Well, that’s not the first time I am answering my post on my own. Perhaps that’s how gmatclub teaches me to begin to talk to myself, somehow feeling a bit schizophrenic. So, I discussed option E with Myself to a greater extent, and We unanimously decided that what is in between commas isn’t always an inessential modifier. Actually, we found enough evidence that the notion of “essentiality vs. inessentiality” is relevant to only noun modifiers, not adverbial.

In other words, adverbial modifiers such as COMMA + VERBED and COMMA + VERBING have an important role regardless of their position in a sentence. Hence, even if they follow just a noun phrase and seem to modify only it, they still have to make sense with the gist of the sentence. Here are a couple of examples from RonPurewal himself:

- Darren, standing over seven feet tall, is one of the school's best physics students.

(this sentence is nonsense: there is no plausible relationship between Darren’s height and his knowledge of physics.)

- Darren, standing over seven feet tall, is one of the school's best basketball players.

(this sentence is sensible, since it's quite reasonable that Darren’s height contributes to his basketball prowess.)


If we replace COMMA + VERBING with a noun modifier, then that kind of relationship isn’t mandatory, so the below sentence is correct:

- Darren, who stands over seven feet tall, is one of the school's best physics students.

Now, note that the below two sentences have similar meanings:

1. Darren, standing over seven feet tall, is one of the school's best basketball players.
2. Standing over seven feet tall, Darren is one of the school's best basketball players.

The same is true about the below two sentences:

1. James, exhausted from a log day of work, collapsed onto the coach and soon fell asleep.
2. Exhausted from a log day of work, James collapsed onto the coach and soon fell asleep.

You can notice that COMMA + VERBED in the first sentence modifies James, but it also explains why he collapsed and fell asleep. So, no doubt that it is an adverbial modifier even though it follows just a noun phrase and is set off by commas.

Small conclusion: while reading such a sentence as E, we CANNOT cross off COMMA + VERB set off by commas, as we usually do with such a noun modifier. A noun mod set off by commas doesn’t change the meaning when removed, but such an adverbial mod continues to give relevant information about the sentence it’s inserted into, explaining the cause, result, or background of the main action. That’s why sentence 1 and sentence 2 above have similar meanings, and E can be read as below:

Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims, one of the proudest of family legends is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s.

Final conclusion: Now it’s clear that “Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims” in E isn’t an inessential modifier. As an adverbial mod, it gives additional description to the whole sentence and thus is important to the overall gist.

Phew, we did a good job, I and me))
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Hi GMATNinja, VeritasKarishma AjiteshArun

Is the below sentence correct?

- Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is one of the proudest of family legends, the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s.

Now, what is being remembered as an epic is the family legend which is placed closed to what it's modifying, the digging of the tunnel.

Is my understanding correct?


Thanks
Saurabh

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



A: This answer choice incorrectly modifies the noun phrase "the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels" with the phrase "one of the proudest of family legends"; an epic is a story that recounts heroic deeds, meaning it would be more logical for the phrase "one of the proudest of family legends" to be modified by the phrase "Remembered almost as an epic ...". This incorrect modification alters the meaning of the sentence to imply that it is the act of digging, rather than the legend associated with it, that is remembered as something akin to an epic. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

B: This answer choice commits a meaning-related error by modifying the gerund phrase "the digging" with the phrase "Almost an epic among...", implying that the act of digging itself is "almost an epic"; as an epic is a type of story, it is more logical to apply this modifier to the noun phrase "almost a legend...". Additionally, B modifies the noun phrase "Chicago's subway tunnels" with the phrase "one of the proudest of family legends", implying that the tunnels were the legend. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

C: This answer choice commits a meaning-related error by modifying the noun phrase "America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims" with the verb phrase "Digging Chicago’s subway tunnels...", incorrectly implying that the people who remember the digging of the tunnels as an epic are the same ones who dug the tunnels. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

D: This answer choice repeats the error of referring to the digging, itself, rather than the legend associated with it as what is remembered as something akin to an epic by using the phrase "remember almost as an epic the digging of...". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

E: This answer choice conveys the intended meaning of the sentence, that the digging of the tunnels is one of the proudest of family legends and is remembered as alomost an epic by America's Bosnian Muslims. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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GMATNinja Would you please provide explanations for every single option?
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A 'legend' is a story, a tale, not a person. 'Digging of tunnels' is a story.
A person's actions can be legendary.
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Experts,
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja egmat EMPOWERgmatVerbal


Will 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.

Can we use comparatives like more common , more often , more frequently to compare 2 events in which 1st event doesn't take place at all(or we think it never does) and the other event takes place at regular intervals ?
Please refer examples below .
Person A : I think that aliens don't exist.
Person B : Aliens are more common than you think.

Person A:I think this event never takes place.
Person B:This event takes place more often than you think.

Person A : I think this event never takes place .
Person B : I think this event takes place more frequently than you think.

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.
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varotkorn - I agree with you. I don't really understand all of the discussion about this question. It seems to me if you're going to accept E as a correct answer, you have to grant that "the digging" can be a "legend", because that's precisely what E says. But if "the digging" can be a "legend", it can also be an "epic". So I don't see any a priori reason "legend" needs to modify "epic" and not "the digging". Answer D is clearly wrong though because the clause at the end is almost a dangling modifier (technically it's not, but it is not clear what it refers back to). It's perfectly clear what modifies what in answer E, so that's a better choice.

I find it a very strange sentence to begin with - I don't really understand what meaning is intended by several of the words even in the right answer. So it's understandably a high-level question.
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