Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their statu

Question

Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their status  a secret, heavy  psychological burden.

A. a secret, heavy
B. a secret and a heavy
C. a secret, a heavy
D. secret, with a
E. secret, which is a

kivalo · Accepted Answer

C.
I'd say ' a heavy psychological burden' is a noun phrase desribing 'having to keep their status a secret'
E is wrong because if we use which it might seem that a secret is a heavy psychological burden. That is incorrect. The act of having to keep their status a secret is a heavy psychological burden.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION 
In the correct answer, C, the phrase "a heavy psychological burden" serves as a modifier, describing the role that keeping the secret plays for these children. Appositive (noun) modifiers at the end of a sentence can play that role, describing the situation inherent in the preceding clause and not necessarily just the noun directly adjacent.

Choice A illogically attempts to describe the noun that children are keeping as one entity — a secret, heavy burden. Choice E makes a similar mistake, as the word "which" sets up a modifier that would be defining a secret as a heavy psychological burden.

Choices B and D also commit similar errors: by connecting "secret" and "a heavy psychological burden" with a conjunction, each choice seems to view the two items as separate and parallel (students have to keep two things, a secret and a burden). Because this is an illogical meaning, both choices are incorrect.

Excerpt from New York Times :
 
 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/education/edlife/daca-undocumented-university-of-california-merced-fiat-lux-scholars.html

anje29 · Answer

As per my understanding the difference between A and C is adding an article makes the phrase after comma a noun phrase or absolute modifier. Experts please correct if I am wrong.

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their status a secret, heavy psychological burden.

A. a secret, heavy
B. a secret and a heavy
C. a secret, a heavy
D. secret, with a
E. secret, which is a

In the abov question both C and E are referring to 'secret'

In C Heavy phychological burden is a noun phrase and noun phrase modifies a noun only and not verb. So t refers to secret.
In E which refers to the noun before comma and so it refers to secret.

While C and E both convey same meaning usage of Which is unnecessary. C is clear enough and concise.

shaarang · Answer

Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their status a secret, heavy psychological burden.

Per GMAT rules, doesn't "a heavy psychological burden" refer to the subject of preceding clause (children of illegal immigrants) or can it be used as an appositive modifier to refer to "keep their status secret"? Also, is there a way to tell the difference between the usage of two (regular modifier and appositive modifier) or is context paramount here?

daagh · Answer

Dear Sharang,

May I know which GMAT rules are you meaning? What we know is that adjectival modifiers modify the subject. That holds good for present participles placed at the beginning of the sentence and set off by a comma from the subject. Present participles following a noun in the middle of the sentence but not set off by a comma also modify the noun prior to that but not necessarily a subject, because we don't expect to find a subject in the middle or end part of a sentence.

The appositive is another noun, which is a description of another noun or some precise theme. The appositive may be placed either before or after the modifyee noun.

Here, a psychological heavy burden is an appositive that modifies the theme of having to keep their status a secret. The phrase' having to keep their status a secret is a gerund (in effect a noun) acting as an object noun of the verb grow up. 
In sum, whether something is an appositive or not can be seen from the distinct fact that it is a noun.

I think there is no need to call the modifiers as either regular or appositive. All of them are simply modifiers.

Whether they are context - based or not is also not clear. After all, modifiers are only additional to the mainframe and are dispensable. We use them when they can shed more light. Otherwise, we may ignore them. In that sense, maybe they are context based.

bidskamikaze · Answer

Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their status  a secret, heavy  psychological burden.

A. a secret, heavy
-  Looks like a comma splice.

B. a secret and a heavy
-  This option makes the sentence look as if the secret and psychological burden are different.

C. a secret, a heavy
- CORRECT. "a heavy psychological burden" is a noun phrase modifying the previous clause.

D. secret, with a
-  The keeping of secret IS the psychological burden; Use of "with" disassociates the burden with secret.

E. secret, which is a
-  Secret is not the burden; having to keep a secret is the psychological burden.

Answer: C.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their statu

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Many children of illegal immigrants grow up having to keep their statu

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