The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

Here is a grammar route to solve this legendary question

A) scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were ---" were built ..., were connected" -- is a double verbing error, suffering from lack of conjugation between the two verbs.


B) scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, --- rectifies the double verbing syndrome and is correct.

C) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been --- that had been connected ' will mean that they had been connected even before they were built. The past perfect is incongruous
D) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each ---We cannot connect a modifier ' with each connected" with an 'and.'
E) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 60the 0 rooms, each had been --- 'each had been' is wrong tense as in C and also a comma splice
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The basic structure to eliminate the answer stands on the meaning of word each. If one can understand why each is used the next step would be much easy. A & B is using each to say each structure has 600 rooms whereas C, D & E is confusing the meaning. C & E using each just after "rooms ," denote modifying the room. but the meaning should be structures connecting the complex regional system of roads not each room. In D the use of each is ambiguous.

Between A & B if we remove the clause between the comma, A has two "were" - awkward. Hence, B is correct.

B.

The key to this question is to identify the what is it that 'connected by a complex regional system of roads' is trying to modify.

Surely, it can't be rooms (rooms connected by roads?), and can't be Chaco canyon or the spectacular scale. Hence, it leaves us with only one option - engineered structures, and only option B uses the modifier correctly.

Hope this makes sense!

Can someone please explain it ?

Shivikaa04

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

A) scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were - INCORRECT, as it changes the intended meaning of the sentence. As per this sentence, the Ansazi settlements were connected by complex system of roads which is incorrect as the engineered structures are ideally connected by a system of roads
B) scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, CORRECT , perfectly displays the intended meaning of the sentence. Also the usage of "EACH" is correct as it is referring to Engineered Structures which are ultimately connected by complex system of roads. This is what is the intended meaning of the sentence
C) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been - INCORRECT, each is modifying rooms and its not the rooms that are interconnected but the engineered structures are interconnected by complex system of roads. Building and connected both the events took place at the same time, not at different points of times hence past perfect tense had been cannot be used
D) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each - INCORRECT as in Option D there is no clarity on what "EACH" is referring to .
E) scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each had been INCORRECT, each is modifying rooms and its not the rooms that are interconnected but the engineered structures are interconnected by complex system of roads. Also usage of had been is incorrect. Building and connected both the events took place at the same time, not at different points of times hence past perfect tense had been cannot be used

Kindly give KUDOS if my explanation helped

is the usage 'scale of more than'....in C,D,E correct?

is the usage 'scale of more than'....in C,D,E correct?

Could somebody please answer this ?

That part is not correct. A spectacular scale of 75 structures makes no sense, as "scale" cannot have structures. The structures portion instead helps us understand what the sentence means by "spectacular scale".
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how do you logically knows whether it is the settlement , structures or each of the rooms connected to the road since it mentioned that ANSAZI settlement has "spectacular" architecture?

It would be bizarre and spectacular to have each rooms connected to the room and it is "normal" to have structures connected to roads.

In Answer Choice D.

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

If i were to read interpret its meaning,

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms
The Anasazi settlements with each were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

This sounds logical to me since it is settlement's'. Each settlement connected by a complex regional system of roads.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t2236.html
Check out Ron's explanation:

choice a is a run-on - it tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. if you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. that's bad.

choice b is correct: it uses a nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which, if eliminated, yields the intact and legitimate sentence ...carefully engineered structures, connected by... (with another nonessential modifier).

choice c:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- you can't say 'each that had...' (can't follow 'each' with a relative pronoun - if you're going to use a relative pronoun, it has to come directly after the thing it's trying to modify)
- no justification for using the past perfect ('had been') - that verb, if there's a verb there at all, should be in the simple past (the same tense as everything else in the sentence, because everything described in the sentence is contemporaneous)
- it doesn't make sense to use 'each' AFTER the comma, because it's not true that each structure was connected with a road system. instead, the road system connected all of the structures with each other, which is nowhere close to the same thing. (having 'each' BEFORE the comma makes sense, because it's actually true that each of the structures comprised up to 600 rooms.)
analogy:
the USA comprises 50 states, each of which is united by a federal government --> wrong (the implication is that each state has its own federal government)
the USA comprises 50 states, all of which are united by a federal government --> correct
the USA comprises 50 states, (all) united by a federal government --> correct, whether you have 'all' or not

choice d:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- the use of AND sets up ostensible parallelism, but the two structures given aren't parallel (one starts with of and the other with with)

choice e is also a run-on sentence (you'll see this if you reduce it to its 'skeleton', a la choice a)
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Hi generis daagh EducationAisle, I know we already have other issues present with C/D/E, but I wanted to check, if we can also eliminate C/D/E on the basis that scale is incorrectly modified by "of more than 75 carefully engineer.." as it is not the scale that has more than 75 structures.

Appreciate your time and help

This question can be approached in the following manner:

Let us understand the meaning of the sentence first:
The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale. The next sentence describes the extent to which it was built. It had more than 75 carefully engineered structures. Each structure had up to 600 rooms. These rooms were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

Now, let us look at the error analysis of the original sentence:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale, with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
Two independent clauses are connected just by comma, making this choice incorrect.

POE:
Choice B: Does not look to have any errors. Can keep it for now.
Choice C, D, and E: Changes the intended meaning of the original sentence by removing/ misplacing the word each. The sentence intends to mean that each structure had up to 600 rooms.

Hence, B is correct.

Would agree with your observation Rohit.
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Hello experts,
I eliminated CDE on the basis of -spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures.

Scale is generally used for measurements or it describes the size of a structure(In this context, although there are many scales to measure- pressure, temperature etc.)

scale of more than 75 engineered structure sounds illogical to me as if someone took more than 75 different scales to show how spectacular were they.

where as in B, meaning is clear, settlements were built along with(at the same time) 75 engineered structures.

Am I right?

Hello dcoolguy,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your reasoning is largely correct; the phrase "scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures" does not convey a coherent meaning.

Kudos.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Is the phrase "with more than 75 carefully engineered structures" modifying the verb "built"?