A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as

A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church as indicated in its eastward orientation and by its overall plan, as well as artifacts, such as glass-oil lamp fragments, found at the site.

(A) A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church as indicated in its eastward orientation and by its overall plan, as well as
'as indicated in' is made parallel with 'as indicated by' which doesn't make sense
'as well as artifacts' is parallel to what in this option? Not very clear


(B) A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, once probably being a church, was indicated by its eastward orientation, overall plan, and
what is the role of bolded modifier in this option? not sure
Also if you by pass the modifier the sentence becomes "A runied structure was indicated by something" which ruins the meaning

(C) Indicating that a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church were its eastward orientation and overall plan, but also the
What is the subject in this option?
"It's eastward orientation and overall plan but also the artifact were indicating that " Here bold structure is the subject. This sentence is not written structure wise. I eliminated this option because of this.
Kindly refer someone else's explanation to eliminate I am not very clear why i eliminated this option myself. May be i just felt E was better

(D) A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as indicates its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the
Please note there is a subject verb agreement Error here. Bolded part is the subject in this option. This option is written in an inverted manner. The subject (bolded) is plural. It cannot use singular verb 'indicates'.

(E) That a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church is indicated by its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as by the
here parallelism is much better than other options. 'its eastward orientation and overall plan'- this section is the first element in the list. Please notice there is no comma before 'and'.
And the second element is 'by the artifacts'
The way to understand parallelism is as below:
(1)by
---its eastward direction
---and overall plan
(2) by
---artifacts

My answer (E)

AjiteshArun AndrewN
in option D if instead of indicates there will be 'indicate' it will be correct.
but why simple present tense is correct in this construction.

Hello, saby1410. How about we take a look at the sentence with answer choice (D) inserted? I will highlight the element in question.


To answer your question directly, no, this structure does not work, regardless of how the word indicate may appear. The reason is that the passive construct at the end hinges on three components, not two: as + [verb-ed] + by. In the active voice, yes, you could write a sentence that stated that A and B, as well as C, indicate or indicated something, but then the as would have to be cut out.

The reason the correct answer to the question is written in the simple present is that the evidence used to support the claim that a ruined structure was probably a church is being taken into account now, not in the past. If the sentence adopted the simple past in the main clause—was indicated—then we readers would understand that the indications were no longer present. (It would be hard to argue that the orientation of ruins and a plan for the original structure had changed over time.)

I hope that helps with your query. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

Can found come before the the noun to act like an adjective?
Ex. A 'talented' boy scored 770 on gmat.
Can there be any example where found is in front of noun boy in above example.

Hello Roy867,

I will be glad to respond to your question.


When we are uncertain of the conclusion, we do experiments, correct? So. let's do a small experiment with the usage of the adjective "found". First, let's write a sentence in which we will place this adjective before the noun - the way you want to see, kind of.

The found in an excavation chalice goes back to 600 AD.

OMG!! This sentence sounds terrible, does not it? What was found? Just cannot tell. Let's just tweak this sentence a bit.

The chalice found in an excavation goes back to 600 AD.

So smooth, isn't it. The sentence just flows like a clear stream, undisturbed.

So, the experiment is over, and the result is very obvious. It is difficult to use the adjective "found" before the noun it modifies. Can you see the reason why?

The reason is that the word "found" presents an action. This action needs to have a place or time or an agent/doer that is mentioned along with "found". This mention of the time or the place or the doer linked with "found" pushes the noun that it is meant to modify far-away. As a result, the sentence becomes jarring, and the meaning gets convoluted.

This official sentence also uses "found" with the location where this action happened - "at Aqaba". Therefore, the whole thing "found at Aqaba" simply sits after "a ruined structure" to keep the sentence flowing nicely.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hey blueberrypancake,

I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Here is my reply nonetheless. I am hoping that others can benefit from it as well.


