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655-705 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Modifiers|   Pronouns|                        
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 26 Oct 2020, 20:45
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Ravs113
Hi AjiteshArun,

My understanding is that if the intended meaning in the given sentence is not clear, then we have to rely on answer choices. But if the intent is clear, then we should avoid the choices which have a meaning error.
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Not really. We just cannot say that option A always contains the intended meaning. That is, any option may be clear, but it could still be wrong.
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 01 Dec 2020, 12:01
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EatMyDosa
Hi GMATNinja, egmat, CJAnish,

In option C – can we say that the use of “when” distorts the meaning. Acc. to me “when” as a time indicator seems to modify the verb “helped”.

Therefore, this options apparently emphasises the instance when the peace was kept among nations instead of the intended or logical meaning – i.e how the Olympic Games helped to keep peace among nations.

Would appreciate if you could help me here!
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That's interesting. I think you have a point here. First, "when" can modify both actions and nouns. For example:

    When Tim yells at his children, they laugh and continue mixing lighter fluid into his cereal.

Here, "when" is giving us a time frame for an action (yells).

However, "when" could also describe a noun.

    Tim enjoys waking to the sound of his infant howling at 3 AM, the time when he is most likely to exude patience and calm.

In this case, you could argue that "when" is describing the "time," or modifying a noun.

Here's (C) again:

    The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month.

At first glance, I think "world when?" A world isn't a time. If I read it again, "when" does seem to modify the action "helped to keep the peace," but now, as you noted, it seems to suggest that the peace was kept at the same time that the they proclaimed a truce.

But wouldn't it make more sense to suggest that there's a causal relationship -- that the truce led to peace -- instead of two actions that just happened to occur at the same time? So whether you want to argue that "when" creates a minor meaning ambiguity or a serious logical problem, I think you're absolutely right that it's a reason to scratch (C).

Nicely done!
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 17 Apr 2021, 11:51
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GMATNinja in option C can you say "they" refers back to the subject of the first clause( The Olympic Games) unambiguously as per one of your live videos? The option is wrong for the other reasons mentioned.
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 20 Apr 2021, 20:21
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GMATNinja in option C can you say "they" refers back to the subject of the first clause( The Olympic Games) unambiguously as per one of your live videos? The option is wrong for the other reasons mentioned.
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To clarify, when a pronoun appears as the subject of a clause, the most logical place to look for its antecedent is the subject of the previous clause. But that isn't a rule. Put another way, if the subject of the previous clause works as the antecedent, you know for sure that the pronoun is fine. If the subject doesn't work, you'd want to keep searching to see if you could find another noun that could work as the antecedent. If nothing works, then the pronoun is wrong.

However, if you're able to find an alternative antecedent, but it's difficult to locate, you'd note that the construction might be less than ideal, but you shouldn't treat it as a definitive error. In (C), for instance, "they" could refer to "states." Instead, you'd want to find a more concrete issue to evaluate. However, if you couldn't find a more concrete issue, and you had it down to (C) and (D), it would be perfectly reasonable to use the problematic "they" in (C) as a tie-breaker. Because (D) discards the pronoun altogether and is therefore clearer, it's a superior option.

I hope that clears things up!
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 01 Feb 2022, 08:34
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This popped up on another thread, and we're reposting it here, just in case anybody finds it useful:
mohitprabhat
Hi GMATNinja
The sentences which use , + ing modifiers, the modifier should agree with the verb of the preceding clause and not the subject of the preceding clause. Is my understanding correct?

Ref: Why option B is incorrect in this Q

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival’s month.
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Take another look at (B):

Quote:
The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival’s month
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While you're right that an -ing modifier describes the action of the previous clause, in this case, "proclaiming" requires an active doer. Someone or something had to do the proclaiming. Because "The Olympic Games" is the subject of "helped" it certainly sounds as though the games are the entity that's proclaiming, doesn't it? Clearly, that makes no sense.

Contrast the above with another version, where an -ing modifier might make work with the same subject: "The Olympic Games helped to keep the peace, leading to a sacred truce..." The difference here is that "leading" doesn't require an active doer, it can be a passive consequence of the previous action. So I don't have to wonder about who or what is leading to a sacred truce, the truce is the passive result of an action. This one is fine.

Very subtle distinction here: in one case the -ing requires a doer; in the other it doesn't. The takeaway: though an -ing modifier doesn't technically modify the subject of the previous clause, sometimes, because of the active nature of that modifier, it sounds as though the previous subject is doing something illogical. When that's the case, the -ing modifier is a problem.

This is what makes SC so hard. There's no real rule here -- we just need to ask ourselves if a construction makes sense given the context. Your job is to make sure you don't develop grammar-based tunnel vision. Grammar is useful, but context and meaning matter much more on the GMAT.

