A) The physicist Richard Feynman presented a comprehensive introduction to modern physics designed for undergraduate students in a two-year course.
Is "modern physics" designed for "undergraduate students"? No. "modern physics" is universal not just for them.

B) For undergraduate students, the physicist Richard Feynman presented a two-year course, being a comprehensive introduction to modern physics.
1) "being...physics" seems to modify "the physicist"!
2) "the physicist..presented a two year course" TO "undergraduate students" not "FOR undergraduate students"

C) A comprehensive introduction was in a two-year course by the physicist Richard Feynman presenting to undergraduate students an introduction to modern physics.
How can a "A comprehensive introduction" be in "two year course". Students can be in "two year course" or some body can be in a course, not an "introduction".

D) Presenting a comprehensive introduction, the physicist Richard Feynman introduced modern physics in a two-year course designed for undergraduate students.
"1) Presenting..introduction, ...introduced". How many times do you want to "introduce"? Thus this sentence has a redundant usage.
2) Second half "the physicist...students" is perfectly correct.

E) In a two-year course designed for undergraduate students, the physicist Richard Feynman presented a comprehensive introduction to modern physics.
"In a two-year...students" is NOT a noun modifier. Please note that GMAT does NOT only test noun modifier. There are adverbial modifiers too!
So ask the question, WHERE did the action of "the physicist presented"? happen
Answer: "In a two year....students".


P.S.: Adverbial modifiers do not touch the verb they modify (in this case: "presented") and thus their placement does NOT follow the "touch rule" (sacred for noun modifiers"). This is acceptable.
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Hi crackgmat15,

I really am no expert at this
However, given that the concept of Adverbial modifiers is presented in the introductory chapter of Modifiers in MGMAT SC book, I would guess that the level of this question could be in the range of 600-650. The reason I say this because this question is simply testing modifiers (adverbial and noun) and not even a mix of verb tense, parallelism and all those mix ups that we should normally expect in 650+ level question.
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Hi Mike,

could you help me out on this one ?
So I am able to see that answer choice A is wrong because "in a two course" is a prep. phrase for "physics" what is nonsense. Using POE there is nothing left than Answer choice E in fact. But I am not completely sure why the prepositional phrase at the beginning of answer choice E can jump the noun " the physicist Fayman".

I know that noun modifiers "Appositive modifiers" can jump to every noun in the sentence (https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-noun-mo ... 37292.html) but this is not the case here since we have a prepositional phrase.

So why can we "jump" ? - Cleared


Ok, apparently we have here a so called adverbial modifier, which modifiers verbs. And knowing that verb modifiers have looser rules than noun modifiers (probs to the magoosh website) It generally should explain HOW things are done.

The problem that I still have is that "In a two year course" does not really tells me HOW he presented.
For example in this question:

Visitors to the park have often looked up into the leafy canopy and saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang like socks on a clothesline.
(A) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang
(B) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs were hanging
(C) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging
(D) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging
(E) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs have hung



I can clearly see that the part "with arms and legs hanging" describes the HOW these monkey sleep.

So all in all... My final question (and after some study my only) is: in which way does "In a two-year course designed for undergraduate students" modifies the verb "presented"

I hope my question is clear

Dear asdfghjklasdfghj,

I'm happy to respond.

I will clarify a few points, some of which you appear to understand.
1) An appositive phrase is simply one kind of noun modifier. There is no appositive in this sentence.
2) Prepositional phrases can act as either noun modifiers or verb modifier.
3) Under most cases, noun modifiers have to obey the Modifier Touch Rule, although there are a few important exceptions.
4) Verb modifiers are NOT subject to the Modifier Touch Rule at all. Verb modifiers can be placed in a variety of locations in a sentence, as long as there's no ambiguity. The placement of verb modifiers is considerably more free than that of noun modifiers.
5) Verb modifiers, like individual adverbs, answer questions such as: how? why? when? where? in what way?

Now, consider (E) from this sentence.
In a two-year course designed for undergraduate students, the physicist Richard Feynman presented a comprehensive introduction to modern physics.
The prepositional phrase at the beginning is a verb modifier answer a "WHERE" question: it tells us WHERE Feynman presented this introduction. Because it's a verb modifier, it doesn't have to touch anything.

Finally, I will say that, in a slightly later post, you spoke condescendingly to my brilliant colleague daagh. Look at daagh's kudo count! He has been on GMAT Club for much longer than I have, and for years he has done high quality work here. I don't believe he was addressing your question at all: it just happened that his post followed yours. You are a student still mastering this material. It doesn't make you look good when you chide someone who is much more knowledgable than you. Remember that GMAT Club is a public place, and anyone on this site now might some day be your colleague, your boss, your employee, your customer, your supplier, etc. etc. You always get only one chance to make a first impression. Courtesy and respect open many doors in life.

My friend, I want to support your success at many levels. Does all this make sense?
Mike
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asdfghjklasdfghj

I see what the confusion is.


1. Choice A in the original question posted by karlfurt on 21 Nov 2016 is different from what Sagarag had posted on 5 June 2015. In fact, Sagarag's posting was earlier than Karlfurt's. Still, we have assumed Karlfurt's as the original posting, since that is what we are seeing at the top of the topic.
Of course, what asdfghjklasdfghj copy- pasted on March 4, 2017, was Sagarag's and not karlfurt's and he proceeded to discuss on karlfurt's A after quoting Sagrag's A. We also diligently followed suit by referring to Sagrag's choice rather than karlfurt's choice, since that happens to be the immediately previous post. As one can see, it might not be possible to refer to the original posting every time when lengthy discussions are involved. Sometimes, the discussions run into several pages
2. I never sought to reply asdfghjklasdfghj in the first place as Mike had earnestly pointed out. If I had wanted to address asdfghjklasdfghj's query, I would have quoted him or marked him.
3. I owe my sincere thanks to Mike for his spirited defense of me. I also see positively that asdfghjklasdfghj did not mean to chide me. He is one of my well- wishing enthusiasts and has stamped several acclaims in recent times. I thank him too.

Hope this clears the haze.
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Dear asdfghjklasdfghj,

THAT'S FANTASTIC! Congratulations! I'm very happy for you!

My friend, if I may make one last recommendation--these observations (what you recommend and don't recommend) will be lost in this single SC post. If you have time, please benefit others by posting what you recommend and what you don't in the "Share GMAT Experience" forum as a new post.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/share-gmat-experience-8/

You are one of the elite top 10%, so all the others can benefit from your insights.

Congratulations and best of luck!
Mike McGarry
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The ans is E because the introduction was part of the two year course .
The ans is not A because it suggests that all Richard Feynman did during the two year course was present a comprehensive introduction