Choice D: A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as indicates its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the: Yes, the parallelism is correct in this choice. But this choice has the most blatant error possible in an answer choice - the subject-verb number agreement error. I have highlighted the subjects in blue and the verbs in green.

The first subject-verb pair - A ruined structure...was - is absolutely perfect. Both are singular (and happily mingled). But the second subject-verb pair is not. The verb is singular - indicates - but the subject is plural - eastward orientation and overall plan.

So, what could be the reason you missed this error? I think the inverted Subject-Verb pair confused you here. It does confuse a lot of people. We are so used to seeing the subject first and the verb later that when their places are changed - the verb is written first and then the subject - we lose our way through the sentence. This not-so-frequently-used structure can throw us off.

So, the next obvious question will be - How to deal with this structure? The solution is simple. First, identify the verb. In this choice, the verb is "indicates". Good enough. Now let's ask who or what indicates something? This choice says that eastward orientation and overall plan indicate something. But hey, a singular verb for a plural subject? Just does not work. So, this structure is incorrect.

This calls for a little commercial here. We at e-GMAT teach our students in our Master Comprehension Course how to identify the correct Subject-Verb Pairs in the most complex of sentences.


Let's now move to the correct answer Choice E: That a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church is indicated by its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as by the: The precise answer to your question yes, a sentence can start with "that".

Did I hear you say when? DISCLAIMER: Things are going to get a little technical here.

The thing is when a clause acts as the subject for another clause, then the subject clause can start with "that", "which", "whoever", etc. If you notice here, the subject of the verb "is indicated" is the whole clause "That a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church". These words make a clause a dependent clause that can act as the subject of an independent clause. Please bear in mind that an independent clause can NEVER act as the subject of another independent clause. This is the reason why you see Choice E starts with "That".

Once again, at e-GMAT, we have a concept file that delves into this topic with various examples. We teach students how to deal with such structures.

Do let me know if the response helped.

Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi AndrewN,

Thank your for your explanation!
I chose the option (E) but felt hesitant about the option (A).

May I ask whether the structure "as indicated" in option (A) is acceptable?
I know that the use of the preposition "in" in "as indicated in" in (A) is not grammatical, but if it were "as indicated by," would it be good alone?

And, can we consider this phrase "as indicated by" an ellipsis version of "as (it is) indicated by"? A follow-up question: If we can, what does "it" refer to? There is no clear antecedent for "it."

I am always not sure about the structure of phrases beginning with "as," while clauses beginning with "as" are much more clear to me.... But, if we have "as indicated by X" versus "X indicates (noun/that clause) ," among the options, can we use the difference as a decision point?

Thanks in advance for your time and response!

Hello, GraceSCKao. Yes, as indicated by is a perfectly idiomatic construct in the passive voice. If the original sentence were rewritten in such a manner, I would still question the absence of by after the underlined portion—as well as by artifacts—a parallel feature we see in answer choice (E). I do not think the exam would be so nit-picky, but hypothetically speaking...

The phrase as indicated by is shorthand for as is indicated by, without it. I would not worry too much about the phrase, since the concise version is all that you would likely see on the exam, if at all. But when you do see an it that has no referent, chances are that it is used as a placeholder, a word that serves a grammatical purpose but does not hold any meaning. An everyday example from English is the sentence, It is cold outside. Certainly, it cannot refer to the outdoors or something similar, but we understand that the description pertains to weather.

Finally, your last question has more to do with the active voice versus the passive voice. Although the active voice can be more concise and direct, the exam has had its share of cases in which the passive voice has appeared in the correct sentence. I mean, this question alone serves as evidence. I would not eliminate an answer choice just because it was written in the passive voice. I might favor another option, but I would look to other points to make a more decisive call.

Thank you for following up. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Hi AndrewN,

Thank you so much for your elaboration!
I have some follow-up questions as the following and hope that you could share some ideas when you are available. Many thanks!



