using irony in a masterful way, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author slowly revealing a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

D. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author's famed and masterful use of irony, evidenced in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

E. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because he slowly revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece, demonstrating his famed and masterful use of irony.

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi all,

Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.

There has been a lot of discussion about the meaning conveyed by this sentence and many posters feel the even if Choice D is the correct answer, it does not communicate the intended meaning. Here is my take on this:

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Meaning-icon-final.png

The main clause of this sentence says that Guy de Maupassant’s short stories have become classics. So, I feel that this is the crux of the sentence. Whatever extra information is present in the sentence is about why these stories became classics. The reason why his short stories have become classics is that Guy de Maupassant used irony in his writing in a masterful manner. His talent can be seen in the way he revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grammar.png

ERROR ANALYSIS:

1. The opening verb-ed modifier “Famed for his…” is incorrectly modifying the subject of the preceding clause “many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories”. Who was famed? The writer Guy de Maupassant was famed and not many of his short stories. Hence, we have MODIFIER ERROR in this sentence.
2. Usage of “due to” is not correct here. Whether the usage of “due to” is correct or not can be checked by a simple test. Replace “due to” with “caused by”. If the sentence still makes sense, then use of “due to” is correct.

POE:

A. Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.:  Incorrect  for reasons discussed above.

B. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of how he famously and masterfully uses irony, evident in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.  Incorrect:  
i. “because of” should be followed by a noun or clause beginning with noun.
ii. Non-possessive pronoun “he” cannot refer to possessive “of Guy de Maupassant's” because this entity is an adjective in this sentence that modifies “short stories”. A pronoun cannot refer to an adjective. It can only refer to a noun or another pronoun

C. Famed for using irony in a masterful way, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author slowly revealing a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.:  Incorrect.  This choice repeats the modifier error of choice A.

D. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author's famed and masterful use of irony, evidenced in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.  Correct.

E. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because he slowly revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece, demonstrating his famed and masterful use of irony.  Incorrect.  . This choice repeats the same pronoun error of Choice B.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

KarishmaB · Answer

Responding to a pm:

(A) Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories ...
Incorrect. Who was famed for his masterful use of irony? 'Guy de Maupassant', not his stories. 
So incorrect modifier.

(B) Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of how he famously ...
We follow "because of" with a noun. Incorrect.

(C) Same error as (A)

(D) Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author's famed and masterful use of irony, evidenced in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

... short stories have become classics because of ... use of irony, evidenced in the slow ...

Correct. Short stories are the ones that have become classics. Why? Because of the use of irony. Evidence of use of irony? Slow revelation of tragic twist at the end. 
Of course, there will be other ways in which irony would have been used in the stories. 
All good.

E. Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because he slowly revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece, demonstrating his famed and masterful use of irony.

This option says that the stories have become classics because he revealed a tragic twist at the end, not because of his use of irony. This doesn't make sense. Writing stories in a particular way in unlikely to make them classics. Masterful use of irony could do it. 
Hence (D) makes much more sense.

I am usually a lot more tolerant to pronoun errors because it seems GMAT is getting more and more tolerant to pronoun errors too.

GK_Gmat · Answer

Modifier error in A & C; eliminate. 

'He' cannot refer to 'Guy de Maupassant's short stories' in B & E. 'He' can only refer to 'Guy de Maupassant', which is not mentioned in either B or E. 

Answer D.

geturdream · Answer

A-- due to can be replaced by Caused by. So it should follow a noun clause. here the sentence is due to the author slowly revealing ... which is wrong 
B-- same thing. we are expecting a noun clause after Because of.
C-- same a B
E-- the sentence first uses the possessive form of the noun and then uses he as pronoun which is wrong

D uses the noun clause author's famed and masterful use of irony after because of. And also continues to use the the possessive form.
after the possessive

Fremontian · Answer

A and C - Modifier error - "Famed for his masterful use of irony" should modify "Guy de Maupassant" and not his stories
B and E - Pronoun error - "He", a subject pronoun, cannot serve as an antecedent to the possessive noun "Guy de Maupassant" (Possessive poison rule)

arunmehta89 · Answer

Hi,

Doesn't this sentence say that   Guy de Maupassant was famous for his masterful use of irony in stories  and  these short stories have become classics due to the author slowly revealing at the end of each piece a tragic twist of fate.

