Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur

Question

Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling".

A. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

B. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur who recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

C. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, the Schloss Hoheneck prison was recently purchased by an entrepreneur who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

D. An entrepreneur who recently purchased, overlooking a quaint eastern German village, the Schloss Hoheneck prison, plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

E. An entrepreneur, having recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison, overlooking a quaint eastern German village, plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

Edvento · Answer

Let us break down the original sentence to decipher its meaning:
1. The Schloss Hoheneck prison is overlooking the quaint eastern German village.
2. The prison was recently purchased by an entrepreneur
3. The entrepreneur plans to convert it (the prison) into a hotel where customers will pay $100 per night to experience the "irresistible jail-house feeling".

Now let's see whether the original sentence actually means the same.

Whenever a phrase starts with a modifier, look for the noun whether it agrees. The original sentence starts with "Overlooking"... what follows after the phrase should be a noun... an object/person that is overlooking the village. The original sentence means "The entrepreneur, overlooking the village, purchased the prison" --> which is wrong. Obviously it is not the entrepreneur, it is the prison that is overlooking the village. So options A and B are ruled out.

Option D has multiple phrases plugged together causing a confusion and a mess up of the original sentence. Ruled out.

Option E, similar to option D has multiple phrases plugged together that ultimately is saying that either the entrepreneur, the prison or the village is planning to convert "it" into a hotel. Rejected.

Option C correctly conveys the meaning of the sentence without any ambiguity.

narangvaibhav · Answer

IMO C .... Good question however the correct answer choice was easy to identify..

thevenus · Answer

please clarify (B) "overlooking" is modifying "the school" or "an entrepreneurship" ?
if (c) be the answer;
how can a school overlook? only a person(entrepreneurship can )

daagh · Answer

Very poorly transcribed. The portion starting from '' plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling" seems to be common to all the five choices. Then why underline it and frighten others? 
 
Aside from that, one must be careful while interpreting the meaning of the word overlooking. It might mean to ignore a fault or to look at something from a higher place. When overlook is used to denote seeing from a higher elevation, it is mostly used with permanent geographical features. Here a prison is overlooking a vintage and beautiful village.

Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"

A. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling" --  misplaced modification

B. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur who recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling" -  misplaced modification

C. Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, the Schloss Hoheneck prison was recently purchased by an entrepreneur who plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling"--  the correct choice, notwithstanding the passive voice.

D. An entrepreneur who recently purchased, overlooking a quaint eastern German village, the Schloss Hoheneck prison, plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling" ---  The adverbial modifier -, overlooking, wrongly modifies the entrepreneurs' of action of purchasing . It may also mean that the entrepreneur is overlooking. Both are wrong notions.

E. An entrepreneur, having recently purchased the Schloss Hoheneck prison, overlooking a quaint eastern German village, plans to convert it into a hotel where customers will pay over US$100 per night to sleep on a hard bed, eat poor-quality food, and experience what he calls that "irresistible jail-house feeling" --  Same problem as in D.

thevenus wrote:

Hi
There is no school mentioned anywhere in the topic. There is only a vintage prison. The word 'Schloss' is the name of the prison. Similarly, there is no word as 'entrepreneurship'. There is only 'entrepreneur". 
This is a good question for practice on modification, especially choices D and E.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Overlooking a quaint eastern German village, an entrepreneur

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards