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EducationAisle

Does moving a preposition to the beginning of the sentence closed off by commas make it adverbial preposition? Can adjective preposition be at the opening modifier closed off by commas?

For example - The book on the table is hidden. "on the table" is modifying book so it is adjective preposition

On the table, the book is hidden. "on the table" becomes adverbial preposition describing where the book is hidden. Am I correct in my thinking?

So, an adjective preposition cannot be moved at the beginning of the sentence closed off by commas but adverbial can? Are there any instances where preposition is closed off by commas at the beginning of the sentence but it is adverb?

Thank you

Is this why choice E is correct because it shows that the preposition is adverb rather than adjective?

Thank you
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Your understanding seems to be broadly correct. Prepositional phrases at the beginning of a clause are adverbial modifiers.
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EducationAisle

Can you elaborate on what broadly correct means? Is there something in my explanation that is wrong? Because I will take my GMAT soon and want to be sure about the rules of adverb vs adjective prepositions.

I appreciate your answers. Thank you for your help
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Hi! your understanding about prepositional phrases at the beginning of the clause, acting as adverbial modifiers, is correct.

Just that "an adjective prepositional phrase" can be moved to the beginning of the clause; just that in that case, it becomes adverbial. I believe this is your understanding as well.
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(A) The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
I’ll be honest: I don’t immediately see any completely horrible problems with (A). So I wouldn’t eliminate it immediately... but I would immediately think of beer, because Pliny the Elder is pretty tasty. The beer, not the Roman philosopher. Maybe he was tasty too, but judging by the pictures, he wasn't really my type.

This explanation is already off the rails. Let's keep (A) for now, and we’ll line it up with the other tempting choice before we pick a final answer. :)

Quote:
(B) To the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote two letters, being the only eyewitness accounts of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(B) is basically a diaper fire. (Not that I’ve ever seen or smelled a diaper fire. But I’ve been around a lot of diapers lately, and a diaper fire can’t be good.)

For starters, I can’t figure out why the phrase “to the historian Tacitus” would appear before “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote two letters.” Why not just say that the nephew “wrote two letters to the historian Tacitus”…?

The bigger problem is the phrase beginning with “being.” It’s a hot mess: I guess “being” is trying to act as a modifier for “two letters.” But since it comes after a comma, “being” is acting as an “-ing” modifier for the previous clause, “the nephew… wrote two letters”, and that doesn’t make any sense, since the nephew is the subject of the clause, and the nephew can’t possibly be “the only eyewitness accounts.”

In other words: why not just say “two letters that were the only eyewitness accounts”, instead of messing with that ugly “being” modifier?

So (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) The only eyewitness account is in two letters by the nephew of Pliny the Elder writing to the historian Tacitus an account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(C) is also pretty darned confusing. The biggest problem is that “the only eyewitness account” is the subject of the sentence, and it’s nowhere near the phrase “an account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.” So now the sentence arguably says that the only eyewitness account – like, of anything, EVER – was in the two letters. And that makes no sense.

A smaller issue is the phrase “… in two letters by the nephew of Pliny the Elder writing to the historian Tacitus…” For starters, you could argue that it sounds like the letters are doing the writing, and that doesn’t make sense. And even if you’re not sure about that part, there’s absolutely no reason to use the word “writing” there at all – of course the letters were written by somebody.

So we can ditch (C).

Quote:
(D) Writing the only eyewitness account, Pliny the Elder’s nephew accounted for the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
This isn’t completely horrible, but it’s not great, either. For starters, the “eyewitness account” is a long way from the phrase “eruption of Vesuvius”, and that makes the sentence much less clear: as you read the beginning of the sentence, it sounds like Pliny’s nephew might have written the only eyewitness account of anything, EVER. Or at the very least, it’s not clear what event the “eyewitness account” is describing until we’re much deeper into the sentence.

I’m also uncomfortable with the phrase “Pliny the Elder’s nephew accounted for the great eruption of Vesuvius…” That literally sounds like Pliny’s nephew might have somehow caused the eruption (consider the phrase “poor planning accounted for the firm’s failure to achieve profitability”, for example). You definitely wouldn’t use the phrase “accounted for” just to say that he wrote a description of the eruption.