I hope that helps!
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 12 Apr 2022, 23:13
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KarishmaB mikemcgarry ExpertsGlobal5

would past perfect be also correct in for clause? Since the truce was proclaimed first, thereby helping to maintain peace. Modified option(D) world, for a sacred truce 'HAD BEEN' proclaimed during the month of the festival.

Thanks in advance!
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 12 Apr 2022, 23:45
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waytowharton
KarishmaB mikemcgarry ExpertsGlobal5

would past perfect be also correct in for clause? Since the truce was proclaimed first, thereby helping to maintain peace. Modified option(D) world, for a sacred truce 'HAD BEEN' proclaimed during the month of the festival.

Thanks in advance!
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No, we cannot use past perfect. We don't have two actions here - there is only one action (peace was proclaimed) and its impact (helped keep peace).
This is something that used to happen habitually in those times.
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 13 Apr 2022, 11:27
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Why are we choosing answer choices with passive voices?
Are we allowed to use passive formation in GMAT?
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 13 Apr 2022, 20:30
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Are we allowed to use passive formation in GMAT?
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Hi ThatIndianGuy,

The passive voice is actually quite useful in certain situations, but generally speaking, it isn't preferred on the GMAT. Just keep in mind that "isn't preferred" doesn't mean "impossible".
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 13 Apr 2022, 22:11
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ThatIndianGuy
Why are we choosing answer choices with passive voices?
Are we allowed to use passive formation in GMAT?
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Generally, when the doer of the action is not known or not of interest, passive voice is a completely valid construct.

For example:

The first IVF was conducted in 1978.

Notice that in the above sentence, we are not interested in who conducted the IVF; we are more interested in knowing when the first IVF was conducted. Since the doer of the action is not of interest to us, passive voice is completely valid.

In fact, there are cases when the usage of active voice can lead to illogical sentences. Following is an official incorrect sentence:

Manufacturers rate batteries in watt-hours; if they rate the watt-hour higher, the longer the battery can be expected to last.

"if they rate the watt-hour higher" is in active voice, thereby nonsensically suggesting that manufacturers can make the battery last longer, simply by rating them higher!

Similarly, in the sentence under consideration, the doer of proclamation (announcement) is not known. Hence, passive voice is a valid construct. Essentially, it all boils down to meaning.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses passive voice, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

So, essentially, it all boils down to meaning.
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 14 Apr 2022, 04:57
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ThatIndianGuy
Why are we choosing answer choices with passive voices?
Are we allowed to use passive formation in GMAT?
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Hello ThatIndianGuy,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the usage of the passive voice on GMAT is a demerit, but it is not a concrete error; it is entirely possible for the correct answer choice to use the passive voice.

Please note that the same applies to all matters of redundancy and awkwardness; the more concise or direct option is not necessarily the superior one; the question of redundancy/awkwardness should only be considered when there are multiple error-free answer choices.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 08 Dec 2022, 11:50
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egmat
Let's apply e-GMAT 3 step process to solve this question:

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

A. world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
B. world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
C. world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
D. world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
E. world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival


SENTENCE STRUCTURE

• The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world
o in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.




• This sentence tells us that the Olympic Games helped to keep peace among otherwise fighting states of the Greek World.
o This became possible because a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. Note that, the sentence does not tell us who proclaimed this truce.




ERROR ANALYSIS

1. The phrase “festival’s month” is not idiomatic. It gives the meaning that the festival possesses the month. When referring to an inanimate object, we must avoid possessive. This expression should be “the month of the festival”.
2. Here, the expression “in that” means “because”. In this case, ‘because’ is preferred since it is more concise and gives the meaning directly. Note that ‘for’, which is used in the correct option, also means because.
Also as the OG says, this two-word expression can be replaced with a word for conciseness.


PoE

A. Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

B. Incorrect.
1. The phrase “festival’s month” is incorrect as explained in the error analysis.
2. The verb-ing modifier “proclaiming” seems to modify the preceding clause. Now, when a verb-ing modifier modifies the preceding clause, it should make sense with the subject of the preceding clause. So, this option indicates that the Olympic Games did the action of “proclaiming a sacred truce”.
However, if we refer back to the meaning analysis it was not clear from the original sentence who proclaimed the sacred truce. The Games themselves could not have proclaimed anything. So, this option does not indicate a logically correct meaning.


C. Incorrect
1. The reference of the pronoun ‘they’ is ambiguous. It can refer to “the pugnacious states” or “the Olympic Games”.
2. The original sentence indicates that the truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. This meaning is not conveyed by this option.


D. Correct.
This option corrects the idiom error from the original sentence and replaces the phrase “in that” with “for”, making the sentence concise.


