The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag

Question

The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.
  
 (A) The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 (B) Because it was the first country to reach the moon, the United States flag has stood on the moon since 1945.
 (C) The flag of the United States, the first country to reach the moon, still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 (D) The United States was the first country to reach the moon and its flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 (E) Having been the first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where planted in 1945.

Not entirely convinced with the answer. Don't forget KUDOS if you like the post.

Explanation:

The descriptive phrase at the beginning of the sentence "The first country moon" indicates that modifiers are being tested. It currently modifies "the flag." It should modify "the United States", eliminate choices (A), (B) and (E) because they do not fix this problem.
 
Choice (D) uses the ambiguous pronouns "it" and "its".

daagh · Accepted Answer

The first county to reach the moon is the U.S and not the U.S flag, Hence notwithstanding other errors, A, B and E are wrong on the face of them.

The U.S  is  still the first country to reach the moon and to describe such a universal truth in past tense as  was   as in D is wrong.

Finally, in C the first country to reach the moon rightly modifies the noun just before it and hence C is the right answer.

What exactly is the problem with C?

ermks279 · Answer

Can someone explain this -

(C) The flag of the United States, the first country to reach the moon, still stands where it was planted in 1945.

The phrase in blue is modifying the United states or the flag of United states?

Since the first section has The flag of United states - as per M -GMAT rule , of can be avoided. So if we consider this as United States' flag, than - the modifying phrase is wrongly modifying the flag instead of US.

Than C isn't a good option to chose

Please comment :arrow:

hemanthp · Answer

I feel that option C is modifying the entire noun phrase which has FLAG as the subject. I am not entirely convinced thats the way to use the noun phrases.

daagh · Answer

Appositives need not refer to the entire phrase before. For example, look at the following.

For most aspirants, the criterion for the selecting  the institutes the colleges and the universities that impart engineering skills , is the number of the candidates selected in the campus placement.

The appositive i.e., the colleges and the universities that impart engineering skills, obviously refers to the institutes and not to the entire phrase before.

gurpreetsingh · Answer

C is correct.

The flag of the United States, the first country to reach the moon, still stands where it was planted in 1945

if the modifier 'the first country to reach the moon' can not modify the closest noun, then only you may consider the flag. But here it is modifying US properly.

ermks279 · Answer

Thanks !

hemanthp · Answer

Thank you all for the good discussion

imania · Answer

I picked C too, and enjoyed the discussion.
thanks

shekharvineet · Answer

C is correct. The phrase "the first country to reach the moon" is an absolute phrase and it modifies the entire clause preceding it. i think the best way to handle these types of questions in which we have doubts about the validity of answers is to use POE and ensure that all other choices are grammatically incorrect before picking out our answer choice.
Here, A, B and E are outright rejected because of modifier issues.
D is rejected because it uses the wrong tense. In factual statements, general definitions, habitual actions and things which signify some type of state, the use of simple present is always preferred.

jullysabat · Answer

The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.

(A) The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 Very Awkward and wordy 
(B) Because it was the first country to reach the moon, the United States flag has stood on the moon since 1945.
 Starting with vecause makes it wordy 
(C) The flag of the United States, the first country to reach the moon, still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 Best answer. the modifier after comma explains more about united states which obeys the touch rule 
(D) The United States was the first country to reach the moon and its flag still stands where it was planted in 1945.
 I think gramatically its correct but C sounds good 
(E) Having been the first country to reach the moon, the United States flag still stands where planted in 1945.
 Very wordy and the use of having been makes it awkward.

garimavyas · Answer

C it is , modifier 'the first country to reach the moon' rightly modifies the unites states and not the flag. i don't understand as per which m-gmat rule, 'of' can be avoided.
and does m-gmat set rules for grammar ?

metallicafan · Answer

+1 C

D is a run on sentence. It is necessary a comma before the word "and".
Also, D is wordy.

chesstitans · Answer

I do not think D uses wrong tense because no outside knowledge is used and no universal truth is here.
C is better than D because the absolute phrase can be eliminated with the intact meaning. Also, C keeps the original meaning of the sentence; that is, the absolute phrase is used for modifying.

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo C 
Here  The first country to reach the moon  correctly modifies United states and the intended meaning is also clear .

chesstitans · Answer

in D, "it was planted" is not clear.
D does sound awkward, and D can be redundant.

tirthshah2013 · Answer

In the C option, the phrase "the first country to reach the moon" should only modify the United States and not the flag of the United States. Hence I chose option D, which clearly specifies Us was the first to reach the moon and its flag (its subjected to the US) still stands......

Please let me know where I went wrong?

Please let me know where I went wrong?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  tirthshah2013 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in the phrase "The flag of the United States", the main noun is "flag" and "of the United States" is a prepositional phrase acting as a modifier; thus, the modifying phrase "the first country to reach the moon" will skip over the prepositional phrase to directly modify the noun.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag

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The first country to reach the moon, the United States flag

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