Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find,

Question

Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find, document, and conserve artifacts when melting ice fails to keep them undetected,  shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe  from misappropriation.

A. shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe
 
B. shielding them from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and saving them

C. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe

D. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and saving them

E. shielded from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and safe

Day 10 Question of the Verbal Contest:  Race Against the GMAT Club Timer 
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Harley1980 · Accepted Answer

split "due to' vs 'because of'. We can test 'due to' by substitute it with 'caused by' if it make sense then we should use 'due to':
"shielding them from decay  due to  caused by changing climatic conditions"
'caused by' makes sense, because 'decay caused by changing climatic conditions', so we should use 'due to'
B and E out.

Structure of sentence:
Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges 
....to find, 
....  document, 
....and   conserve artifacts 
when melting ice fails to keep them 
....undetected, 
....shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, 
....and safe from misappropriation.

'undected', 'shielding' and 'safe' - three elements that should be parallel because they describe in which condition melting ice fails to keep them
(we can't use 'shielding' because it will be modify previous clause 'fails to keep' so we need to use 'shielded')

C is answer

sayantanc2k · Answer

"Due to" is an adjective and correctly refers to "decay". "Because of" is an adverb and should be used to refer to a verb. Eliminate B and E.

Present participle "shielding.." should refer to the previous clause or the subject of the previous clause - incorrect. Eliminate A.

Present participle "saving.." should refer to the previous clause or the subject of the previous clause - incorrect. Moreover "saving" is not parallel with "shielded" and "undetected". Eliminate D.

C is the correct answer. Parallelism between "undetected", "shielded" and "safe" is alright. A past participle used as an adjective can be parallel to another adjective.

Psiva00734 · Answer

Shielding, looks like modify the previous clause.
But it is not a cause and effect, it looks wrong modifying entire thing, .
shileding must refer to melting ice. so option A and B wrong.
so shielded is correct in this usage.
here parallesim shielded from and safe from is correct. 
so D wrong.
In between C and E , due to vs because of.
Because of prefered more than due to.
Because of must follow noun or noun phrase. in Option E is correct
.
But if we look meaning wise, due to used for caused by it means, shileded from caused by climatic changing condition. 
Even though Option E looks correct grammatically, Option C wins by meaning.

So option C is correct.

daagh · Answer

IMO, parallelism, idiom usage and pronoun ambiguity are the main issues here. The underlined portion with the parallelism marker ‘and” lacks symmetry with a participle phrase on the left and an adjectival phrase on the right. There should be another patricipial phrase on the right side too. Any choice containing ““and safe” is incorrect. Dump A, C and E. In addition in A, the pronoun ‘them” is ambiguous without required clarity whether it refers to archeologists or the artifacts.

Between B and D, the correct idiom to use will be ‘due to” since the decay is caused by climatic changes and B can be dropped. Further, B uses the dubious pronoun “them”.

One might now construe the correct choice.

Between B and D, the correct idiom to use will be ‘due to” since the decay is caused by climatic changes and B can be dropped. Further, B uses the dubious pronoun “them”.

One might now construe the correct choice.

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
Although you have been associated with Kaplan and been in this field for some time, and so you should be on the correct lines, i have few observations..
1) Any choice containing ““and safe” is incorrect .... agreed..
2)  the pronoun ‘them” is ambiguous without required clarity whether it refers to archeologists or the artifacts.  ... agreed 'them ' is ambiguous but them is already used in non underlined portion and 'them' is referring to the same thing on every occasion as the structure of sentence states ... so B cannot be eliminated on this ground..
3)  the correct idiom to use will be ‘due to” since the decay is caused by climatic changes and B can be dropped.  As per various other institutes and few examples in OG, 'due to' should be preceded by 'to be' verb. so here because of should be correct

shielding ... and saving.. are basically effects of the  melting ice fails to keep them undetected

12Sums · Answer

Hi daagh, i think , logically them has only 1 antecedent imo, which is artifacts ,logically . it doesn't make sense 'them' referring to archaeologists. Even D has pronoun them in the choice. pls clarify

daagh · Answer

chetan  
Hi
Thank you for your instant response. On the points, which seem to have some disagreement-
 
1, Admittedly, the pronoun ‘them’ is vulnerable to ambiguity in the underlined portion. Well, that should be sufficient cause to dump it, even though in an another place, the same pronoun may mean definitely the artifacts. The idea on the D-day is to quickly reach the correct choice, rather than getting stuck unduly on some factor; but more importantly, the ambiguity was only an additional point.

Coming to the use of idiom, it is my perception that ‘due to’ is used to modify a noun, ‘the decay’ as in this case and it rightly replaces the idiom “caused by”

IMO, ‘because of’ is used when a verb precedes it and therefore, the idiom modifies the verb. In the context, there is only a decay that is due to or caused by climatic conditions; Let me keep my fingers crossed until the OA is out; In any case, since you seem to have different ideas, may I have privilege of asking you what your call is

chetan2u · Answer

Hi daagh,
we both have homed on to two final choices as B and D..
I have gone with B for following reasons..
a) I think 'them is correctly referring back to artifacts as artifacts are the object here and archeologists are the subject here and  'them' should be referring to object, when we have two nouns to refer to and the meaning conveys to that end. 
b) shielding ... and saving.. are basically effects of the melting ice fails to keep them undetected, so both shielding and saving should be parallel, which is missing in D..
c) D omits them in one clause but keeps it in the second part, so it is not following parallelism.
d) i believe  decay  is  due to changing climatic conditions  would have been correct..

But again as you have said, we all have our own perceptions depending on the experiences with the type of Qs we have had earlier. and with so much of material floating around, difficult to home on to something that has not been clearly spelt out by the official GMAC. lets wait for OA. if otherwise, it will teach a new thing.

daagh · Answer

12Sums  
This discussion is getting more interesting; In D, you do have ‘ them” but it is not vulnerable to ambiguity, as it is pointless to think that it may refer to saving architects from misappropriation. The question of vulnerability is there in B' only in the first underlined pronoun and not in the second. At least that is what my perception is since I believe, the choice can be dumped more importantly for using a wrong idiom ‘because of’. Have I made myself clear? 
But still, why don’t you post your choice also to make the topic more revealing

12Sums · Answer

hi daagh, i do agree that due to is appropriate here. so not going with B. i am also going with D. But I didn't understand how you rejected B because of 'them'

its intense now. battle between two heavyweights (chetan and daagh) :-D

after reading the question again, cant the parallelism be in this way... fails to keep them undetected ............ and (fails to keep them) safe .... ?? :shock:

info123talk · Answer

Option C. Melting ice fails to keep them undetected..sheilded...and safe... are parallel. Due to changing...is correct as changing climate condition is cause.

akhilbajaj · Answer

The melting ice fails to keep them (the artifacts) undetected, shielded from decay and safe from XXX. So narrowed down to choice C and E. I chose C but did a littl more study on the use of "due to" Vs "because of".

"Due to" typically modifies a noun which is closest to the modifier. A quick check is to replace "due to" with "caused by" and see if it makes sense.
"Because of" modifies a verb or a phrase.

Now putting this logic back in the sentence.
" .... melting ice fails to keep them undetected, shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe..."

The noun nearest to "due to" is decay. Is the the decay decay caused by changing climatic conditions? No.

Instead, it modifies the verb "fails" or the phrase the "The melting ice fails to keep them undetected, shielded, .." It answers the questions "why does the ice fail to keep them undetected, shielded, and safe?" because of changing climatic conditions.

Thus, "because of" seems to be the correct usage as in choice E.

Reference articles
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 23966.html
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t3081.html

issamL · Answer

Heey, please is the use of '' due to '' appropriate in the sentence (C) ? because, as far as i know, "due to" must follow a form of the verb ''to be '' ..

Harley1980 · Answer

Hello  issamL

"due to" in C is correct:
We can test 'due to' by substitute it with 'caused by' and if it make sense then we should use 'due to':
"shielding them from decay  due to  caused by changing climatic conditions"
'caused by' makes sense, because 'decay caused by changing climatic conditions', so we should use 'due to'

If 'due to' does not make sense we should use 'because of'

gmatexam439 · Answer

Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find, document, and conserve artifacts when melting ice fails to keep them undetected,  shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe  from misappropriation. 
 
A.  shielding  them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe
 
B.  shielding  them from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and saving them

C. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe

D. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions,  and saving  them

E. shielded from decay  because of  changing climatic conditions, and safe

aragonn · Answer

In first look, I find it hard to understand whats going on here. Let me dissect in a normal pace.

Meaning & error Analysis:  
Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find, document, and conserve artifacts
when melting ice fails to keep them 
----undetected, >>>> till ice is not melted they were hidden, now exposed.
----shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions >>>>> ice is still shielding them from decay 
----safe from misappropriation. >>>> seems write.   
 
Always use run-on sentences to find such parallelism errors. for now all shielding once are wrong.

C. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe --- correct choice.

D. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and saving them --- make the run on sentence . keep them saving them . too awkword to even consider correct.

E. shielded from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and safe  ---- due to vs because of --- due to used to modify noun, because of for verb. ok this is not helpful. lets use caused by test replace due to with caused by if it make sense then due to else because of. I would go with Due to.

gmat1393 · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma   generis

Please help with this one

Prasannathawait · Answer

Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find, document, and conserve artifacts when melting ice fails to keep them undetected, shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe from misappropriation.

A. shielding them from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe------ - ice fails to do three things; to keep undetected, to keep shielded, and t keep safe.Hence this option is out.

B. shielding them from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and saving them------  same as A

C. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and safe----- - This has a due to but this maintains the parallelism. Keep it.

D. shielded from decay due to changing climatic conditions, and saving them---------- same as A

E. shielded from decay because of changing climatic conditions, and safe----------- we have to show causation hence due to is appropriate.

C is the answer

warrior1991 · Answer

generis

Need your help in option B. A lot of contention between B and C.

Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find,

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Glacier and ice patch archaeologists face extreme challenges to find,

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