Over the past ten years cultivated sunflowers have become a major comm

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop and are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• Information that is important to the core meaning of the sentence must not be placed between commas.

A: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil", conveying the intended meaning - that cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop and are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil. Further, Option A avoids the grammatical construction error seen in Option D, as it places no information between commas. Besides, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "second...only as a source of vegetable oil"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that only in the context of being a source of vegetable oil are sunflowers second to soybeans; the intended meaning is that only soybeans are a better source of vegetable oil than sunflowers are. Further, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase "second...in importance", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; this usage is redundant, as "in importance" can be deleted without a loss of clarity.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "being second in importance"; the use of the present participle ("verb+ing" - "being" in this sentence) after a comma incorrectly implies that cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, and as a result are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil; the intended meaning is that cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, and as a separate action are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil. Further, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase "second...in importance", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; this usage is redundant, as "in importance" can be deleted without a loss of clarity.

D: This answer choice incorrectly places information important to the core meaning of the sentence -- the fact that it is in the context of being a source of vegetable oil that sunflowers are second to soybeans, between two commas; please remember, information that is important to the core meaning of the sentence must not be placed between commas.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "as a source...soybeans"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, in the role of a source of vegetable oil that is second only to soybeans the intended meaning is that cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, and as a separate action are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between Commas" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Errors to look into..
1) placement of ONLY
Only is supposed to modify/limit "second to soybeans', so it should follow second
2) as a source of vegetable oil ... Has to modify soybeans or cultivated sunflowers directly

Let's see each choice..

Over the past ten years cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.


A. second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil
Correctly uses both modifiers - only and source of...
Also "second only to...." Correctly modifies the main statement.

B. second in importance to soybeans only as a source of vegetable oil
Placement of only is wrong. Additional words used not correct.

C. being second in importance only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil
Placement of ONLY know means, sunflowers are second in importance only and maybe behind other fields.. not something that the original sentence means
Being is wordy

D. which, as a source of vegetable oil, is only second to soybeans
Which is wrongly used..
Now commercial crop is being modified by AS a source.....

E. as a source of vegetable oil only second to soybeans
Wrong use of modifiers

A

NEW question from GMAT® Official Guide 2019

(SC01507)

Over the past ten years cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop, second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.

X is second only to Y : X is 2nd and Y is before X. there is no one else before X other than Y. Here Only give more emphasis or importance to Y.

X is only second to Y: X is second to Y. But there may be some one before Y. Here emphasis is on "second".

With this in mind. Let's do POE.

A. second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil
This conveys the intended meaning. Soyabean is first and Sunflower is second cultivated corp. HOLD on to it

B. second in importance to soybeans only as a source of vegetable oil
It shifts the preference aspect to - "as a source of vegetable oil".
Or at best it is ambiguous here. Eliminate.

C. being second in importance only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.
Use of importance is unnecessary.

D. which, as a source of vegetable oil, is only second to soybeans
It is changing the preference as discussed before.

E. as a source of vegetable oil only second to soybeans.
Here again it creates ambiguous reference to "as a source of vegetable oil". This is not the intended meaning

A is best of All.

IMO - A.

Please feel free to ask questions!!

D. which, as a source of vegetable oil, is only second to soybeans
Two things are wrong in D.
1. 'Which' must logically refer to Sunflower. But it is unable to do so overriding the verb 'have become. So the relative pronoun has to modify the unintended 'crop' which distorts the meaning. 2. As pointed out, the limiting modifier 'only' should be placed just before whet it modifies namely 'soybeans' and not 'second.'

Hi guys, sorry for asking more basic question here.

I chose A - but difficult for me to explain what do we call a part after comma? Is it a modifier or something else?

Sorry; is still not clear. How is this a noun phrase? what is the noun present? "Second" is an adverb.

GMATNinja mikemcgarry could you weigh in your opinion please?
We're trying to figure out the role of the Comma + "second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil" portion of the sentence. Thanks!

I wouldn't expend a lot of mental energy worrying about the proper grammatical term. It's more important that you understand what the relevant piece of the sentence is doing, and whether that function makes sense.

Take a simple example with a similar construction:

Jen, the second runner to cross the finish line, collapsed in a heap of exhaustion and decided to give up all forms of running forever.

The phrase "the second runner to cross the finish line" is modifying "Jen," so that phrase is functioning as a kind of adjective. You could call it an appositive if you really like jargon. And if you really want to torment yourself, you could think deeply about the difference between appositive and absolute phrases. But those distinctions aren't going to be terribly helpful on the GMAT. We just care about what the word or phrase in question is modifying and whether this modification creates a logical meaning.

Back to the OA: Here, "second only to soybeans..." seems to be modifying "sunflowers," so, again, it's functioning as a kind of adjective. It doesn't matter what we call the phrase; what matters is that it makes sense. After soybeans, the best source of vegetable oil is sunflowers. Perfectly reasonable. Others have commented on the importance of the placement of certain words within the modifying phrase, such as "only," and this is where you should focus your attention when you're evaluating the answer choices.

