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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co

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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 17 Oct 2018, 05:41
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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.


(A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

(B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

(C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

(D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring

(E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured


Verbal Question of The Day: Day 49: Sentence Correction


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Originally posted by souvik101990 on 06 Jul 2017, 21:11.
Last edited by Bunuel on 17 Oct 2018, 05:41, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   06 Jul 2017, 21:12
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A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

I'm not crazy about the "which" here: it seems to be modifying "empire", and that's not quite right. I guess that the "which" modifier could plausibly "reach behind" the prepositional phrase and modify "the long decline of their empire." If you think this is reasonable, you could hang onto (A) initially, but as we'll see in a moment, there are better options below. (And for more on exceptions to the "touch rule" for noun modifiers, check out our Topic of the Week on "that".)

Also, the verb tenses are the same throughout the sentence ("took control", "marked", "stopped", "ensured", and that's not ideal, because the actions logically took place at different points in the past. Again, you could be conservative about this, but we have better options below. Eliminate (A).

Quote:
B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

"They sieged... in Vienna" isn't great here -- I think it's reasonable to say something like "the army's siege of Vienna" or maybe "the army sieged Vienna", but as written, it's not really clear what, exactly, is being "sieged." A bakery in Vienna? A coffeehouse? A neighborhood? Who knows?

"This" is also incorrect. In normal speech, we sometimes treat "this" like a pronoun, but I've never seen a correct GMAT sentence that uses "this" as a pronoun. It can be an article that introduces a noun ("this book", "this week"), but not a pronoun.

Plus, the verb tense issue we discussed in (A) is still a problem with (B). So we can eliminate (B).

Quote:
C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

I like the verbs here: "had taken control" logically happens before "their unsuccessful siege... marked". And then "stopping" and "ensuring" are modifiers -- and that makes sense, since those two phrases give us more information about the preceding clause. Keep (C).

Quote:
D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring

Now we're getting a little bit overzealous with the past perfect tense: if we look at the sentence strictly and literally, "had taken control" and "had been unsuccessful" must describe two actions that happen before some other action in the past. What's that other action? "Were led by Suleiman II"?? That makes no sense at all.

Plus, the parallelism is pretty odd here. I'm not sure that it makes sense for "marking", "stopping", and "ensuring" to all take the form of parallel modifiers. Eliminate (D).

Quote:
E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

The parallelism definitely doesn't make any sense in (E). The last few actions ("marked", "stopped" and "ensured") describe the consequences of the unsuccessful siege. There are plenty of different ways we could make this work, but those four verbs really shouldn't be parallel to each other.

(C) makes much more sense than (E), and it is our winner.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   07 Jul 2017, 00:36
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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

The topic revolves around the reference of pronouns, usage of tense, and maintenance of parallelism.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured -- 'which' refers to the empire and is wrong

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring --- 'This' has no specific referent. Wrong.

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring --- the correct choice with proper parallelism.

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring ---1. 'Had been' unsuccessful is the wrong tense as the failure happened much later. 2. The repetition of the Ottoman Turks for both the subclause and the main clause is un-stylistic.

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured -- 1. The use of simple past for all that happened after they had taken control is wrong.2. It is not clear how one can unsuccessfully siege something 3. The repetition of the Ottoman Turks is un-stylistic
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   06 Jul 2017, 21:30
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souvik101990 wrote:

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 49: Sentence Correction


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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

Every question of the day will be followed by an expert reply by GMATNinja in 12-15 hours. Stay tuned! Post your answers and explanations to earn kudos.



Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, [color=#00a651]their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring[/color]

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring Siege ensured all of these not Ottoman Turks

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured Meaning issue (Siege not Ottoman Turks)

Between B & C i will go with C
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   06 Jul 2017, 22:28
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souvik101990 wrote:

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 49: Sentence Correction


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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

Every question of the day will be followed by an expert reply by GMATNinja in 12-15 hours. Stay tuned! Post your answers and explanations to earn kudos.


A. "Which" modifies empire --> wrong

B. It is not clear what "this" refers to.

Connector "and" joins 2 independent events/things. 2 actions "sieged" and "marked" are intended to be related. So the use of "and" is incorrect.

If the 2 events are related, then "and" should go with "thus/therefore" instead of "this"

D. Sieging, marking, stopping, and ensuring are NOT supposed to be parallel --> wrong.

E. Seiged, marked, stopped, and ensured are NOT supposed to be parallel --> wrong.

C. Connector "although" successfully joins 2 related clauses.

"Stopping" and "ensuring" clearly modify the action of the preceding clause [action = "marked...."]

Everything looks good.

IMO C.

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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   07 Jul 2017, 00:17
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It is C for below highlights and reasons

Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured - unsuccessful siege stopped the advance not empire, hence incorrect

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring - the bold portion is wordy and awkward, moreover 'under the leadership' is precise then led by

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring - Correct choice, stopping n ensuring is parallel, after empire VERB-ING shows the result of unsuccessful siege of Veina and is modifying the preceding clause correctly

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring -'had been unsuccessful' not required since Turks took control prior to being successful and past perfect has been correctly used in that case. Also Comma not required after Europe since AND is connecting the 2 clauses

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured - Use of ED form for in place of ING form for stopping and Ensuring changes the meaning of the sentence.

