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AJB77
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 07:30
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons.

(A) Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons.

(B) Carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons.

(C) Dozens of canyons, many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, are filling the desert lands of Southwest Utah.

(D) The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of which were carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.

(E) The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.



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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 09:09
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I will go with E

(A) Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons.

- OUT Ambigous THEM

(B) Carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons.

- Seems to indicate that the desert lands were carved from porous bedrocks

(C) Dozens of canyons, many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, are filling the desert lands of Southwest Utah.
- tense problem... seems to indicate they still are filling....

(D) The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of which were carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.

- Who carved them... OUT


(E) The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.
- Looks good
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 10:12
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E....But how can we say that desert lands are not filled with porous bedrock(I am talking about option B)?
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 10:48
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I was torn between D and E.

But i guess i agree with the reasoning proposed so that will be E.
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 12:07
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This and the other SC I posted today (Javitts) were sent to me by a colleague. I feel that they are not clear cut and wanted to get the members here to look at it to get their views.

This one the OA is D but I'm not clear how it is better than E.
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 13:30
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(E) The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.

The 'many of them ...' is not an independent sentence, therefore, it has to modify the previous sentence. But how ?

choice (D) provides a better alternative IMO
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 27 Jun 2005, 21:11
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D - many of which correctly describes the canyons.
Can't say that of 'many of them' - doesn't seem complete - somehow.
I guess I'm not able to articulate it properly...
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 30 Jun 2005, 14:51
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From my point of view, canyons are something that gets carve and there is no specific agent that carves these.

So, D seems to indicate that someone carved them.

AJB, Paul, can you guys shed some light.
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 30 Jun 2005, 14:58
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I pick D.

As for E, "them" has no clear referent since "them" can be"deserted lands" or "canyons". For D, "which" clearly referrs to the nearby "canyons"
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 30 Jun 2005, 16:41
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ahhh....I get it now, it should be D, I had originally gone with E!

here is what confusing about E,

many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.

who is them referring to? desert lands of utah? or canyons?

I think if we picked D

many of which, immediatly points to canyons as its the nearest subject of the dependent clause.

I think personally, the subject immediatly preceding the comma before "which" should be the subject that is being modified, so in classic sense D may be wrong?

Paul any thoughts?
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 30 Jun 2005, 18:16
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fresinha12
many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.

who is them referring to? desert lands of utah? or canyons?
Show more


Yes, it should be D.

them in E has no clear referent. which in D clearly refers to "dozens of canyons".
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 02 Jul 2005, 13:39
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My first choice was D. D is correct over E because it uses "which"

Always remember - which refers to a whole group. In this case, which refers to the canyons. Also, the canyons were carved centuries ago, so "were" conveys that these canyons were carved centuries ago.

Choice E uses them, and as rule of thumb, in the GMAT, one should avoid words like them and they as much as possible.
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Many of them carved from porous bedrock centuries ago, the 07 Jul 2005, 09:49
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I just looked at this question at another website and it has explained the difference between D and E.

in D and E both them and which are right but the sentence in E is not parallel. E has the one clause in passive structure and one in active.

D has both passive structure and that's why D is correct.

are filled .... were carved.

E would be right if you say.

The desert lands of Southwest Utah are filled with dozens of canyons, many of them were carved from porous bedrock centuries ago.



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Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
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