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Sukant2010
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The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  Updated on: 11 Apr 2018, 18:08
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The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life

(B) circumstance, and his life

(C) circumstance, and his life being

(D) circumstance; his life

(E) circumstance: his life being

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The correct answer (A) in this sentence correction problem contains an unusual modifier structure (called an absolute phrase) so many students are hesitant to pick it.

Anytime you place a noun followed by a participle (“his life uprooted”) at the beginning or end of the sentence, it is a structure known as an absolute phrase, and it is used to give more information about the sentence as a whole.

Consider this example of another absolute phrase and you will realize that you do see this commonly in language: Her arms folded across her chest, Mary was clearly upset by the decision.

However even if you don’t like (A), the other answer choices are all fatally flawed so you must pick it!

In (B) the “and his life uprooted..” is not properly connected to the rest of the sentence and seems to be its own incomplete clause/thought.

In (C), the same problem exists and it is made even worse with the addition of the unnecessary “being”.

In (D) what follows the semi-colon is not a complete sentence and in (E) the colon is not the correct way to link the portion at the end to the rest of the sentence (and “being” is again incorrect and unnecessary).

Answer is (A).
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Originally posted by Sukant2010 on 03 May 2014, 00:24.
Last edited by BillyZ on 11 Apr 2018, 18:08, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  23 Jun 2014, 19:20
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Sukant2010 wrote:
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life
(B) circumstance, and his life
(C) circumstance, and his life being
(D) circumstance; his life
(E) circumstance: his life being

Hi all,
I was mainly confused between two options in this question. Please elaborate on your reason for choosing an answer.


Responding to a pm:

Note that "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." and "his life being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." are not independent clauses because they have no verb in them.

The following are independent clauses and one of these is what you need with the coordinating conjunction ('and') and semi colon:

"his life was uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." or
"his life was being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."

Accuracy wise, the use of 'being' is still suspect. 'Being' is not used to describe a state; it is used to describe an ongoing action such as 'the tree is being uprooted'.

Colon is used if you need to give a list and hence, is not suitable here. So options (B), (C), (D) and (E) are wrong.

Only option (A) describes circumstance suitably using the modifier "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  03 May 2014, 00:35
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Sukant2010 wrote:
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life
(B) circumstance, and his life
(C) circumstance, and his life being
(D) circumstance; his life
(E) circumstance: his life being

Hi all,
I was mainly confused between two options in this question. Please elaborate on your reason for choosing an answer.


is the answer A ?
The part beginning 'his life...' explains the circumstance and acts as appositive.

B seems wrong for incorrect parallelism. If you break the conjunction - The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed his life uprooted... doesn't sound correct.
C and E are out for unnecessary 'being'
D is out as the clause 'his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.' doesn't have an active verb.

Also as a forum rule, you must update the OA.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  03 May 2014, 00:37
Hi,
Sorry, yes the OA is (A).
My major doubt is how is 'uprooted' a participle. I mean 'uprooted' can also act as a main verb and the second part of the sentence can be an independent clause.
Thats why I went with (d).
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  03 May 2014, 00:45
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Sukant2010 wrote:
Hi,
Sorry, yes the OA is (A).
My major doubt is how is 'uprooted' a participle. I mean 'uprooted' can also act as a main verb and the second part of the sentence can be an independent clause.
Thats why I went with (d).


his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.
Here 'uprooted' is a state (like adjectives beautiful, graceful, painful etc) of his life, not an action on his life.

The statement could be:

his life was uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  03 May 2014, 00:50
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Yes,
I think thats the point. The sentence had to be in passive to be correct as 'his life' cannot be the doer of something and hence, the sentence cannot be active.
Thanks a lot..:)
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  23 Jun 2014, 03:22
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ConnectTheDots wrote:
Sukant2010 wrote:
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life
(B) circumstance, and his life
(C) circumstance, and his life being
(D) circumstance; his life
(E) circumstance: his life being

Hi all,
I was mainly confused between two options in this question. Please elaborate on your reason for choosing an answer.


is the answer A ?
The part beginning 'his life...' explains the circumstance and acts as appositive.

