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Re: The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar
[#permalink]
11 Jun 2019, 08:34
11 Jun 2019, 08:34
Looking at the original sentence (answer choice A) and going through the words, we’re looking for verbs and pronouns that can help guide our decisions. The first verb encountered is “were cut”, but the verb cut is tricky because it has the same form in the past, the present and the future. Answer choice C’s “having been cut” seems unnecessarily wordy, but that is not necessarily enough to eliminate it outright, so we’ll keep it with an asterisk and continue looking for other verbs.
The next verb encountered is “have yielded”, and a cursory comparison of the other answer choices reveals a 3-2 split between “have yielded” and “yields”. The subject of the verb is “The first trenches”, which is plural. The verb formulation of “yields” only works if the subject is singular, and thus we can eliminate these answer choices with 100% certainty as they contain agreement errors. Answer choices B and D can both be eliminated.
Continuing on, the second verb we encounter is “are arising”. Everything else about specific locations, sizes of land and other minutiae can be ignored using the slash-and-burn technique. We’re on a mission to compare specific terms that can help illuminate errors in various answer choices. Answer choice C has “were arising” and answer choice E has “arose”. The subject of the verb is “societies”, and therefore any of the three could be correct from an agreement standpoint. However, the timelines vary from present to past continuous to simple past, and the rest of the sentence began with the past-tense verb “have yielded”, meaning that the present tense would be erroneous. Answer choice A can be eliminated because of a timeline error.
At this point, only answer choices C and E remain. The verbs are not identical in the two options, but either one could conceivably make sense, so we must look for other differences in order to differentiate between the two. Looking through the answer choices, there are no pronouns to compare, but the first and last words are not the same. These connectors often cause answer choices to be eliminated because they make sense with the underlined portion but they do not fit nicely into the rest of the sentence (like merging onto the highway on a horse and buggy).
Answer choice C is already on our radar because of the wordy verb choice, but let’s examine how it fits back into the sentence at the end. The societies “were arising simultaneously…” is missing the word “with” in order to make grammatical sense. You arise simultaneously with something else. The original sentence had this word, but answer choice C omits the key words, and it’s difficult to see because the text is so verbose. This incorrect construction dooms answer choice C. Only answer E remains as the correct choice.
As with any Sentence Correction question, process of elimination is the name of the game. However, when the sentences get very long, very technical, or otherwise disengaging, you have to go through the text in a methodical manner. The best words to compare are the verbs, the pronouns and the connectors to and from the underlined portion. If you have a sound strategy, you’ll be able to execute the run on sentence correction.
Taken from RON point
The next verb encountered is “have yielded”, and a cursory comparison of the other answer choices reveals a 3-2 split between “have yielded” and “yields”. The subject of the verb is “The first trenches”, which is plural. The verb formulation of “yields” only works if the subject is singular, and thus we can eliminate these answer choices with 100% certainty as they contain agreement errors. Answer choices B and D can both be eliminated.
Continuing on, the second verb we encounter is “are arising”. Everything else about specific locations, sizes of land and other minutiae can be ignored using the slash-and-burn technique. We’re on a mission to compare specific terms that can help illuminate errors in various answer choices. Answer choice C has “were arising” and answer choice E has “arose”. The subject of the verb is “societies”, and therefore any of the three could be correct from an agreement standpoint. However, the timelines vary from present to past continuous to simple past, and the rest of the sentence began with the past-tense verb “have yielded”, meaning that the present tense would be erroneous. Answer choice A can be eliminated because of a timeline error.
At this point, only answer choices C and E remain. The verbs are not identical in the two options, but either one could conceivably make sense, so we must look for other differences in order to differentiate between the two. Looking through the answer choices, there are no pronouns to compare, but the first and last words are not the same. These connectors often cause answer choices to be eliminated because they make sense with the underlined portion but they do not fit nicely into the rest of the sentence (like merging onto the highway on a horse and buggy).
Answer choice C is already on our radar because of the wordy verb choice, but let’s examine how it fits back into the sentence at the end. The societies “were arising simultaneously…” is missing the word “with” in order to make grammatical sense. You arise simultaneously with something else. The original sentence had this word, but answer choice C omits the key words, and it’s difficult to see because the text is so verbose. This incorrect construction dooms answer choice C. Only answer E remains as the correct choice.
As with any Sentence Correction question, process of elimination is the name of the game. However, when the sentences get very long, very technical, or otherwise disengaging, you have to go through the text in a methodical manner. The best words to compare are the verbs, the pronouns and the connectors to and from the underlined portion. If you have a sound strategy, you’ll be able to execute the run on sentence correction.
Taken from RON point
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Re: The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar
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02 Jul 2019, 08:18
02 Jul 2019, 08:18
Expert Reply
Top Contributor
jerrywu
The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq.
(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but
(B) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously with but also
(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but
(D) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence of centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arising simultaneously but also
(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but
(A) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence for centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East that were arising simultaneously with but
(B) that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously with but also
(C) having been cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East were arising simultaneously but
(D) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, yields strong evidence of centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arising simultaneously but also
(E) cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar, Syria, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East arose simultaneously with but
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/23/science/ruins-alter-ideas-of-how-civilization-spread.html
The first trenches cut into the large 500-acre site, Tell Hamoukar, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East apparently arose simultaneously but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq. In the conventional view, civilization was thought to begin solely in the south and then move north through trade and colonization.
The first trenches cut into the large 500-acre site, Tell Hamoukar, have yielded strong evidence that centrally administered complex societies in northern regions of the Middle East apparently arose simultaneously but independently of the more celebrated city-states of southern Mesopotamia, in what is now southern Iraq. In the conventional view, civilization was thought to begin solely in the south and then move north through trade and colonization.
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Let's start with subject-verb agreement.
Answer choices B and D have TRENCHES (plural) YIELDS (singular)
Eliminate B and D
Answer choice A has a problem with concision. Why say "trenches THAT WERE cut" when "trenches cut" will suffice?
Also, EVIDENCE FOR is not idiomatic.
Eliminate A.
Answer choice C has a parallelism issue.
We need the form VERB adverb preposition BUT adverb preposition the more celebrated city-states...
In C we have: were arising simultaneously but independently of the more celebrated
Eliminate C
For E we have: arose simultaneously with but independently of the more celebrated
Perfect!
Answer: E
Cheers,
Brent
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GMAT 1: 580 Q43 V26
Re: The first trenches that were cut into a 500-acre site at Tell Hamoukar
[#permalink]
01 Aug 2020, 00:49
01 Aug 2020, 00:49
Option E has 'simultaneously with' in the statement, is there a typo or is that right. Because as per understanding having 'With" in the statement doesn't make sense and on the hand it actually makes it a bit wordily. Please explain.
This is SC#70 from the OG13. 