E. Incorrect.
This option is very wordy as compared to option A and D. Also, it suggests that the proclamation of the sacred truce was done by the Olympic Games. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.



Hope this helps! :)

Regards,
Deepak
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Hello,
What if we say ''chair's leg''? Is it wrong? I need a clarification on it.
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 08 Dec 2022, 12:08
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GMATNinja
A question from our sentence correction "ask me anything" thread:

Rebekah
The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.
(A) world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival

Hi, Ninja, I have seen all the posts about this question, but I still have to ask about the use of "in that". What does it mean? Can you give me a few examples about "in that' ? Thank you so much!!
The phrase "in that" doesn't appear on the GMAT too often... and now that I'm thinking about it, the phrase doesn't appear very often in modern English in general. So don't lose too much sleep over it, but it's basically a goofy way of saying "because."

And I guess that's fine: "The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world [because] a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month." I can live with that, I guess.

The bigger issue in (A) is that it doesn't really make sense to say "the festival's month." That's a misuse of the possessive. I can't understand how the festival can possess the month. (teaserbae, I don't think that the issue is that it's "unidiomatic". The problem is that the meaning isn't quite right.)

I hope this helps a bit!
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GMATNinja
Thanks for the detailed explanation, sir.
I saw few explanation where you said that the inanimate object may carry possessive, but i forgot the link where you said it. Can't I say ''Chair's leg''? I know the leg is not possessed by chair, but i saw so many places where it was written. Can you clarify, please?
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 08 Dec 2022, 12:26
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Quote:
The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival’s month.

(A) world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival’s month
(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival’s month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival
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Hello RonPurewal,
Hope you're well enough. I wanted to write here to have a clarification about ''verb_ING'' issue in choice B. Can we cross out choice B as the timeframe of festival month and the timeframe of previous clause is not same?
Appreciating your help.
Asad (your course student)...
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 08 Dec 2022, 13:52
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TheUltimateWinner

Hello,
What if we say ''chair's leg''? Is it wrong? I need a clarification on it.
Show more


Hello TheUltimateWinner,

Thank you for the query. :)


On GMAT SC, this expression will be deemed incorrect I believe because inanimate nouns are generally not written in possessive because "A's B" literally translates as A possesses B.

In general English, such usages are indiscriminately accepted. However, usages in GMAT SC are very very specific, succinct, and logical. Therefore, many phrases that generally "sound" fine are considered incorrect in GMAT SC questions.


Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 08 Dec 2022, 15:02
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TheUltimateWinner

Hello,
What if we say ''chair's leg''? Is it wrong? I need a clarification on it.


Hello TheUltimateWinner,

Thank you for the query. :)


On GMAT SC, this expression will be deemed incorrect I believe because inanimate nouns are generally not written in possessive because "A's B" literally translates as A possesses B.

In general English, such usages are indiscriminately accepted. However, usages in GMAT SC are very very specific, succinct, and logical. Therefore, many phrases that generally "sound" fine are considered incorrect in GMAT SC questions.


Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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I just remember one of GMATNinja sir's comment where he put support for ''mug's handle'! He said that 'mug's handle' makes sense so far i remember his comment. Now, i am confused :)
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 09 Dec 2022, 00:05
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egmat
Let's apply e-GMAT 3 step process to solve this question:

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

A. world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
B. world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
C. world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
D. world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
E. world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival


SENTENCE STRUCTURE

• The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world
o in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.




• This sentence tells us that the Olympic Games helped to keep peace among otherwise fighting states of the Greek World.
o This became possible because a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. Note that, the sentence does not tell us who proclaimed this truce.




ERROR ANALYSIS

1. The phrase “festival’s month” is not idiomatic. It gives the meaning that the festival possesses the month. When referring to an inanimate object, we must avoid possessive. This expression should be “the month of the festival”.
2. Here, the expression “in that” means “because”. In this case, ‘because’ is preferred since it is more concise and gives the meaning directly. Note that ‘for’, which is used in the correct option, also means because.
Also as the OG says, this two-word expression can be replaced with a word for conciseness.


PoE

A. Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

B. Incorrect.
1. The phrase “festival’s month” is incorrect as explained in the error analysis.
2. The verb-ing modifier “proclaiming” seems to modify the preceding clause. Now, when a verb-ing modifier modifies the preceding clause, it should make sense with the subject of the preceding clause. So, this option indicates that the Olympic Games did the action of “proclaiming a sacred truce”.
However, if we refer back to the meaning analysis it was not clear from the original sentence who proclaimed the sacred truce. The Games themselves could not have proclaimed anything. So, this option does not indicate a logically correct meaning.


C. Incorrect
1. The reference of the pronoun ‘they’ is ambiguous. It can refer to “the pugnacious states” or “the Olympic Games”.
2. The original sentence indicates that the truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. This meaning is not conveyed by this option.


