Pack 9 Q5: Authored shortly after World War Two, Victor Frankl's...

Question

Pack 9, Question 5 of 5:

Authored shortly after World War Two,  Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive to be the result of  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times.

A. Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive to be the result of
B. Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive to result from
C. Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive to
D. in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948), Victor Frankl accredited man’s drive to stay alive to have been the result of
E. Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948), accredited man’s drive to stay alive to

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MrSengupta · Answer

The correct answer is (B) since the "to result from" is the correct way to say.

thenikhilseth · Answer

I think the right answer is  E  option.

Area tested here - Modifiers and idiom.
Now Authored is past participle of Author, I think it can modify a person only.
So I eliminate A,B and C because Authored is modifying The books of Victor Frankl.

Now in D and E, I find Credit X to Y as a better idiom. I choose E over D because i Find that Authored is modifying Victor Frankl.

josetm12 · Answer

"Authored shortly after ..." needs to modify something that can be authored. A book.

Hence, D and E are out.

I believe that accredited will behave similar to attributed in that they should both be of the form:
... attributed X to Y...

Only C is correct.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation

Authored shortly after World War Two,  Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive to be the result of  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times.

A.  Victor Frankl’s  Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive  to be the result of  
 B.  Victor Frankl’s  Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive  to result from  
 C.  Victor Frankl’s  Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948) accredited man’s drive to stay alive  to  
 D.  in  Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948), Victor Frankl accredited man’s drive to stay alive  to have been the result of  
 E.  Victor Frankl,  in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948), accredited man’s drive to stay alive  to

This question deals with two issues. The first is the correct use of commas and modifiers. The second is proper idiom format, being “accredited A to B.”

Since idioms tend to be easier to deal with than modifiers, let’s start with that. The proper idiom is  “accredited A to B.”  Let’s eliminate any options that don’t follow that format. To make it easier to spot, let’s add in the non-underlined end of the sentence:

A) Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948)  accredited  man’s drive to stay alive  to be the result of  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times. → accredited X to be the result of Y =  WRONG

B) Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948)  accredited  man’s drive to stay alive  to result from  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times. → accredited X to result from Y =  WRONG

C) Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948)  accredited  man’s drive to stay alive  to  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times. → accredited X to Y =  OKAY

D) in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948), Victor Frankl  accredited  man’s drive to stay alive  to have been the result of  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times. → accredited X to have been the result of Y =  WRONG

E) Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948),  accredited  man’s drive to stay alive  to  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times. → accredited X to Y =  OKAY

We can eliminate options A, B, & D because they don’t follow the idiom “attributed X to Y.”  Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 choices, let’s focus our attention on modifiers and commas. We need to make sure the modifiers and antecedents match up and are next to each other, and we also need to check if there are any comma issues. Again, to make problems easier to spot let’s add in the non-underlined portions:

C) Authored shortly after World War Two,   Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948)  accredited man’s drive  to  stay alive to  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times.
This is our  CORRECT  choice! The modifier “Authored shortly after World War Two” is placed directly before the two books that were authored, so that’s good. There aren’t any additional commas to deal with, and the idiom is correct.

E) Authored shortly after World War Two,   Victor Frankl ,  in Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) and The Unconscious God (1948 ), accredited man’s drive to stay alive to  the desire to find significance in life during even the most arduous of times.
This is  INCORRECT  for a couple reasons. First, the modifier “Authored shortly after World War Two” is right next to Victor Frankl, and NOT his books. Since a writer cannot be “authored,” this is a misplaced modifier. Second, the commas on either side of the book titles makes them non-essential clauses. This means we should be able to take out this phrase without changing the meaning - but if we do, we’ve taken out the thing that is “authored!” This information IS essential to the intended meaning, so it shouldn’t have commas surrounding it.

There you have it - option C is the correct choice!  By focusing first on the idiom, we could eliminate 3 options rather quickly before tackling the more complex issues with modifiers and commas!

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done, josetm12 ! You cracked the code on both the idiom and modifier issues! Kudos to you, and we look forward to more great explanations from you in our next pack of questions!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You were so close  thenikhilseth ! The term "authored" is a more formal way of saying "written." A person cannot be "authored" or "written" - only a piece of writing can be that. Therefore, you needed to eliminate any options that stated Frankl was the one being authored. Check out the official explanation for more on how to tackle this one, and we look forward to more great explanations from you in Pack 10, which starts today!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You were close,  MrSengupta ! Check out the official explanation in the comments to see how to tackle this question.

VerbalBot · Answer

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