The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to

Question

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to mediate the radical differences between slaveholders and abolitionists, did not achieve its goal and thus is remembered by history as a failure,  just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert  sectional civil war.

a. just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert 
b. just the first of a half-dozen more attempts to avert 
c. and the first attempt of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert 
d. and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts averting 
e. and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts aimed at averting

Marcab · Accepted Answer

Good question.
First of all try to identify the simple modifiers and to eliminate it, if it is of no use. Here the simple modifier is : "a legislative effort to mediate the radical differences between slaveholders and abolitionists". On removal of this modifier, the sentence becomes:-
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 did not achieve its goal and thus is remembered by history as a failure, just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert sectional civil war.

The last part of the sentence is a modifier and is describing the entire preceding clause. Such type of modifier is called Absolute Phrases.

POE:
B:-changes the meaning entirely.
C, D,E: usage of ",and" justifies nothing. In the preceding clause, it says that the act will be remembered by history as failure. Hence, if it were to use in a sense in which it has to be remembered, then there shouldn't have been a comma. Since its there, CDE are incorrect.

Regards,

mattce · Answer

Can someone explain to me how this is a proper sentence with the 'and' omitted?

I can't help but feel that the sentence, with original construction, is either a run-on or has some other grammatical construct error. I haven't seen this issue outside of Kaplan, but have seen this considered by Kaplan as a correct construct in 3 questions.

dave785 · Answer

its a absolute modifier.

Tests idioms.

swati007 · Answer

Hi Mattce,

I understood your doubt. 
X, Y is a run on sentence if and only if X, Y are independent clauses( which means that both sentences must have main subject and a main verb ) and are not connected with any conjunction.

Example: I like to watch television, Watching television for long hours is not good for eyes. ->  Run on sentence 
I like to watch television, but watching television for long hours is not good for eyes. ->  not a Run sentence (connected by but)

the sentence in QA - just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert sectional civil war. is not an independent clause. Hence the option A is not a run-on sentence
Hope it helps

mattce · Answer

Hey - thank you for the clarification on run-ons.

Ok, I realize now that it's not a run-on sentence, but I still feel that it has some sort of error:

Your example sentence, "I like to watch television, but watching television for long hours is not good for eyes" is fine because of the conjunction, but I don't think this follows the same construct as this Kaplan question. Your example joins two independent clauses with a conjunction. Their answer adds on some sort of modifying phrase without any conjunction.

The problem's sentence construct is in my opinion equivalent to the following:

I love to eat chocolate, just the ones in the red box.
==
The 1820 Compromise is a failure, just the first of many.

I cannot identify what type of error this is, but it definitely sounds wrong to me.

Marcab · Answer

Mattce- go for this link. with-surface-temperatures-estimated-at-minus-230-degrees-143219.html

mattce · Answer

Hey, thank you for the link.

I went through your thread and understand those examples, but to me they are very different from the sentence in this thread.

I can't put my finger on exactly how they differ, but the examples in the thread you linked sound correct to me, while the constructs that I see in these Kaplan examples just sound terrible.

Are you saying that "I love to eat chocolate, just the ones in the red box." is a correct sentence? Because this seems to be the structure of this problem's answer..

(I don't think your 'how' method applies to either of these sentences, which makes me even more certain that this is different.)

Edit:

I think the following sentence, which I know is grammatically correct, would be closer to those given in the thread that you linked:

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to blah blah blah... was considered a failure, its dozens of goals never coming to fruition.

vibhav · Answer

The key here is to remember that 'and' introduces parallellism. with and you must repeat the 'as' ( remembered as)

vibhav · Answer

The key here is to remember that 'and' introduces parallellism. with and you must repeat the 'as' ( remembered as)

mjc565 · Answer

a. just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert 
b. just the first of a half-dozen more attempts to avert 
c. and the first attempt of more than a half-dozen attempts to avert 
d. and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts averting 
e. and just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts aimed at averting

B-->change in meaning
C-->redundant...first attempt of more than ___ attempts? why not just say first of a few attempts
D-->attempts averting...wrong idiomatic structure
E-->attempts aimed at...again wrong idiomatic structure. You attempt TO do something.

kannu44 · Answer

Dear Mod , could not choose between A and B .
Kindly help.
regards

sayantanc2k · Answer

In A the number of attempts is more than 12. ("more" used as a comparative adjective of "many"- "than" is required)
In B the number of attempts is exactly 12. ("more" used to express "additional" - "than" not required because not a comparative form)

I do not see why A is better than B, but theortically when there are two gramatically correct options, select the one that adheres to the meaning of the original sentence. This may be the only justification for selecting A over B.

Ss6479118 · Answer

B changes the meaning to mean there were half-dozen more attempts, instead of more than half-dozen attempts. The word ‘and’ in C D E doesn’t add anything to the sentence, making it needlessly wordy. A is the best option for being concise and properly conveying the meaning.

krishnabalu · Answer

Can someone help me understanding this sentence. What's wrong with CDE if we view the sentence as "The Missouri Compromise of 1820 did not achieve its goal and thus x and y"

DmitryFarber · Answer

krishnabalu  There are several problems with C-E:

If we use "and" here, we are joining the noun "failure" to what follows as two parallel nouns. Actually, it would be one noun and one long noun phrase. For instance, in D we would have  a failure  and  just the first of more than a half-dozen attempts averting.[/i This might work in theory, but if we are joining two nouns or noun phrases with "and," it is generally confusing/unnecessary to put a comma in between.

However, putting the two ideas on equal footing as parallel nouns doesn't quite fit the meaning. The idea is that the Compromise was a failure, turning out to be the first of many failed attempts. Adding this last part on as a modifier (as I just did in a different way) conveys the meaning more clearly.

Additionally, all of C-E have other problems. C unnecessarily repeats the word "attempt," while D and E replace the correct idiom "attempt to" with the problematic "attempts averting" and "attempts aimed at averting."

gmat1393 · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

The sentence may take a moment to decipher, but there are no obvious grammatical errors. The underlined portion ends with "attempts to avert," and this is correct idiomatic usage of the verb attempts. Presume (A) is correct but evaluate the other choices to be sure.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

A 3-2 split between "just" in (A) and (B) and "and" in (C), (D), and (E) should jump out. Remember, the clause that follows an "and" after a comma should be an independent clause, having its own subject and predicate.

Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

(C), (D), and (E) are on the wrong end of the 3-2 split. They can all be eliminated, since none of them follows the "and" with an independent clause.

Now choose between (A) and (B). (B) incorrectly moves the modifier "more" to a position before "attempts," altering the meaning of the sentence. This choice suggests that there had been some attempts to avert war and then there were a half dozen more attempts. (A), the sentence as written, is correct.

TAKEAWAY: When you see a sentence with no obvious errors, recognize that (A) could be the correct answer. Just check the remaining choices for issues you may have overlooked on your first read-through.

janadipesh · Answer

B changes the meaning entirely ...but what if we know the exact number of attempts is half-dozen and the sentence is trying to mean...it is the first attempt of that half-dozen more attempts.

DmitryFarber · Answer

janadipesh  It's not clear what "more" refers to in B. That would mean there have already been some attempts that aren't mentioned, and this is the first of some new batch. We'd need more context for that to make sense. Also, since the use of "more than a half-dozen" is consistent in all the other choices and  does  make sense, we definitely want to go with that.

navderm · Answer

mikemcgarry 
I have a question regarding this. How is 'just the first ...' an absolute phrase ? 
Should the absolute phrase not have the format of 'noun + noun modifier', or should it not be a noun + noun modifier ?

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The Missouri Compromise of 1820, a legislative effort to

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