Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is

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.

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

Good question!

Both (A) and (D) have modifier issues.


Here, it seems as though "the digging of Chicago's subway" is remembered as "an epic." That doesn't make any sense. A legend can be remembered as an epic. But not digging. So we turn our noses up at (A).


Same problem! We can shovel some dirt on (D).

Notice that in (E), it is unmistakably the legend that's remembered as an epic. Far more logical.

I hope that helps!

A legend is a story. An epic is a heroic story.

So "remembered as an epic" should modify "family legend".

Now what is the story (the legend)? The digging of the tunnels.

So the structure of the sentence needs to convey that the legend is digging of tunnels and that the legend is remembered as an epic.

(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.

"remembered as an epic" modifies legends. Past participle modifier.

Remove the modifier and you get "One of the legends is the digging of tunnels" - Correct

Hence choice (E) works.

Look at your sentence:
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.
The focus needs to be on "digging is the legend", the way it is in choice (E).

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))

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. --- Between an introductory modifier and the modified noun, the placement of the verb is considered faulty.

(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. --- Same issue as in A.

(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. --- It looks as if the 12000 Bosnian Muslims did the digging in the early 1900s and are still living to remember the act- Incorrect.

(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 must be the correct choice.


(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. ---- Same issue as in A and B.

A 'legend' is a story, a tale, not a person. 'Digging of tunnels' is a story.
A person's actions can be legendary.

The sentence says that the digging of some tunnels is remembered as an epic among members of a community. The digging is also considered one of the proudest of family legends.

The problem with the given sentence is that it presents two separate information about the digging i.e. it is remembered as an epic and it is one of the proudest of family legends. It makes much more sense to say that the digging is a family legend that is remembered almost as an epic.



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.

Incorrect. For the reason mentioned above.

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.
Incorrect. For the following reasons:
1. This option repeats the error of option A.
2. “the digging is remembered as an epic” makes much more sense than “the digging is an epic”.
3. The modifier “of Chicago’s subway tunnels” is misplaced; as is, it seems we are talking about 1900s of tunnels.

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.
Incorrect. For the following reasons:
1. “Digging” is a verb-ing modifier for the subject “Bosnian Muslims”. Per the sentence, the Muslims are “digging” at the same time as “remembering” it.
2. The pronoun “it” cannot refer to a modifier “digging”.
3. The two independent clauses are not joined properly. We need a comma+and to connect two independent clauses; the option doesn’t have the comma.

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.
Incorrect. This option has the same error as option A has.

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.
Correct. This option connects the two pieces of information about “digging” in the most logical manner. The main sentence is that one of the proudest of family legends is the digging. The modifier “remembered” modifies “one of the proudest of family legends”. It makes more sense to say that one of the legends is remembered as an epic.

How does D get rid of the problem you mentioned in A ?
Also, how does E have the same problem as A ?

After comma – modifies tunnels, but we need the digging. Out.




After comma – modifies tunnels, but we need the digging. Out.




Muslims “remember” (now), but it was in the early 1900s… We need past ("remembered"), not present. Out.




Muslims “remember” (now), but it was in the early 1900s… We need past ("remembered"), not present. Out.




“One of family legends, [modifies “one”] remembered among…, is the digging…” seems ok.

OA: E.

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.

First of all, I think the OG does a fantastic job with its explanation here. I fully endorse it. Please find it near the top of the thread.

An epic is "a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero" but can also include "a series of events or body of legend or tradition thought to form the proper subject of an epic." A legend is "a story coming down from the past" or "a person or thing that inspires legends" or "the subject of a legend." Out of all of these, the digging best fits as "a... thing that inspires legends" or "the subject of a legend." The "legend" sort of plays double duty here, taking the sense of "a story coming down from the past" when it is described as being "remembered almost as an epic." But directly saying that the "digging" is "remembered almost as an epic" cuts out an intermediary in a way that makes significantly less sense. The digging is a legend, and that legend is almost an epic. But the digging is not, itself, almost an epic.

Furthermore, nobody is talking enough here about the modifier at the end of the sentence ("one of the proudest of family legends"), and it's a disaster in A and D, where it seems to modify "the early 1900s" or perhaps the "tunnels" themselves. And B loses the "remembered almost as" bit and just says it's "almost an epic" -- taking a further step into metaphor and away from anything that is logical in a literal sense.

In E, "remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims" clearly modifies "one" since "family legends" would not be "an epic."

This question is hard, but it doesn't strike me as a bad or problematic question at all.

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.

'one of the proudest of family legends' is incorrectly placed -- should be close to 'an epic'.

(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.

'one of the proudest of family legends' is incorrectly placed -- should be close to 'an epic'.

(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.

Not sure what 'it' refers to here.

(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.

'one of the proudest of family legends' is incorrectly placed -- should be close to 'an epic'.

(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.

Correct. The blue portion describes the section in green.

Answer is E.

DmitryFarber Sir,

I know that essential vs. non-essential modifier split shouldn't be a dispositive one. But still there are some SC problems in which this split hugely helps come to the correct answer. In E, what is in between commas is a non-essential mod because of its placement, but its meaning still seems to be essential to understand the whole picture and who thinks of this legend to be an epic (or at least why it’s a family legend). So, could you please elaborate on why we can’t eliminate E for turning that part of information into non-essential?

Thank you very much beforehand.

It looks like VeritasKarishma has you covered! I'll just add one quick thought...

It's almost never a good idea to waste brain cells on tweaked versions of the answer choices. If you understand why (E) is the best choice out of the five options here, then you've done your job!

Looking at a single sentence in a complete vacuum and trying to determine whether it's "correct" or "incorrect" is an entirely different job -- one that you'll never actually have to do on the GMAT.

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.

yaashmittal Yes, this is fine. We can even make comparisons when one side is a confirmed zero. For instance, if you have no children and I have one child, we can say that I have more children than you do. In this way, grammar lines up nicely with math (inequalities).