From the standpoint of finding the correct answer, we work by eliminating wrong answer choices to determine what is left. Since we are forced to keep some verison of "which" in all the answer choices we have to look elsewhere. There is an error with the placement of the modifier "with the rest of the family" and answer choices A, D, and E have an ambiguous meaning about agreeing to pay with the family (did they agree with the family or pay with the family or agree to pay with the family). B & C clearly state that the agreement (to pay) was made with the rest of the family. The difference in B & C is between "which" and "of which". "Of which" is typically used to indentify parts of the group and usually includes an additional word like we see in choices D & E ("BOTH of which"). That leaves us with answer choice B.

Now to the question about using the modifier "which" to refer to the costs of enrollment and room and board. There are exceptions that allow us to skip over a noun to get to the noun we want to modify, but the exceptions don't come up much and they are typically short phrases (Picasso's works of art - you could skip over art). Here the sentence really wants us to skip all the way back to "costs" and ignore a pretty massive space between "which" and "costs" (the noun being modified). I do not believe you would ever see the GMAT use a construction like this.

KW
_________________

Alright! We've got some great discussion going here! Glad we took the bait!

Here's the thing about noun modifiers. As much as we say that a noun modifier must touch the noun it is modifying, there is an exception to this rule. For example:

"The work of art, which is hanging on the wall, was painted by Picasso." --> Here, "which is hanging on the wall" correctly modifies the "work."

How is that possible?

The phrase "of art" is a prepositional phrase that also modifies the "work." Prepositional phrases can stand between nouns and their modifiers.

Other examples:

"The team of twelve, which had come in first place last year, sulked at the defeat."
"The time of day, which can be discerned using a sun dial, is based on the rotation of the Earth."

If we go back to the example above, we see that "of school enrollment and room and board for the children" is all modifying the "costs" and thus the ",which..." modifier is acceptable.

I know scheol knows the answer, and it looks like praveenism is onto something. How can we then rule out other answers?

@ puneetpratik: By "start off with the most straight-forward grammatical split" I mean that if there are modifier issues, pronoun issues, concision issues, and subject-verb issues in a given SC problem, you should start off with the one that is the most clear. For most people, that would be subject-verb agreement. We each need to know where we feel most comfortable.

I don't want to give away the answer to this question until people have had a chance to take a look at it, but I'd like to lead the discussion down a path:

We always want to start off with the most straight-forward grammatical split on SC. If you've been following along in the various discussions about modifiers, you should be able to very quickly cross off a few answers for a clear reason. Any takers? (Hint: noun modifiers!)

A. which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
Incorrect: Incorrect use of Which. Which refers to immediate noun it "Touches".
B. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
Incorrect: Same as A.
C. of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
Incorrect: The use of "Of which" is not justified. It is used better in situations such as " Some of which"..
D. both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
Correct: Here verbally is correctly modifying "agreed".
E. both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.
Incorrect: The misplacement of Verbally obscures the meaning.
_________________

B. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. IMO, here, she agreed with her family. Wrong.

C. of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay. “OF” is incorrect, and again, she agrees with the family. Wrong

D. both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. I think “which” should cover the word “costs”, not each individually.

E. both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally. Same as D.

Great Question, I simply sticked out A and B because of "Which" as a knee jerk reaction. Will keep this thing in mind Thanks @ Brett !!!

About difference between option A and B, I believe it goes as follows :
A. which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
B. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
In Option A, it appears as if she were paying not by money but by "rest of family" !!
_________________

This sentence requires the correct placement of the adverb verbally, indicating the way in which the agreement was made, and the correct use of phrases indicating with whom (the rest of the family) the agreement was made.

A. The phrase with the rest of the family is misplaced, making it sound as if the subject of the sentence and the rest of the family were planning to pay the fees together.
B. The adverb verbally comes immediately after the verb agreed, indicating their correlation, and the placement of the phrase with the rest of the family makes it clear that the agreement was between the two parties.
C. The word of is unnecessary and confusing.
D. The phrase with the rest of the family is misplaced, making it sound as if the subject of the sentence and the family were planning to pay the fees together; also the word both is unnecessary and confusing.
E. Verbally is misplaced, making it sound as if the promised payments will be made by speaking.
The correct answer is B.

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of school enrollment and room and board for the children, which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.


A. which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
B. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
C. of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
D. both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
E. both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

My initial choice was to eliminate any A & D because the phrase "to pay with the rest of the family." makes it appear as if she is using her family as the monetary exchange to pay. I eliminated E because of the same reason only it's a verbal payment?

The decision between B & C was a bit tougher but because she was covering 2 things (school enrollment and room and board), of which sounded like it was addressing a single item rather than multiple; and thus this leaves B.

I'm pretty terrible at SCs so I was giddy to get this right.. I think.

KyleWiddison, thanks for weighing in here. Wanted to check with you, how did you decide that the meaning conveyed in option B was the originally intended meaning.

The meaning conveyed in choice B is unambiguous (she agreed with the rest of the family that she would pay). In the other options you don't know if she agreed with the rest of the family that she would pay or if she agreed that she would pay along with the rest of the family. In matters of meaning, we can't always know the original intent, so you have to use a process of eliminating choices that have problems like unclear, illogical, or ambiguous meaning.

KW
_________________

Can someone tell me if the OA is A or B?
I find some posts saying A, some saying B.

But if it's B, then wouldn't it be a deviation from the statement given?

In my first post I explain the problem of meaning in option A where the agreement becomes unclear. Did she agree to pay the costs along with the family (the family pays too)? Or, did she agree with the family that she alone would cover the costs? The original sentence has unclear meaning. Changing the position of the modifier in B fixes that ambiguity.

What do you mean when you say "wouldn't it be a deviation from the statement given"?

KW
_________________

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.