So it’s safe to eliminate (D), especially since (A) and (E) are better options.

Speaking of (A) and (E)…

Quote:
(A) The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
(E) In two letters to the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.

Both of these do a nice thing: they make it clear that the eyewitness account is of the great eruption of Vesuvius, and that makes them better options than the other three answer choices.

The only difference between (A) and (E) is the placement of the phrase “in two letters to the historian Tacitus” – and that phrase should logically describe “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote…” And the sentence is just a little bit clearer if the modifier “in two letters to the historian Tacitus” appears right at the beginning of the sentence. In (A), the modifier is just too far away from phrase “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote…”

So (E) is our winner.

GMATNinja I am inclined to think that A is the best answer here.
If we were to take away the two intervening prepositional modifiers in A, then the sentence would effectively read as follows:

The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account in two letters to the historian Tacitus.

Which still makes sense.

I think E is a bit non-sensical, one reading of it suggests that the nephew is physically in the two letters...that makes no sense.

Your thoughts?
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CEdward

GMATNinja I am inclined to think that A is the best answer here.
If we were to take away the two intervening prepositional modifiers in A, then the sentence would effectively read as follows:

The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account in two letters to the historian Tacitus.

Which still makes sense.

I think E is a bit non-sensical, one reading of it suggests that the nephew is physically in the two letters...that makes no sense.

Your thoughts?
(A) vs (E) really comes down to the placement of a prepositional phrase. To see how moving this type of modifier around can impact a sentence, consider a couple of examples:

    1) Tim gestured frantically at the woman with a flag.

At first glance, this doesn't seem terrible. Tim is gesturing at a woman. And the woman has a flag. But if you read it again, another interpretation comes to mind: Tim is using the flag to gesture at the woman. The ambiguity comes from the fact that the prepositional phrase "with a flag" could either be describing a noun, "the woman," or an action, "gestured."

This isn't WRONG, necessarily. But it's less than ideal.

Now consider:

    2) With a flag, Tim gestured frantically at the woman.

Now there's only one interpretation: Tim was using the flag to gesture at this poor woman, who is likely wondering why Tim doesn't just say, "excuse me." The difference is that when a prepositional phrase begins a sentence, it nearly always modifies the action of the ensuing clause.

So while sentence 1 doesn't contain a concrete error, sentence 2 is clearer, and therefore, better.

Same issue when comparing (A) to (E). In (A), we have the following:

Quote:
The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters
If you read this a little too quickly, you might get confused about that phrase "in two letters." It would be very hard to fit an entire volcano named Vesuvius into two letters, so you need to reread the sentence to figure out that the phrase must be describing the action "wrote." Like our first example above, this isn't wrong, but it's not ideal either.

Contrast that with (E):

Quote:
In two letters to the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
Now, because the prepositional phrase occurs at the very beginning of the sentence, we know it's going to modify the verb, "wrote." There's no other possible interpretation for what the modifier could be doing.

So while (A) doesn't contain a concrete error, (E) is a superior option.

It's a good reminder that SC isn't always about right vs wrong, but is more about identifying the best of the bunch.

I hope that helps!
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Quote:
(A) The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
I’ll be honest: I don’t immediately see any completely horrible problems with (A). So I wouldn’t eliminate it immediately... but I would immediately think of beer, because Pliny the Elder is pretty tasty. The beer, not the Roman philosopher. Maybe he was tasty too, but judging by the pictures, he wasn't really my type.

This explanation is already off the rails. Let's keep (A) for now, and we’ll line it up with the other tempting choice before we pick a final answer. :)

Quote:
(B) To the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote two letters, being the only eyewitness accounts of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(B) is basically a diaper fire. (Not that I’ve ever seen or smelled a diaper fire. But I’ve been around a lot of diapers lately, and a diaper fire can’t be good.)

For starters, I can’t figure out why the phrase “to the historian Tacitus” would appear before “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote two letters.” Why not just say that the nephew “wrote two letters to the historian Tacitus”…?

The bigger problem is the phrase beginning with “being.” It’s a hot mess: I guess “being” is trying to act as a modifier for “two letters.” But since it comes after a comma, “being” is acting as an “-ing” modifier for the previous clause, “the nephew… wrote two letters”, and that doesn’t make any sense, since the nephew is the subject of the clause, and the nephew can’t possibly be “the only eyewitness accounts.”