B seems wrong for incorrect parallelism. If you break the conjunction - The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed his life uprooted... doesn't sound correct.
C and E are out for unnecessary 'being'
D is out as the clause 'his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.' doesn't have an active verb.

Also as a forum rule, you must update the OA.


Is this a noun modifier you mean to say here??
Please confirm
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  23 Jun 2014, 04:29
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WoundedTiger wrote:

Is this a noun modifier you mean to say here??
Please confirm


Yes it's a noun modifier.
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/appositive.htm
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary ... sition.htm
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  19 Aug 2014, 07:08
VeritasPrepKarishma wrote:
Sukant2010 wrote:
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life
(B) circumstance, and his life
(C) circumstance, and his life being
(D) circumstance; his life
(E) circumstance: his life being

Hi all,
I was mainly confused between two options in this question. Please elaborate on your reason for choosing an answer.


Responding to a pm:

Note that "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." and "his life being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." are not independent clauses because they have no verb in them.

The following are independent clauses and one of these is what you need with the coordinating conjunction ('and') and semi colon:

"his life was uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." or
"his life was being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."

Accuracy wise, the use of 'being' is still suspect. 'Being' is not used to describe a state; it is used to describe an ongoing action such as 'the tree is being uprooted'.

Colon is used if you need to give a list and hence, is not suitable here. So options (B), (C), (D) and (E) are wrong.

Only option (A) describes circumstance suitably using the modifier "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."


Hi Karishma,

I am trying to understand the structure here. Normally I have seen verbing or noun + noun modifier to modifier the preceding clause. I am not that familiar with this modifier structure.

As per veritasprep explanation.
it is modifier structure (called an absolute phrase). Can you please explain this modifier structure.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  20 Aug 2014, 04:17
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kinjiGC wrote:

I am trying to understand the structure here. Normally I have seen verbing or noun + noun modifier to modifier the preceding clause. I am not that familiar with this modifier structure.

As per veritasprep explanation.
it is modifier structure (called an absolute phrase). Can you please explain this modifier structure.


Often (but not always), this is the structure of an absolute phrase:

noun + participle (could be -ing or -ed) + optional modifier or object

It modifies an independent clause as a whole.

It is often useful in describing one part of the whole person/place/thing or in explaining a cause or condition etc. The absolute phrase above describes the life of the accused - a condition.

Other examples:
There was no one in sight and Paul, his hands still jammed in his pockets, scowled down the empty street.
We devoured the yummy cupcake, our fingers scraping the leftover frosting off the plates.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  28 Jun 2015, 13:52
VeritasPrepKarishma
But don't we need past perfect here?
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  28 Jun 2015, 14:38
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VeritasPrepKarishma
But don't we need past perfect here?

I don't see the reason past perfect would be called for. Let's look at the question again:

The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

Changing this to: "The defense lawyer and witnesses had portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." would not make the meaning any clearer.

Perhaps your confusion centers around the phrase after the comma: "...his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."

This is neither a sentence nor a clause. It doesn't have a tense. The word "uprooted" acts as a modifier, providing additional information about his life.

If we change that part to: "...his life had uprooted by the media pressure..." then one would be inclined to think that his life took specific action; it uprooted someone or something unmentioned in the sentence.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  28 Jun 2015, 14:43
Yeah, you are right. Thanks for the explanation.
Umm one more thing. Do you have any idea whether Veritas prep CATs are a good enough indicator? I mean the level of their question and scoring pattern. Scored 740 in Gmatprep, 730 in Manhattan and just 670 in the free Veritas CAT with just 36 in verbal and 46 in quant.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  29 Jun 2015, 20:54
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AnubhavRao wrote:
VeritasPrepKarishma
But don't we need past perfect here?


To add to what Zosimus said, a verb will take the past perfect tense when there are actual or implied multiple actions taking place at different points in time in the past. There is only one actual verb "portrayed". "his life uprooted..." is an appositive i.e. a modifier. So there will be no past perfect verb in this sentence.