Bottom line: don't worry about what the components of a sentence are called. Worry about what they're doing.

I hope this helps!

Hi, I have a quick doubt here.
According to my understanding of modifiers, only participial modifiers modify the entire preceding clause. Here, A,B,D,E are not participial and C is.

Therefore, shouldn't C be the answer? Since all others are modifying "major commercial crops" whereas only C is modifying cultivated sunflowers??

Thanks

Consider this example:

"Cultivated sunflowers have become a major commercial crop that is imported by many countries."

The "that" clause directly modifies "major commercial crop". But what "major commercial crop" are we talking about here? Cultivated sunflowers. So even though the "that" clause doesn't modify "cultivated sunflowers" directly, it still describes the sunflowers.

We have something similar in choice (A). Yes, the underlined portion modifies "major commercial crop" -- but which "major commercial crop"? Cultivated sunflowers.

I hope that helps!

I realize that this is not part of the underlined portion, but can someone please explain why there is no comma needed after "over the past ten years"? Thank you in advance!

Hello, annblu781. You pose a good question, one that cannot be answered without drawing attention to the arbitrary nature of human language. The convention—note, I am not saying rule here—is that an introductory phrase may or may not be followed by a comma if it is short enough to allow the meaning of the sentence to be clearly expressed without the comma, particularly when the phrase is temporal in nature. The cutoff is usually about five words in length. I myself prefer the comma for the sake of consistency, but that is just me. Some examples:

a) In 1969, humans walked on the moon for the first time in history.
b) In 1969 humans walked on the moon for the first time in history.

c) After the game, you should come over.
d) After the game you should come over.

e) Atop the shelf, the book gathered dust.
f) Atop the shelf the book gathered dust.

All of this is to say that over the past ten years straddles that five-word, no-comma cutoff. If there were an extra word or two tossed in, I would expect to see a comma to create a natural pause within a longer sentence, but then again, the omission of a comma would not exactly astound me.

Thank you for allowing your curiosity to seek out an answer. I wish I had something more definitive for you, but such an answer does not exist on the issue, at least not when it comes to breaking down English. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

GMATNinja, can you explain the difference between choice A and C ? Using a participle phrase seems apt, the subject of being - sunflowers

Imagine you were asked to choose between the following two sentences:

(1) Tim, who finished second to Mike in the triathlon, felt such intense shame that he resolved to retire from such races entirely.

(2) Tim, being the person who finished second among all the competitors in the triathlon, losing only to Mike, felt such intense shame that he resolved to retire from such races entirely.

You probably wouldn't hesitate to say that 1 is the better option, right? Why would you write "being the person who finished second" when you could just write the far cleaner, "who finished second?" Why specify that Tim was second "among all the competitors?" As opposed to what? Finishing in second when including spectators?

The upshot is that the two sentences communicate more or less the same information, but the second one is stuffed with unnecessary words. So while 2 might not have a technical error, 1 is better.

Same deal in choosing between (A) and (C). The only real difference is that (C) contains "being second in importance" while (A) uses the single word "second." The "being" surely doesn't add anything. And the "in importance," if anything, makes the sentence more confusing. (A) makes it clear: soybeans are the number one source of vegetable oil and sunflowers are number two. So what does it mean to be second "in importance?" Does that mean it's the second most commonly used? Does it mean that it's second in cultural significance? Second tastiest? Who knows?

So if your choice is between the clean, concise (A), and the wordier, more confusing (C), it's no contest. (A) is better, even if (C) doesn't contain a grammatical error.

I hope that clears things up!

Hello experts
VeritasKarishma sayantanc2k

I went through all explanations posted by experts but could not understand what different meaning is conveyed by option A and option E.
can you please through some light on the meaning of option E ?

THANKS.

The sentence wants to tell us:
Sunflowers are second only to soybeans as a source of vegetable oil.

This means that soybeans and sunflowers, both are sources of vegetable oil. Sunflowers are a great source of vegetable oil and rank less than only soybeans (which are a greater source). Sunflowers rank above everyone else.
This is the meaning of "second only to".

The usage of "only second" is incorrect. Sunflowers are only second to soybeans. This means sunflowers are not the best. They are not as great a source as soybeans. This also tells us nothing about sunflowers compared with other sources. "Only second" is in a way demeaning the sunflowers.
This is not the intended meaning since the sentence tells us that sunflowers have become a major commercial crop. Hence, they must be higher ranking than many others. There is no contrast mentioned in the sentence.

Also, "as a source of vegetable oil" is more meaningful once you have introduced "second only to soybeans". It describes in what capacity it is better than all others and second only to soybeans.

Hence only (A) makes sense.

GMATNinja, could you please explain instances when only modifies noun that precedes and follows it?

Hello tkorzhan1995,

We hope this finds you well.

One point of clarification - here, the phrase "second only" does not modify two nouns. Rather, the entire phrase "second only to soybeans" modifies "major commercial crop", conveying that in some respect ("as a source of vegetable oil") only "soybeans" surpass the crop.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team