In other words: why not just say “two letters that were the only eyewitness accounts”, instead of messing with that ugly “being” modifier?

So (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) The only eyewitness account is in two letters by the nephew of Pliny the Elder writing to the historian Tacitus an account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.
(C) is also pretty darned confusing. The biggest problem is that “the only eyewitness account” is the subject of the sentence, and it’s nowhere near the phrase “an account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.” So now the sentence arguably says that the only eyewitness account – like, of anything, EVER – was in the two letters. And that makes no sense.

A smaller issue is the phrase “… in two letters by the nephew of Pliny the Elder writing to the historian Tacitus…” For starters, you could argue that it sounds like the letters are doing the writing, and that doesn’t make sense. And even if you’re not sure about that part, there’s absolutely no reason to use the word “writing” there at all – of course the letters were written by somebody.

So we can ditch (C).

Quote:
(D) Writing the only eyewitness account, Pliny the Elder’s nephew accounted for the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
This isn’t completely horrible, but it’s not great, either. For starters, the “eyewitness account” is a long way from the phrase “eruption of Vesuvius”, and that makes the sentence much less clear: as you read the beginning of the sentence, it sounds like Pliny’s nephew might have written the only eyewitness account of anything, EVER. Or at the very least, it’s not clear what event the “eyewitness account” is describing until we’re much deeper into the sentence.

I’m also uncomfortable with the phrase “Pliny the Elder’s nephew accounted for the great eruption of Vesuvius…” That literally sounds like Pliny’s nephew might have somehow caused the eruption (consider the phrase “poor planning accounted for the firm’s failure to achieve profitability”, for example). You definitely wouldn’t use the phrase “accounted for” just to say that he wrote a description of the eruption.

So it’s safe to eliminate (D), especially since (A) and (E) are better options.

Speaking of (A) and (E)…

Quote:
(A) The nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
(E) In two letters to the historian Tacitus, the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote the only eyewitness account of the great eruption of Vesuvius.

Both of these do a nice thing: they make it clear that the eyewitness account is of the great eruption of Vesuvius, and that makes them better options than the other three answer choices.

The only difference between (A) and (E) is the placement of the phrase “in two letters to the historian Tacitus” – and that phrase should logically describe “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote…” And the sentence is just a little bit clearer if the modifier “in two letters to the historian Tacitus” appears right at the beginning of the sentence. In (A), the modifier is just too far away from phrase “the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote…”

So (E) is our winner.

Just a question, why "in two letters to the historian Tacitus" in E is not considered a fragment? I excluded it because I thought it was a fragment since there was no verb
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Quote:
Just a question, why "in two letters to the historian Tacitus" in E is not considered a fragment? I excluded it because I thought it was a fragment since there was no verb
The phrase you're referring to is a fragment, but it's fine if a modifying phrase doesn't have a verb, so long as there's a main clause somewhere.

If I write, "On Wednesdays," clearly, I have a fragment that can't stand on its own. But check out this one:

    "On Wednesdays, Tim takes his kids to the circus where they tremble in fear as the clowns stare them down and cackle with glee."

Now we have a complete sentence. "On Wednesdays," is giving us information about the main clause, and tells us when Tim takes his kids to the circus.

Same deal in (E). "In two letters to the historian Tacitus" can't stand on its own, but it doesn't have to. It's a modifier giving us information about the main clause, telling us where the nephew of Pliny the Elder wrote his eyewitness account. This is fine. Not everything in a sentence has to contain a verb, so long as the main clause does.

I hope that clears things up!
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In the last option, modifier " In the letters.." is placed right next to the subject nephew. Isn't this construction falsely conveying that the nephew was present physically in the letters ?

What am I missing ?
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Namangupta1997

Like many prepositions, "in" can create two kinds of modifiers: noun modifier or adverbial modifiers. In this case, we have an adverbial modifier, so it modifies the action or clause. As long as it fits with the statement that follows, it doesn't need to be physically adjacent to the verb; in fact, usually it won't be. Where did the nephew write? In two letters.
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