Please give KUDOS if my post helps you. Thanks
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   07 Jul 2017, 01:21
A. which stopped the advance of Islam, What is which is not clear. Modifier is incorrect
B this marked the beginning. ....again this marked is not clear. what is this here. Somewhere makes the sentence awkward. Their siege has marked the long decline in original sentence, but here they sieged and this marked is unnecessary lengthy
C. seems correct. Correct usage of past perfect. Ottoman Turks had taken control of Rhodes and other islands before unsuccessful siege of Vienna. Two related events at different time. Stopping and ensuring correct parallelism.
D. who were led - unnecessary and awkward, repetition of Ottoman Turks. A pronoun could have been used. had been unsuccessful...had is not required here.
E. changes the meaning of original sentence. Unsuccessfully sieged is meaningless. The unsuccessful siege had an effect which is not clear here.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   07 Jul 2017, 16:37
The complete C would look like:
C) Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

I am still struggling how "their" refers back to Turks and is not ambiguous? Can it not refer back to Rhodes?
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   07 Jul 2017, 22:49
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sevenplusplus wrote:
The complete C would look like:
C) Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

I am still struggling how "their" refers back to Turks and is not ambiguous? Can it not refer back to Rhodes?


Hi sevenplusplus,

Good question.

When you are concerned about PRONOUN AMBIGUITY, you just need to ask:

1. Are there any nouns that the pronoun refers to?

YES. There are 3 CANDIDATES that "their" could refer to: Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands.

2. Does the pronoun agree with its antecedent(s)?

YES. "Their" = plural. Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands, ech of these = plural

3. Which CANDIDATE is appropriate?

The answer is that you need to consider the Role/Priority of each CANDIDATE:

Ottoman Turks = Subject [of the sentence]

Rhodes = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of Rhodes]

islands = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of the largest Mediterranean islands]

--> "Ottoman Turks" is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the other two nouns. In other words, "Ottoman Turks" plays the most important role in the sentence, compared to the other two nouns.

--> "Their" is supposed to refer back to "Ottoman Turks"

In addition, GMAT tolerates the above PRONOUN AMBIGUITY ISSUE as long as the pronoun and its antecedent agree to each other and make sense together.

Any other thoughts?

Correct me if I was wrong.

Thanks.

Just my 2 cents :)
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   08 Jul 2017, 00:46
SISDIT wrote:
sevenplusplus wrote:
The complete C would look like:
C) Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

I am still struggling how "their" refers back to Turks and is not ambiguous? Can it not refer back to Rhodes?


Hi sevenplusplus,

Good question.

When you are concerned about PRONOUN AMBIGUITY, you just need to ask:

1. Are there any nouns that the pronoun refers to?

YES. There are 3 CANDIDATES that "their" could refer to: Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands.

2. Does the pronoun agree with its antecedent(s)?

YES. "Their" = plural. Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands, ech of these = plural

3. Which CANDIDATE is appropriate?

The answer is that you need to consider the Role/Priority of each CANDIDATE:

Ottoman Turks = Subject [of the sentence]

Rhodes = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of Rhodes]

islands = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of the largest Mediterranean islands]

--> "Ottoman Turks" is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the other two nouns. In other words, "Ottoman Turks" plays the most important role in the sentence, compared to the other two nouns.

--> "Their" is supposed to refer back to "Ottoman Turks"

In addition, GMAT tolerates the above PRONOUN AMBIGUITY ISSUE as long as the pronoun and its antecedent agree to each other and make sense together.

Any other thoughts?

Correct me if I was wrong.

Thanks.

Just my 2 cents :)


Thanks for the reply.
Well my concern is that if we go about prioritizing and finding the most appropriate antecedent, there would never be a wrong answer due to ambiguous pronoun....would there be? I am sure you have seen questions where we eliminated an answer choice just because there were more than one antecedents. I am struggling to grasp when to be lenient and when not.


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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   08 Jul 2017, 01:32
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sevenplusplus wrote:
SISDIT wrote:
sevenplusplus wrote:
The complete C would look like:
C) Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

I am still struggling how "their" refers back to Turks and is not ambiguous? Can it not refer back to Rhodes?


Hi sevenplusplus,

Good question.

When you are concerned about PRONOUN AMBIGUITY, you just need to ask:

1. Are there any nouns that the pronoun refers to?

YES. There are 3 CANDIDATES that "their" could refer to: Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands.

2. Does the pronoun agree with its antecedent(s)?

YES. "Their" = plural. Ottoman Turks, Rhodes, and islands, ech of these = plural

3. Which CANDIDATE is appropriate?

The answer is that you need to consider the Role/Priority of each CANDIDATE:

Ottoman Turks = Subject [of the sentence]

Rhodes = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of Rhodes]

islands = Noun in Prepositional Phrase [of the largest Mediterranean islands]

--> "Ottoman Turks" is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the other two nouns. In other words, "Ottoman Turks" plays the most important role in the sentence, compared to the other two nouns.

