Although, I got the answer wrong But when looked through the post of moderators and Tutors ,I was wandering how moderators s quickly changes the concepts which they usually taught in their long blogs posted on GMAT club. If this question was not from OG, Moderators would have discarded this question. Since this one is from OG, Moderators are saying the this is style and usage.
Just want to say that Sir, Please stick to the concepts which you have taught in your blogs on GMAT club. If you find a questions which does not have solid reasoning, you cannot up saying that its a style and usage.

i) Adverb (painfully) + adjective/past-participle (considered)
ii) Adverb (elaborately) + adjective/past-participle (reasoned)
iii) Adverb (often) + adjective/past-participle (changed)

daagh EducationAisle

These modifiers are adverbial phrases right ? and they are modifying the noun 'an opinion' ? Can an adverb modify a noun ? What am I missing here ?

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow down our choices to the right one! First, let's take a quick scan over the original question for clues, and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed.

(A) often changed
(B) and it was usually changed
(C) that was often changed
(D) changing often
(E) one he often changed

After a quick glance over the options, it seems that everything except the words "changed/changing" are different. This means we need to look to the original sentence for clues as to what grammar concept we're likely dealing with:

Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed.

What I've highlighted in pink is a list - and whenever we deal with lists on the GMAT, there is one grammar concept we always begin with:

PARALLELISM!

We need to make sure each item in the list is written using similar wording, structure, verb tenses, etc. Let's add in the first two items on the list to see which options use parallelism properly:

(A) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed = PARALLEL
(Each part of the list follows the same general format of ADJECTIVE + VERB-ed)
(B) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, and it was usually changed = NOT PARALLEL
(C) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, that was often changed = NOT PARALLEL
(D) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, changing often = NOT PARALLEL
(E) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, one he often changed = NOT PARALLEL

There you have it - option A is the only one that uses parallelism correctly! Remember - whenever you're dealing with a list, parallelism is the first thing to look for when trying to narrow down your options quickly!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

e-GMAT, how should one approach such questions on parallelism when there is no marker present?

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow down our choices to the right one! First, let's take a quick scan over the original question for clues, and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed.

(A) often changed
(B) and it was usually changed
(C) that was often changed
(D) changing often
(E) one he often changed

After a quick glance over the options, it seems that everything except the words "changed/changing" are different. This means we need to look to the original sentence for clues as to what grammar concept we're likely dealing with:

Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed.

What I've highlighted in pink is a list - and whenever we deal with lists on the GMAT, there is one grammar concept we always begin with:

PARALLELISM!

We need to make sure each item in the list is written using similar wording, structure, verb tenses, etc. Let's add in the first two items on the list to see which options use parallelism properly:

(A) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed = PARALLEL
(Each part of the list follows the same general format of ADJECTIVE + VERB-ed)
(B) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, and it was usually changed = NOT PARALLEL
(C) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, that was often changed = NOT PARALLEL
(D) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, changing often = NOT PARALLEL
(E) painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, one he often changed = NOT PARALLEL

There you have it - option A is the only one that uses parallelism correctly! Remember - whenever you're dealing with a list, parallelism is the first thing to look for when trying to narrow down your options quickly!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Isn't option E run-on as well?

Hi shanks2020, E is not a run-on. A run-on is when two Independent clauses are connected by just a comma.

In E, the only Independent clause is:

Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned

Following is not an Independent clause:

one he often changed

This is equivalent to:

one (opinion that) he often changed

So, E says:

opinion that he often changed

The structure for this is:

Phrase (opinion) + a Dependent clause (that he often changed)

Grammatically, Phrase + a Dependent clause acts as a phrase (not as an Independent clause).

Thanks for showing the hidden "that".
I failed to spot "that" and hence considered it like an independent clause. Bascailly, what you are saying this is nothing but an absolute modifier - noun(one) + noun modifier(that...).
But is there an indicator which can let me know that i am missing some hidden items. Or in other words, what should have prompted to understand that there should be a "that" here?

Actually I just highlighted that for additional clarity.

Even without that it would still be noun + noun-modifier construct.

But without "that", how can we know it is a noun + noun modifier?
There is neither a verb-ed/verb-ing modifier nor "that"/"which" which are generally indicators that describe the noun.