Please explain.......

daagh · Answer

arunmehta89

This is what the passage intends to say but unfortunately doesn’t. Instead of saying, Guy de was famous for something the text says that his stories were famous for something. This is the error brought about by the faulty structure of dangling modification

dpvtank · Answer

Hi Shraddha,

Excellent analysis. However, I have a few doubts.

I see how based on your analysis, choice D makes sense. However, what about the subtle meaning change? The sentence changes the idea that Maupassant was famed for his masterful use of irony to the idea that Maupassant's use of irony was famed and masterful. The former shows a causal relationship between masterful use of irony and fame, while the latter just states that his use of irony was both masterful and famed.

In your meaning analysis, you state that the main idea of the sentence is about Maupassant's short stories becoming classics. However, it would be great if you could walk us (or at least me) through the thought process of why you felt that the meaning change discussed above could be safely ignored in picking "D". On the flip-side, I guess the other question would be why you felt correcting the modifier error was more important than retaining the meaning behind fame and masterful use of irony.

Thanks!

egmat · Answer

Hi there, Well firstly, choice D is the only error free answer choice. And one answer has to be correct. So choice D makes for that correct answer. Secondly, I again say that the crux of the sentence is that Maupassant’s short stories became classic. Maupassant is not the subject of this sentence. It is his short stories. So we must use modifications that center around his short stories and not the writer. Choice D does that. The subject remains Maupassant’s short stories as in the original sentence. Maupassant’s short stories became classics. And why did they become classics? They became classics because the writer employed his popular style of using irony. The cause and effect relationship is still here. The evidence of that masterful use of irony is the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece. This is my take on the sentence from the meaning standpoint.

Thanks. Shraddha

sid090188 · Answer

Hello Shraddha,I agree with your explanation in answer choice D.But I somehow feel that the comma before evidenced is unncecessary. It is the use of irony which is evidenced in the slow revelation.......So comma is not required I think. Putting a comma before evindenced suggests that the part after comma modifies the part before comma which I feel is incorrect.

egmat · Answer

Hi Sid, This is the correct answer choice D: Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics because of the author's famed and masterful use of irony, evidenced in the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece. There are a few things that I would like to say here: 1. "evidenced" is a verb-ed modifier that always modifies the preceding noun enity. Here usage of "evidenced" is correct because it logically refers to "use of irony", the preceding noun entity. 2. Use of comma alone is not a deterministic issue to reject an otherwise correct answer choice. In this particular case, usage of comma pertains more to the stylistic issue and not to the grammar issue. Here the comma has been used to imtroduce that necessary pause in the sentence to understand the meaning of the sentence better. This comma makes you pause and then you continue reading, understanding the role of "evidenced...". Never reject an answer choice because of the use of comma in a certain fashion. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

The original sentence begins with the modifier "Famed for his masterful use of irony," which requires a person as its subject. However, in the original sentence, "many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories" is the subject. Moreover, the phrase "due to the author slowly revealing" is awkward.

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence. 
  
(B) The pronoun "he" must have a person as its antecedent, yet there is no person in the sentence. Remember that "he" cannot refer to "Guy de Maupassant" here, since the name is part of a possessive phrase: "Guy de Maupassant's short stories". The author himself is not grammatically present in the sentence. 
  
(C) The opening modifier "famed for using irony in a masterful way" incorrectly modifies "short stories" instead of Guy de Maupassant himself. It also contains the awkward phrase "because of the author slowly revealing."

(D) CORRECT . This choice remedies the flawed modifier by rewriting the sentence to avoid it. This choice also replaces the awkward phrase "due to the author's revealing" with "evidenced in the slow revelation." 
  