--> "Their" is supposed to refer back to "Ottoman Turks"

In addition, GMAT tolerates the above PRONOUN AMBIGUITY ISSUE as long as the pronoun and its antecedent agree to each other and make sense together.

Any other thoughts?

Correct me if I was wrong.

Thanks.

Just my 2 cents :)


Thanks for the reply.
Well my concern is that if we go about prioritizing and finding the most appropriate antecedent, there would never be a wrong answer due to ambiguous pronoun....would there be? I am sure you have seen questions where we eliminated an answer choice just because there were more than one antecedents. I am struggling to grasp when to be lenient and when not.


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Hi sevenplusplus,

From what I have observed GMAT SC questions in terms of PRONOUN AMBIGUITY, I think that PRONOUN AMBIGUITY is NOT an absolute rule.

So, regarding to when to be lenient and when not, in my opinion there would be NO fixed rule for this. As long as I know how pronouns work, as I mentioned in the previous reply, I rely on the context of the question to determine the best option [In my opinion, the best option is NOT the one that has no trivial ambiguities since I think GMAT tolerates these ambiguities]

Just my 2 cents.

I would appreciate if experts shed some light on this :)
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   17 Nov 2017, 20:39
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SISDIT wrote:
From what I have observed GMAT SC questions in terms of PRONOUN AMBIGUITY, I think that PRONOUN AMBIGUITY is NOT an absolute rule.

So, regarding to when to be lenient and when not, in my opinion there would be NO fixed rule for this. As long as I know how pronouns work, as I mentioned in the previous reply, I rely on the context of the question to determine the best option [In my opinion, the best option is NOT the one that has no trivial ambiguities since I think GMAT tolerates these ambiguities]

Just my 2 cents.

I would appreciate if experts shed some light on this :)

You're 100% correct, SISDIT! Pronoun ambiguity is NOT an absolute rule. In some questions, the correct answer has an arguably ambiguous pronoun, and the GMAT doesn't seem bothered by it at all. In others, the ambiguous pronoun is incorrect. In general, you don't want to automatically eliminate an answer choice based on an ambiguous pronoun; instead, wait to be sure that you have a better option.

More on pronoun ambiguity in this YouTube webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhN_KU1bSKU
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   16 Mar 2019, 20:11
generis GMATNinja VeritasKarishma egmat

I have a doubt related to the word 'which' modification.

Quote:
Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.


According to me which is NOT modifying empire here because :
--the long decline of their empire
of their empire is a preposition . The actual word that which is modifying is the long decline

Please correct me if I am wrong.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   17 Mar 2019, 01:15
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warrior1991 wrote:
generis GMATNinja VeritasKarishma egmat

I have a doubt related to the word 'which' modification.

According to me which is NOT modifying empire here because :
--the long decline of their empire
of their empire is a preposition . The actual word that which is modifying is the long decline

Please correct me if I am wrong.
My reply is not strictly about this particular question, but there is no reason to think that a which cannot refer to something in a prepositional phrase. More specifically, there is no rule in English that restricts what a relative pronoun can refer to in situations like this one. For example:

The last goal of the match, which...

1. The last goal of the match, which had gone into overtime...
2. The last goal of the match, which was scored by...

Both (1) and (2) are acceptable.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   22 May 2021, 10:40
Luckisnoexcuse wrote:
souvik101990 wrote:

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 49: Sentence Correction


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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

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Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A) under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensured

B) led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, they sieged unsuccessfully in Vienna in 1529, and this marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring

C) under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, [color=#00a651]their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring[/color]

D) who were led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks had been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring Siege ensured all of these not Ottoman Turks

E) led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and many of the largest Mediterranean islands, the Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured Meaning issue (Siege not Ottoman Turks)

Between B & C i will go with C


If "marked" is a problem in E, why is it not a problem in B & C?
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   26 Jul 2021, 10:15
Hi mike GMATNinja , i am skeptical with the option C . Modifier "stopping" is modifying action , so its doer must be the doer of action i.e in this sentence "unsuccessful siege" and it doesnt seems to make sense also use of their is ambiguous .In option A , which can refer to "long decline" and this correctly makes sense stopped. I am in doubt this C is correct .Please help.
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   24 Aug 2021, 14:05
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Gaurav2896 wrote:
Hi mike GMATNinja , i am skeptical with the option C . Modifier "stopping" is modifying action , so its doer must be the doer of action i.e in this sentence "unsuccessful siege" and it doesnt seems to make sense also use of their is ambiguous .In option A , which can refer to "long decline" and this correctly makes sense stopped. I am in doubt this C is correct .Please help.

First of all, pronoun ambiguity isn't an absolutely rule on the GMAT, so I wouldn't worry too much about the "their" (for more on that, check out this video).

Second, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the failed siege stopped the advance (check out this post, which explains how it is fairly common to take a little license with what performs an action). And (A) has bigger problems, as explained earlier in the thread.

That said, remember to take all unofficial questions with a grain of salt, regardless of who wrote them. ;)

I hope that helps a bit!
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink] New post   26 Aug 2022, 02:56
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Re: Although the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II took co [#permalink]
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