In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure

Altair
In the interest of academic elucidation, could I seek a few clarifications?

1. Why do you think we cannot use "raising" as a noun modifier in this example…

2. If it were a verb modifier, there would have been a comma before the verbing; the logical follow up question then is as to what is the verb or action that the participle modifies and who is the doer of the action, because adverbial modifiers modify the entire previous clause meaning that there should be a legitimate subject and verb in the prior part.

3. To make life simple, who or what is raising the humidity within them.

Hi

daagh GMATNinja egmat Souvik EMPOWERgmatVerbal

I have a question regarding option D.

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

Isn't the verb-ing modifier 'raising' incorrect ? It is being used as noun modifier where as it should be as a verb modifier ?

generis


I was told that in such questions replace due to [b]WITH [/b] caused by and see whether the sentence makes a sense. If No, reject all options having "due to".

This is why I rejected A and B. Is it correct??

(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing
1: Modifier Error - which refers to tourists
2: Pronoun Number - "its" should refer to "chambers" - thus number error.
3: Meaning - Use of "due to" implies that the closure of chambers was caused by moisture. This is not correct because closure was caused by the effect of the moisture as explained in choice E.

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize
1: Verb tense - had exhaled is incorrect verb tense.
2: Parallelism - "salt would crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".
3: Meaning - Use of "due to" implies that the closure of chambers was caused by moisture. This is not correct because closure was caused by the effect of the moisture as explained in choice E.

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize
1: Verb Tense - " were exhaling" is incorrect verb tense; "had raised" is incorrect verb tense.
2: Parallelism - "salt would crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize
1: Modifier Error - "raising humidity" appears to modify "tourists" - incorrect
2: Parallelism - "salt crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing
Correct.

Hi,

Can someone please explained why had raised for C is incorrect but not in E?

I wonder what you mean by saying tourists loose the significance as it is out of scope

coming back to the pronoun reference issue -- I think the reason THEM refers to tourists in C and D and not in E
is that in C and D there is an intervening Clause which introduces TOURISTS in such a way that it can act as a more proximate antecedent (than chambers); recall that a pronoun refers to the nearest logical antecedent

In C -- it says -- Tourists WERE exhaling moisture ---- hence TOURISTS can act as a subject in its own right.

In D -- it says -- because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists -- again here even though the subject of the relative clause introduced by THAT is MOISTURE yet THEM cannot refer to moisture but instead refers to the predicate of the clause (Tourists) in this case.

In E if you notice because moisture exhaled by tourists cannot position tourist as a likely antecedent (because 'tourists' is part of a phrase and hence cannot stand on its own as a subject).

I am not sure if I was able to explain. Let me know if you need further explanation and I will try to explain again.

To be sure --- C and D have other problems which made eliminating them a lot easier -- to the extent that I had missed the pronoun reference entirely -- until you pointed it out.

Regards

In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.


(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.


(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

In option B, is the use of comma verb-ing wrong?

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity

I'm not sure what ", thereby raising" is modifying. I think it is not modifying the previous clause (the chambers were closed to visitors). It doesn't make sense with the subject of previous clause also. And neither does it provide any cause and effect relationship nor does it answer the "How?" question.

Also, in option D, "so high as to" is used. What does this mean? Can you share some example? Is it used to show intention?

Hello experts,

In option B, is the use of comma verb-ing wrong?

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity

I'm not sure what ", thereby raising" is modifying. I think it is not modifying the previous clause (the chambers were closed to visitors). It doesn't make sense with the subject of previous clause also. And neither does it provide any cause and effect relationship nor does it answer the "How?" question.

Does it make sense because it is providing additional information? If yes, then can it not make sense with the subject of the previous clause, which is "Chambers", and still be fine?


Also, in option D, "so high as to" is used. What does this mean? Can you share some example? Is it used to show intention?


Thank you in advance!

VeritasKarishma GMATNinja EducationAisle AndrewN ChiranjeevSingh AjiteshArun

The problem with (B) starts with the use of "due to"

The chambers were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture ..., thereby raising its humidity...

So the cleaning and repair were due to moisture? No. Damage can be due to moisture, not repair. Nothing after that makes any sense.

(E) The chambers were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair because moisture had raised the humidity ...
This is correct.

Check this link for a 'so as to' example:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/often-major- ... 94376.html

Thanks for replying! I have a follow up question. Can you please help?

Can't due to modify "were closed". It makes sense to say that the chambers were closed due to moisture. What is the problem with this?

Thanks!

In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.


(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing