EMPOWERgmatVerbal wrote:
Hello Everyone!
Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:
Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
(A) Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
(B) Almost an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging in the early 1900s of Chicago’s subway tunnels, one of the proudest of family legends.
(C) Digging Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims remember it almost as an epic and it is the one of the proudest of family legends.
(D) America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims remember almost as an epic the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
(E) One of the proudest of family legends, remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims, is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s.
Whenever you see an entire sentence underlined on the GMAT, and it seems like the organization of each option is completely different, that's a major hint as to what we can focus on:
MODIFIERS!
For each sentence, we need to make sure that any modifiers are placed in the correct spot, and we also need to make sure they're modifying the right thing. We have to answer a couple key modifier questions first:
1. WHAT is one of the proudest family legends? --> digging Chicago's subway tunnels
2. WHAT is remembered almost as an epic? --> the proudest family legend
For each sentence, it needs to be clear what each modifier is referring to, or the sentence needs to be reworded to avoid having the modifiers in the wrong places. Let's see how each one works out:
(A) Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
This is INCORRECT because, as we stated above, the modifier "one of the proudest of family legends" should modify "Remembered almost as an epic...." Instead, it's not entirely clear what that phrase is supposed to modify - the epic or the digging?
(B) Almost an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging in the early 1900s of Chicago’s subway tunnels, one of the proudest of family legends.
This is INCORRECT because the modifier, "one of the proudest of family legends," is placed directly after "subway tunnels," which is wrong. The tunnels are not the family legend - the digging of those tunnels is. It also has the same problem as option A concerning the placement of the "Almost an epic..." modifier.
(C) Digging Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims remember it almost as an epic and it is the one of the proudest of family legends.
This is INCORRECT because the modifier "Digging Chicago's subway tunnels in the early 1900s" is placed directly before "America's 12,000 Bosnian Muslims." Why is this wrong? Because the muslims we're talking about live in the present - the people who dug the Chicago subway tunnels existed in the past. We're getting the timing of who exists when mixed up, and that's why we can rule this out.
(D) America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims remember almost as an epic the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
This is INCORRECT because, as we stated above, the modifier "one of the proudest of family legends" needs to modify the epic, not the digging of the tunnels. It's placed too far away from what it should modify to be correct.
(E) One of the proudest of family legends, remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims, is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s.
This is CORRECT! If you go back to the 2 questions we asked about modifiers above, this option handles both correctly! The phrase "One fo the proudest of family legends" is placed directly before the epic, which is what it's modifying. Then, the modifier about the epic is placed right before the phrase about digging, which is what that modifier is referring to. Everything is in the right place, and nothing is vague or confusing!
There you have it - option E is our answer! It's the only one that places both modifier phrases in the proper places and pair up with the right antecedents!
Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
Experts,
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja egmat EMPOWERgmatVerbalWill someone pls elaborate why option A & D is wrong whereas Option E is correct. I am still unable to understand the modifying entity error what you have explained.
The original sentence has said,
1. Main message of sentence : digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s is Remembered almost as an epic.
AND
This digging of tunnel has been marked as One of the proudest family legend.
Though option E is grammatically correct, in my opinion, option E alerts the main message from "digging is remembered as an epic" to "digging is one of proudest family legend". So same makes option E less preferable to me.
Moreover in option A, D or E, "digging of tunnel " has been marked as "One of the proudest family legend", So irrespective of whether term "epic" modifies "digging of tunnel " or "One of the proudest family legend", it would finally refer to same entity that is "digging of tunnel". So I am still unable to understand the modifier error mentioned earlier.
Out of option A & D, I preferred D as it is in active voice.
Pls suggest what I am missing out here.
What will modify what depends on what "epic" means. We say an "epic poem" or an "epic story" etc. A legend means a story. So it makes sense for "remembered almost as an epic" to modify "legend". Neither (A) not (D) does that.
30 Jun 2020, 04:45
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