(E) This choice incorrectly uses the pronoun "he" without a grammatical antecedent in the sentence.

aaduthoma · Answer

For those who said that options B and E are out because there isn't any antecedent for he, check out the right answer choice for this official question.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-she ... 08881.html

generis · Answer

Aaduthoma  , nice catch! +1

You are correct.
  The possessive poison pronoun rule is not ironclad (not true 100% of the time).

The "possessive poison" pronoun   rule   guideline holds that possessive nouns can serve as antecedents only 
for possessive pronouns, but not for subject (he, she, they) or object pronouns (him, her, them).

The "rule" often does not hold in the object pronoun case.
And if meaning is clear, the rule does not hold in some cases that involve the subject pronoun.

In response to a very good question that resembles the official one you cite,
I wrote  this post,  here .

In the post I explain that "possessive poison" is not absolute
and may never have been.
GMAC will allow possessive nouns to refer to object pronouns (her, him, them) and subject pronouns (she, he, they).

In the post I cite to  a few official questions  in which the guideline is  not  followed,
including the E.B. Browning question that you mentioned.

I have not seen a single question whose correct answer depended on following this "rule."

Again, nice work!

MofeBhatia · Answer

Hi  generis  ,

What’s wrong with with option E, apart from no antecedent found for he . I chose option E as demonstrating (verb+ing ) will modify the previous clause - slowly revealed the magic

generis · Answer

MofeBhatia  , you are correct. The big problem with E is not the pronoun. Or it shouldn't be.
D is the better sentence by quite a bit, but that difference is pretty hard to detect.

The superiority has little to do with the pronoun. 
D conveys the correct sentiment without switching from passive inanimate things to active animate people.
E switches from the short stories themselves to the author, who actively uses twists of fate.

The possessive poison rule is not absolute.** I wrote about that fact and the rule's history in the post in the footnote.

Options D and E, compared

D.  Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics  because of  the author's famed and masterful use of irony,  evidenced in  the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece.

E . Many of Guy de Maupassant's short stories have become classics  because he  slowly  revealed  a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece,  demonstrating  his famed and masterful use of irony.

D is better. The inanimate short story remains inanimate. 
In option E we almost have a subject shift: the stories have become famous because the author actively did something.

Think about inanimate things such as a short story.
The implication in E is that the short stories themselves demonstrated Guy de Maupassant's famed and masterful use of irony.

By contrast, in D, the stories remain inanimate objects.
They are vehicles through which the author's genius is revealed.
The short stories are containers and then exhibitors of the author's talent.
They are famous  because of  a noun (nobody is busy doing anything). 
The short stories are merely containers for a  noun  action (use of irony) — that irony is IN EVIDENCE (evidenced in) the slow revelation of a tragic twist of fate.

(D) correctly keeps the voice and structure passive
Option D keeps the inanimate . . . well, inanimate. 
--  because of    (option D) is more passive and better than  because  author acted (option E)
-- evidenced by (exhibited by) something (option D) is more passive and better than actively demonstrating something (option E)

(E) shifts from passive to active to confusing: what demonstrates his masterful use of irony: the author's actively revealing a tragic twist of fate (a maneuver that also caused the stories to be famous)? or the fact that the stories became famous because he used a twist at the end?
 Demonstrating  either is illogical or modifies the act of the author, in which case I am not sure why we are talking about his short stories having become famous.

D is clear.
E is not.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions.

** On the GMAT, as long as meaning is clear, both object and subject pronouns  may  (are occasionally allowed to) have a possessive noun as an antecedent.

Here is the post in which I use four different official questions to show that GMAC has allowed both object and subject pronouns to have possessive antecedents.  HERE .

aidyn · Answer

One question.
I chose (D), but had some doubts towards (E).
I've always been under impression that in GMAT, as long as the non-possessive pronoun is clear, it should be acceptable even without any noun to refer to.
For example, in this case,  "he"  is clearly talking about Guy de Maupassant. Hence, the meaning is clear, and we should be able to accept the usage of such pronoun.

Can anyone please clear my doubts?