I was a bit surprised to know that "as indicated by" is actually shorthand for "as is indicated by"--does not the latter lack a subject? Considering that some hard SC questions involve the usage of "as," and I am confused with the usage, I hope that you could kindly tell me the full versions of the following examples:

1. As in the previous case, the judge took an early break. (source: Manhattan)
I suppose that the full version of this sentence is: As he did in the previous case, the judge took an early break. The subject and verb were left out.

2. Linking arrangements between secondary schools and the workplace never evolved in the United States as they did in most other developed countries. (source: OG, correct answer)
This is already a full version as we have a complete clause after "as."

3. In no other historical sighting did Halley's Comet cause such a worldwide sensation as in its return of 1910-1911. (source: OG, correct answer)
I suppose that the full version is: In no other historical sighting did Halley's Comet cause such a worldwide sensation as it did in its return of 1910-1911. So once again, the subject and verb were left out.

Back to the ruined church question, if the option (A) were revised into "A ruined structure found at Jordan was probably a church, as indicated by its A and B, as well as by C," what would be the full version of the second part? Could you elaborate more on this point?

Really appreciate your time and response.

Now I am remembering why I often remind people in the forum to stick to what is on the screen in front of them. That is, do not worry about every possible permutation of a concept the test could throw at you. Just work with the contextual information from the given sentence and the five answer choices that are present. Eliminate easy targets first, then deal with the harder stuff. Remember, the exam will consist of roughly 14 SC questions, and it is not a test of as phrases or clauses. You might see just one such question, maybe none. Cross that bridge when you may come to it.

As phrases and clauses have changed in usage over time. In many cases, the expanded version—e.g., As it is written... for As written...—sounds quite antiquated and stilted, as though it could have come from the Constitution. Such concerns go beyond the scope of the test, although they can make for some interesting discussions on the side.

Relax. If you start to notice that you tend to miss as questions, then it is time to ask more questions.

- Andrew

IanStewart
I came back to this question after two months and found it really interesting.
I would like to share some of my ideas and questions about the options. Would appreciate if you could answer them when you are available.

-(A) A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church as indicated in its eastward orientation and by its overall plan, as well as

I am not a grammar enthusiast, but since so many SC questions involves the use of the phrases beginning with the word "as," I really hope to learn how we should understand such phrases.

1. Is the phrase "as indicated in..." an elliptical version of "as it was indicated in...." in which "it" refers to the subject of the main clause "structure"? Some books and experts have pointed out that sometimes the subject and verb can be omitted in the second part of the sentence if they are the subject and the verb of the main clause. An example would be "I walk as fast now as (I walked) when I was younger."

2. If the option (A) can be understood as "A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as it was indicated in its eastward orientation and by its overall plan, as well as the artifacts," will this option be correct in terms of meaning? The intended meaning of this sentence is that several items of evidence indicate the probable identity of the ruined structure, but the option (A) here would suggest that the structure itself was indicated in these several items of evidence. Isn't it kind of strange?

(I know that the option (A) has the parallelism issue because it does not use a preposition for the final item "artifacts," and we can use that to eliminate the option. But I am curious about the meaning issue as I hope to improve my ability to detect meaning errors.)

-(C) Indicating that a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church were its eastward orientation and overall plan, but also the

This sentence seems to use an inverted construction. Can we eliminate this option just because it uses an unnecessary inverted structure? For me, the bigger problem is the past progressive tense, since there is no reason to use this tense. Another problem might be the use of "but also," which usually requires "not only." But I am less assertive about this idiom after I practiced the OG "criminal activity" question whose correct answer uses "not only" without "but also."

-(D) A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as indicates its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the

I know that this option incorrectly uses a singular verb "indicates" for plural subjects--orientation, plan and artifacts. But, would it be correct if it used a plural verb? If it were revised into "A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the artifacts indicate," would it be correct in terms of meaning? If it could, does the word "as" still convey the meaning of comparison?

