Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves – one fifth of the world’s r

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Start with what the sentence sentence is trying to mean. Its meaning that Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves flourish in China. The bamboo groves are one fifth of the world’s reserves. Also they spread from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of the country.

Now look for errors in the sentence
A. Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves – one fifth of the world’s reserves – flourish in China, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of - Spreading here could modify either china or the groves. Even if we consider it to modify the entire earlier clause it would still have meaning error that it flourishes because it spreads from nangling to southern part. Not the intended meaning.

B. One fifth of the world’s reserves of over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves flourishes in China and spreads from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of - One fifth of world's reserves of?? changes the meaning. over 6M hectares is one fifth of world reserves. Not 1/5th of worlds 6 Mn reserves.

C. One fifth of the world’s reserves of emerald bamboo groves that are over 6M hectares and that spread from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of China flourish in - bamboo groves that are over 6Mn hectares?? and the second that also acts restrictive to the only those bamboo that spread... which again isn't intended.

D. Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves, one fifth of the world’s reserves, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of China, flourish in - There are no issues here. One fifth currently means hectares spreading from nangling. Here the flourish also is also correctly modifying the 6Mn hectares of Bamboo groves. So far better of the others.

E. One fifth of the world’s reserves of over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves flourish in China and spread from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part -Again one fifth of of over 6Mn changes meaning. Also this options means the groves do 2 things flourish and the spread. Which is not correct.

Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves – one fifth of the world’s reserves – flourish in China, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of the country.


A. Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves – one fifth of the world’s reserves – flourish in China, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of


B. One fifth of the world’s reserves of over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves flourishes in China and spreads from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of


C. One fifth of the world’s reserves of emerald bamboo groves that are over 6M hectares and that spread from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of China flourish in


D. Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves, one fifth of the world’s reserves, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of China, flourish in

Correct choice



E. One fifth of the world’s reserves of over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves flourish in China and spread from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part

Posted from my mobile device

Please explain why we chose D over A?

D is preferred over A bcz the modifier should be placed as close to the modified subject which is the case in D

Could you please explain further why D is preffered over A.
I dont see anything wromg in A

Posted from my mobile device

I feel SVO, V-ing here prefectly modify SVO. Any idea how to rule A/D?

Flawed OA. Answer choice A is obviously the clearer choice because (1) it is more direct than D and (2) D is ambiguous because it does not identify the "country".

Irony!

So according to official explanation,
In option A, "the phrase "spreading from...in southern part" give rise to ambiguity that the phrase can modify either groves or China.
But,
In option D,, the phrase "spreading from...in southern part" doesn't give rise to ambiguity that the phrase can modify either groves or world reserves..!!


Really?
You must be kidding, right?

IN OPTION A: isn't the part after comma i.e. "spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanling mountains in the southern part of " provide additional information about the preceding clause

In line with the explanation given here https://gmatclub.com/forum/usage-of-verb-ing-modifiers-135220.html.

I feel like this is a poor quality question. Absolutely nothing wrong with A as compared to D.

I’m NOT an expert, and until an expert weighs in, we are left to speculate.

I have yet to see an official example in which the Present Participle phrase in the closing position of the sentence has been mistaken for a nonrestrictive noun modifier of the prior noun. (I.e., the “comma -ing” modifier refers to the noun immediately prior to the comma)

It doesn’t mean, of course, that such a question does not exist. If one does, I would love to see an OG example in which the end clause Present Participle modifier (separated from the rest of the sent. by a comma) correctly refers to the noun right before it (not when the Present Participle is a middle of the clause, intervening modifier).

A provides:

“Over 6 million hectares of emerald bamboo groves

-one fifth of the world’s reserves-

flourish in China,

spreading from the saturated delta to the mountains in the southern part of the country.”

Both the main action (“flourish”)and the present participle action following the comma at the end of the sentence (“spreading from…”) seem to be two different descriptions of exactly the “same event.” In both cases, we are discussing the 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves and where they reside.

Putting the actions of “flourish” and “spreads” into a Parallel List suggests that these are two different, perhaps sequential actions. This doesn’t seem to be the intended meaning. How do the 6M hectare of bamboo groves flourish? Further description seems to be provided at the end of the clause via “spreading from…”

Causation is not the only function of the “comma + -ing” modifier at the end of the sentence.

“Scott ate his dinner loudly, crunching and slurping the food.”

The cause of “crunching” and “slurping” is not the fact that Scott ate his dinner loudly. Both are descriptions of how/in what manner Scott ate his dinner.

To say that “spreading from…” does not describe how these groves “flourish” would seem to be a really tenuous argument. Although I suppose one could be made if one decided to really split hairs.

In any event, if we are going to split hairs over the modification at the end of the sentence in answer A, then why can’t the argument be made in answer D that:

“spreading…” potentially modifies “the world’s reserves” (it shouldn’t: logically it would seem that “spreading” should modify the entire noun phrase “one-fifth of the world’s reserves)

So then it seems as if we have two correct answers in A and D and only an analysis of “style” with which to use to eliminate either answer.

Stylistically, answer A puts most of the information into the end clause Adverbial Modifier (the “comma -ing” modifier). Whatever action occurs in this modifier should be subordinate to the main action in the sentence. However, a large portion of the sentence is placed within the modifier. This wouldn’t be a well written sentence by an author. (However, have any official examples completely turned on such an issue?)

Be that as it may, I’ve yet to see an official question proclaim that the end of the clause Participial Modifier separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma can be confused as modifying the noun that appears JUST before the comma.

And please, someone let me know that I am mistaken. I want to know whether I’ve missed a question and it’s takeaway.

Stylistically, in answer D, we have two rather large nonrestrictive noun modifiers back-to-back. It is not that this structure is wrong, but this type of structure is not something you see in a well written sentence (but who is to say that every official sentence is well written?).

It seems hard to argue that either A or D is superior to the other. Even at the highest level of the exam, I don’t believe the GMAT has ever written a question that completely turns on whether one answer’s style is better than another’s. There should be at least one concrete error with respect to meaning, grammar, etc. in the sentence, however subtle that error may be.

I would love to hear an expert’s opinion. Please let me know that I’m wrong.

Until then, I would caution anyone who is debating whether to use this practice question as part of his or her studies.

Edit: furthermore, if we were to say that the end of the clause “comma + -ing” modifier potentially modified “China,” we would end up with the following redundant structure:

… China, spreading from the saturated delta of the Yangtze to the borders of the Nanking mountains in the southern part of the COUNTRY.

How can we describe “China” as a country “spreading from X to T in the southern part of the COUNTRY.”

It doesn’t seem that this type of modification could even be logically possible, such that we could go against what seems like the “convention” of interpreting the “comma -ing” as modifying the Main Action & Subject of the preceding clause.



Posted from my mobile device

The modifier at the end of the (A) version clearly modifies the entire preceding clause and takes "Over 6M hectares of emerald bamboo groves" as its agent.


Exactly


Yes, either version is completely acceptable.


More interesting points.

Nice analysis.
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