The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC

Question

The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC and 1500 AD in southwestern US, did not incorporate a writing system such as the one that allows the archaeologists to precisely date Maya inscriptions to the exact day, but  constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated  within a year, the archaeologists have adequate information to understand the societies' history.

a) constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated
b) it constructed several tall stone buildings to be dated
c) since they constructed several tall stone buildings for dating
d) they constructed several tall stone buildings that dated
e) since they constructed several tall stone buildings that can be dated

itskAKku · Accepted Answer

Ok let me give it a shot,

The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC and 1500 AD in southwestern US, did not incorporate a writing system such as the one that allows the archaeologists to precisely date Maya inscriptions to the exact day , but  constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated within a year , the archaeologists have adequate information to understand the societies' history .

There is a "BUT" in between so, there must be two diffferent, related, stand alone sentences.
The first clause is the part highlighted in orange, and is perfect.
The problem is in the second clause . So let me rewrite the second part after "But".

" constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated within a year ,  the archaeologists have adequate information to understand the societies' history. "

A full sentence consists of an independent clause and an dependent clause .
Since the second part is an independent clause,  we need a dependent clause in the underlined part .

B and D are out because the options have independent clauses. 
A is wrong because archaeologists didn't construct the buildings .

Now on to C and E.

C renders an obscure meaning . The "for dating" wrongfully conveys that the buildings we created in order to be dated.

So we are left with E, which is the best choice. "That can be dated" correctly modifies "buildings" .

Thus E .

Correct me if I am wrong .

samusa · Answer

The meaning of the sentence is absurd. The arcahelogists did not construct the tall stones for dating. The stones were bulit by the Anasazi. The stones can be dated by the archaelogists within a year.
Hence E is the best choice.

Posted from my mobile device

Nefertiti9 · Answer

IMO E
Meaning+ use of Independent Clause + Subject Verb Agreement are 3 things to notice here

The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC and 1500 AD in southwestern US, did not incorporate a writing system such as the one that allows the archaeologists to precisely date Maya inscriptions to the exact day, but constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated within a year, the archaeologists have adequate information to understand the societies' history.

a) constructing several tall stone buildings that can be dated --> No Clear subject here 
b) it constructed several tall stone buildings to be dated--> Can not use it to refer to societies
c) since they constructed several tall stone buildings  for dating --> distorts the meaning.
d) they constructed several tall stone buildings that dated --> we are looking for a reasoning as to why the archaeologists have adequate information and thus we need a since or because kind of conjunction.
e)  since  they constructed several tall stone buildings that can be dated --> Correct.

Uditakaushal1992 · Answer

Hi  Verbal  experts - can't 'they' also refer to Archaeologists in Option E?

Flower_Child · Answer

Uditakaushal1992  . The pronoun ambiguity you are talking about can occur only if there are two logical antecedents present for a single pronoun. That is, if there are two nouns that can LOGICALLY take the place of the pronoun.
In this question, we know that archaelogists are the one studying the ancient societies and so logically they won't be the ones contructing the buildings.
So there remains only one possible logical antecedent for 'they' .

The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC

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The Anasazi, ancient societies that flourished between 200 BC

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