(I know a better construction would be "The ruined structure's eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the artifacts indicate that the structure was probably a church." But since such a straightforward and clear construction rarely shows up in GMAT, I hope to check the above complicated version.)

-(E) That a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church is indicated by its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as by the

The option (E) indeed is the best option, but I wonder how "as well as" is different from "and."

1. It has been pointed out that when "as well as" is used to connect the subjects, the sentence does not have a compound subject. Examples would be "Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc are to reveal their Q4 financial reports next week" versus "Apple Inc, as well as Amazon.com Inc, is to reveal the financial report next week." Because of this rule, it seems that the noun following "as well as" is less important than the preceding noun. In the option (E), is it true that the final item of evidence--artifacts--is less important than the first two items of evidence (orientation and plan)?

Is the following summary correct?
"That XXX is indicated by A, B, and C": all the three items are equally important.
"That XXX is indicated by A and B, as well as by C": A and B are more important.

2. Even though "as well as" is different from "and" in terms of meaning, does it still have the same requirement for parallelism as "and"? I think this is why we still need a preposition in the option (A).

Ian, sorry that my question is so long and maybe a bit too detailed. I understand that each reply, especially those on points, takes time and efforts, so thank you very much if you are willing to answer them when you have time.

With short and common words like "as", there will be dozens of different ways to use them. It's true that we sometimes use "as" in phrases like "Alice is as strong as Mei", to make a comparison, but we use "as" in dozens of other ways, to mean "while" or "since" or "like", or as in this sentence, something like "a fact (that is)". Here, we're not using "as" in a comparison, so in this sentence you're trying to map a structure onto the sentence that isn't there:



Here you're introducing a new subject "it" that isn't in the original sentence, so this changes the meaning into something that doesn't make much sense (what is the "it" that is doing the "indicating"?). The distinction here is really between active and passive constructions: we can say "it was a church, as indicated by its orientation and plan", which is passive ("indicated by [the subjects]") or we can say "it was a church, as its orientation and plan indicate", which is active. But either way, it's "orientation and plan" that are doing the indicating, so they need to remain the subject of that verb. I'd add that you can immediately rule out answer A because it says "as was indicated in...", and if we're using a passive construction where we're immediately proceeding to mention the subject, we need to say "indicated by".



If the initial phrase was shorter or less complicated, I wouldn't find the inverted structure all that problematic. It's confusing to structure a sentence this way though when the opening phrase is this long, so while that one fact wouldn't lead me to definitively rule out this answer, I'd be hoping to find something better. There are other issues with this answer though, as you point out, that let us conclusively eliminate it. But, and this echoes what I said about "as" earlier, it's very possible to use "not only" without using "but also", and vice versa. There is an idiom where those two phrases go together, but there are meaningful ways to use either without the other as well. I find a lot of SC books are far too prescriptive about questions like this, when language is flexible and simple phrases can almost always be used in a variety of ways.



Yes, it seems to me it would be fine if the verb was plural, though as written, it's unusual, because it's uncommon (and a bit confusing) to put the subject after the verb, though that's not technically wrong in a situation like this. Your rephrasing is better (and I might prefer it to E, though I don't like the "as well as"). But to your last question, the "as" isn't used in a comparison here.

As for your questions about "as well as", that's yet another phrase that can be used in more than one way. Sometimes it does emphasize what comes first, placing less emphasis on what follows the "as well as". Often it's really just used as a substitute for "and". And sometimes it means what it almost literally means, "equally much as". In this particular sentence, to my reading it functions like "and", but it's used because "and" already separates "orientation" and "plan", and "orientation and plan" are two similar items, while "artifacts" is a different type of thing. So for clarity, they use the structure "[X and Y] as well as [Z]" instead of "[X and Y] and [Z]", which could be confusing with the string of "ands".

Ian, thank you so much!!!
I always learn a lot with your posts and explanations!