Suggest you to check out this post on past perfect: http://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2015/03 ... questions/
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  30 Jun 2015, 11:33
VeritasPrepKarishma wrote:
AnubhavRao wrote:
VeritasPrepKarishma
But don't we need past perfect here?


To add to what Zosimus said, a verb will take the past perfect tense when there are actual or implied multiple actions taking place at different points in time in the past. There is only one actual verb "portrayed". "his life uprooted..." is an appositive i.e. a modifier. So there will be no past perfect verb in this sentence.

Suggest you to check out this post on past perfect: http://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2015/03 ... questions/

I don't know whether you noticed above, but the poster asked: "Do you have any idea whether Veritas prep CATs are a good enough indicator?"

I can't answer that question. Maybe you could?
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  30 Jun 2015, 22:09
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AnubhavRao wrote:
Yeah, you are right. Thanks for the explanation.
Umm one more thing. Do you have any idea whether Veritas prep CATs are a good enough indicator? I mean the level of their question and scoring pattern. Scored 740 in Gmatprep, 730 in Manhattan and just 670 in the free Veritas CAT with just 36 in verbal and 46 in quant.


Yes, our test scores are quite accurate and usually within 30 points of the actual score. That said, if you scored unexpectedly low in one test, it could be because of an "off" day. Perhaps you were distracted or in a foul mood etc. A lot of things can impact your test score so I would suggest you to relax and take another test in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, focus on the errors you made and try to strengthen those areas. A lower score in a test means a higher opportunity to identify weaknesses and hence more value obtained from the test.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  21 May 2016, 12:54
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life - Correct Answer. This is definitely a strange structure but just because it looks and sounds a bit different to what we would be normally used to seeing and hearing doesn't mean it should be ruled out. The structure "his life uprooted" is used to provide additional information to the first clause.
(B) circumstance, and his life - Wrong. This is not a complete clause although, even if it stated ", and his life was uprooted" it might not be correct as it sounds like a completely different thought.
(C) circumstance, and his life being - Wrong. Same as B
(D) circumstance; his life. Wrong - The part after the semi colon is not a complete sentence.
(E) circumstance: his life being - The colon is not correct here. A colon should be able to be followed by the word "namely" or "that is" and still make sense.
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  15 Oct 2016, 07:57
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Please carry on here - the-defense-lawyer-and-witnesses-portrayed-the-accused-as-a-170871.html

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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  26 Oct 2016, 12:45
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VeritasPrepKarishma wrote:
Sukant2010 wrote:
The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of circumstance, his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case.

(A) circumstance, his life
(B) circumstance, and his life
(C) circumstance, and his life being
(D) circumstance; his life
(E) circumstance: his life being

Hi all,
I was mainly confused between two options in this question. Please elaborate on your reason for choosing an answer.


Responding to a pm:

Note that "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." and "his life being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." are not independent clauses because they have no verb in them.

The following are independent clauses and one of these is what you need with the coordinating conjunction ('and') and semi colon:

"his life was uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case." or
"his life was being uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."

Accuracy wise, the use of 'being' is still suspect. 'Being' is not used to describe a state; it is used to describe an ongoing action such as 'the tree is being uprooted'.

Colon is used if you need to give a list and hence, is not suitable here. So options (B), (C), (D) and (E) are wrong.

Only option (A) describes circumstance suitably using the modifier "his life uprooted by the media pressure to punish someone in the case."


Hi Karishma,

I referred to official Veritas Prep explanation for option A and there it was mentioned that second part of the sentence is an absolute phrase.
How to recognize absolute phrases in SC?
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Re: The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of [#permalink] New post  26 Oct 2016, 20:30
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Hi Karishma,

Thanks for your explanation. I would like to clarify about the first option of this question.

Although the option does not use Auxiliary verb between Life and Uprooted in the sentence following the main clause. Is it still fine?

His life uprooted, should not be His life was uprooted?

Kindly explain me your thoughts.
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