I understand that (E) has a shift in meaning, but I just want to know whether we can accept the pronoun usage.

generis · Answer

aidyn  , shortish answer: whether we can use the possessive  noun  as an antecedent for a non-possessive pronoun depends on a number of factors, a few of which I discuss below.
It is likely that the better construction is one in which a non-possessive pronoun has a non-possessive noun.

• Many factors are involved

(1) the post that you quote was written in 2013, before GMAC's 2016 publication of  this official question, here,  about Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
Before OG 2016, nearly every expert in the industry believed that GMAC would not allow a subject pronoun (she) to have a possessive antecedent noun (Mary's).

(2) the (revised) guideline about "possessive poison" is restrictive. I use four official examples to discuss revision of possessive poison in  this post, here .
The pairing of, say,  her  and  Mary's  is allowed  occasionally . 
That pairing is not automatically incorrect.  And  that pairing is not automatically acceptable. 
If two options seem equally good, choose the one that uses  she  and  Mary  rather than  she  and  Mary's .

(3) In terms of meaning, I disagree slightly with the post you quote.
 The main clause of this sentence says that Guy de Maupassant’s short stories have become classics. So, I feel that this is the crux of the sentence. Whatever extra information is present in the sentence is about why these stories became classics.

I agree that the crux of the sentence is that the short stories have become classics.
I disagree, though, that the "why" information (really, the "how") is just "extra information."

In D, inanimate short stories passively become classics because of the (passive) author's use of irony.
-- This instance is one in which the passive voice is better. We want to downplay agency. Short stories do not consciously use irony. The author does so. 
-- If option #1 downplays the agency of inanimate objects and uses pronouns that match, especially when option #2 shifts from passive subject to active agency and contains a mismatch between pronoun and noun, we should choose #1.
Please see my post above,  here.  I think that (D) is the better sentence regardless of pronoun issues and in that post I explain why.

Finally, the subject of the sentence is the  stories . 
If we want to use active voice and to make the sentence about the stories that became classics because he used irony, we would write (E) this way:
E. Guy de Maupassant wrote short stories,  many of which have become classics  because he slowly revealed a tragic twist of fate at the end of each piece, demonstrating his famed and masterful use of irony.

In my post directly above, I should have been more clear that the possessive antecedent was not  the  big issue. The big issue is that (D) is a better sentence for reasons I discuss in that post. 
I amended that post and clarified the word "may."

*****
  • possessive poison?  
First, let’s clarify: as long as meaning is clear, a subject or object pronoun may   have an antecedent that is a possessive noun.

You emphasize the non-possessive pronoun and say that it must be clear.
We must also emphasize that the antecedent  noun  (to which the pronoun refers) is clear.

Even in that case, if an  equally good option  pairs a pronoun with a “regular” (non-possessive) noun, I would choose that option.

I can understand how you might believe that it is always okay to have a possessive noun antecedent for a non-possessive pronoun, but that belief is too strong.

In fact, it is likely that the presumption tilts the other way. I would accept a possessive antecedent for a non-possessive pronoun only if no other option were correct.

Furthermore, in POE, if an option has a non-possessive pronoun (e.g. her) and a possessive antecedent noun (Ella’s), flag the option as a possible answer but look for correct options that do not use this pairing.

My post about this issue says that this construction is sometimes okay. If the most correct option contains this pairing (as is the case in the four official questions that I discussed), then choose that option.

In my post, the main message of the revised possessive poison guideline is simply that we should  not automatically dismiss  a pronoun whose antecedent noun is possessive.

“Do not automatically dismiss X” does  not  equal “Always accept X.”

The revision does  not  say: if a pronoun has an antecedent noun that is possessive, then that pairing is always okay. 
No. That pairing is okay  on occasion  and is rare.

You just took the guideline too far in the wrong direction. Go the other way. It is probably better to avoid pairing a possessive noun and a non-possessive pronoun, but if the best answer uses that pairing, choose that answer.

Hope that helps.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Can anyone explain the modifier in D? I presume it is an absolute phrase? “Evidenced in.. at the end of each piece”.

I got tricked by the construction (often do).

Posted from my mobile device

Famed for his masterful use of irony, many of Guy de Maupassant's shor

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