I did feel that the word "as" does not convey the meaning of comparison in the option (A) or (D), but since I thought that the word, when used as a conjunction, can convey only three meanings: duration (="while"), causation (="because") and comparison, I had trouble understanding the role it plays in the two options.

I am a bit surprised to know that the word "as" can also mean something like "the fact (that) (is)," but this definition does make sense in the two options. The Cambridge Dictionary does not list this definition, but the Merriam-Webster dictionary does (and it says that "as" is used as a pronoun here). So now I understand why it is okay to say "it was a church, as (is) indicated by its orientation and plan" or "it was a church, as its orientation and plan indicate." Thank you so much for helping me learn more about the word "as"!

Also thank you for your other explanations on inverted structures and idioms "but also" and "as well as" !

Didn't understand the parallelism issue in option D. Request you to please throw some more light. EMPOWERgmatVerbal

...as indicates A as well as B - looks fine
A= its eastward orientation and overall plan
B= the artifacts

I understand there is a different issue (plural "indicate" is needed), but parallelism issue is not clear to me.

AndrewN - Can you please help me understand the parallelism issue? Thanks

Hello, Pankaj0901. Your query is directed more to EMPOWERgmatVerbal than to me, so I will refrain from stepping into someone else's shoes. Also, if you do not see a parallelism problem in answer choice (D), then stop worrying about it. If you walked away with the right answer and had some compelling reason to eliminate the other options, what difference does it make? Everyone who posts calls attention to the issues as they see them, nothing more. I promise you there is not some hidden SC secret that you are missing out on if an Expert says something and you cannot see it.

- Andrew

Hi, could you please help confirm if the sentence structures used in choices A, C and D are correct? Mainly concerned about the underlined portion. Although I got this question right, the relatively different construction(clause as subject) threw me off, so wanted to understand how this construction works.

I understand that there are other issues such as, parallelism error in A/C, verb tense error in C or subject-verb error in D, but wanted to deep dive into just the sentence construction in this post

Opt A: A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church as indicated in its eastward orientation and by its overall plan, as well as

X was Y as indicated in A and by B, as well as C

Verb: indicated
Subject: X was Y

Q#1: Assuming this sentence has a passive construction, doesnt' "indicated" require a helping verb- is/was?
Q#2: Assuming "X was Y" is an independent clause- can an IC act as a subject? Is this construction correct?

Opt C: Indicating that a ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church were its eastward orientation and overall plan, but also the

Indicating that X was Y were A and B, but also C

Verb: were indicating
Subject: A and B, but also C
Object: that X was Y

Q#3: is the above understanding of S/V/O correct?
Q#4: Is it correct to assume that this sentence has an inverted construction, and is the construction correct?

Opt D: A ruined structure found at Aqaba, Jordan, was probably a church, as indicates its eastward orientation and overall plan, as well as the

X was Y, as indicates A and B, as well as C

Verb: indicates
Subject: A and B, as well as C
Object: X was Y

Q#5: is the above understanding of S/V/O correct?
Q#6: Is it correct to assume that this sentence has an inverted construction as well, and is the construction correct?

That a ruined structure was probably a church is indicated by its
1. eastward orientation and
2. overall plan, as well as
3. by the artifacts, such as glass oil-lamp fragments,
found at the site.

Those three elements are not parallel, right?
I was expecting the below structure.
1. eastward orientation and
2. overall plan, as well as
3. the artifacts


According to many other official questions, the usage of as well as, with and, entails its element to be parallel with elements coordinated by and.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/because-many ... 68572.html
Marsupials are cute and cuddly, as well as biologically different. => cute, cuddly, and biologically different are all parallel.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/early-admini ... 42622.html
Early administrative decisions caused
1. a drastic fall in tax revenues,
2. a reduction in military preparedness, and
3. the collapse of the currency system, as well as
4. a failure to make sufficient investments in vital transportation infrastructure.
All the above elements are parallel.

Please clarify.
Thanks in advance!