D. Correct.
This option corrects the idiom error from the original sentence and replaces the phrase “in that” with “for”, making the sentence concise.


E. Incorrect.
This option is very wordy as compared to option A and D. Also, it suggests that the proclamation of the sacred truce was done by the Olympic Games. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.



Hope this helps! :)

Regards,
Deepak
Hello,
What if we say ''chair's leg''? Is it wrong? I need a clarification on it.
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No, 'chair's leg' is not wrong because we are talking about the leg that belongs to the chair. Some grammarians do avoid using possessive with inanimate objects but it certainly has wide acceptability so I wouldn't fret about it.
That said, 'festival's month' is a bigger red flag to me because the month doesn't really belong to the festival. It is just the month in which the festival occurs.
So I would be more comfortable with the month of the festival.
The truce was proclaimed during the month ('of the festival' modifies the month). All makes perfect sense.

Also, 'in that' gives us 'more information' about what is mentioned before. Whereas 'truce was proclaimed during the month' has a cause-effect relation with 'helped keep peace among the states.' Hence, the use of 'because' or 'for' is better.

So (D) is better than (A).
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 09 Dec 2022, 15:37
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KarishmaB
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Let's apply e-GMAT 3 step process to solve this question:

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.

A. world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
B. world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
C. world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
D. world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
E. world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival


SENTENCE STRUCTURE

• The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world
o in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.




• This sentence tells us that the Olympic Games helped to keep peace among otherwise fighting states of the Greek World.
o This became possible because a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. Note that, the sentence does not tell us who proclaimed this truce.




ERROR ANALYSIS

1. The phrase “festival’s month” is not idiomatic. It gives the meaning that the festival possesses the month. When referring to an inanimate object, we must avoid possessive. This expression should be “the month of the festival”.
2. Here, the expression “in that” means “because”. In this case, ‘because’ is preferred since it is more concise and gives the meaning directly. Note that ‘for’, which is used in the correct option, also means because.
Also as the OG says, this two-word expression can be replaced with a word for conciseness.


PoE

A. Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

B. Incorrect.
1. The phrase “festival’s month” is incorrect as explained in the error analysis.
2. The verb-ing modifier “proclaiming” seems to modify the preceding clause. Now, when a verb-ing modifier modifies the preceding clause, it should make sense with the subject of the preceding clause. So, this option indicates that the Olympic Games did the action of “proclaiming a sacred truce”.
However, if we refer back to the meaning analysis it was not clear from the original sentence who proclaimed the sacred truce. The Games themselves could not have proclaimed anything. So, this option does not indicate a logically correct meaning.


C. Incorrect
1. The reference of the pronoun ‘they’ is ambiguous. It can refer to “the pugnacious states” or “the Olympic Games”.
2. The original sentence indicates that the truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival. This meaning is not conveyed by this option.


D. Correct.
This option corrects the idiom error from the original sentence and replaces the phrase “in that” with “for”, making the sentence concise.


E. Incorrect.
This option is very wordy as compared to option A and D. Also, it suggests that the proclamation of the sacred truce was done by the Olympic Games. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.



Hope this helps! :)

Regards,
Deepak
Hello,
What if we say ''chair's leg''? Is it wrong? I need a clarification on it.

No, 'chair's leg' is not wrong because we are talking about the leg that belongs to the chair. Some grammarians do avoid using possessive with inanimate objects but it certainly has wide acceptability so I wouldn't fret about it.
That said, 'festival's month' is a bigger red flag to me because the month doesn't really belong to the festival. It is just the month in which the festival occurs.
So I would be more comfortable with the month of the festival.
The truce was proclaimed during the month ('of the festival' modifies the month). All makes perfect sense.

Also, 'in that' gives us 'more information' about what is mentioned before. Whereas 'truce was proclaimed during the month' has a cause-effect relation with 'helped keep peace among the states.' Hence, the use of 'because' or 'for' is better.

So (D) is better than (A).
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Yes, the explanation makes sense. Thanks and kudos to you mam...
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 05 Sep 2023, 06:41
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My 2 cents on ING Modifier

1) IN cause and effect 'ING modifiers', Subject of the previous clause needs not to be modified by the modifier. It can but even if it doesn't then it will work.

2) 'ING' modifer without cause and effect relationship needs someone who is performing 'modifier's action', so it will modify the previous clause's subject. Sometimes, the subject of the previous clause may not be the DOER but its fine, ING Modifier can modify DOER, BUT when DOER is not in the previous clause then it creates ambiguity - avoid ING construction(Sacred Truce example).

Experts, Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks !
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The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of 31 Oct 2025, 17:18
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