The publication of Joyce's Ulysses was blocked on grounds of

I see there are a few responses on this page, so I'll respond. I wrote this question, among other things as a tribute to one of my all-time favorite books.

The OA is (C). Good job to camlan1990 for figuring this out.

Split #1: The name of the author, James Joyce, appears in the possessive in the first half, so we can use the pronoun "he" with an antecedent in the possessive. (A) & (B) are incorrect.

Split #2: diction mistake on countable/uncountable. In (E), "restrictions" is plural, so presumably these are countable---i.e., we would say "how many restrictions?" not "how much restrictions?" Much in the same way, we would need to use "fewer," not "less." The construction "fewer restrictions" is correct, and the construction "less restrictions," which appears in (E), is 100% wrong. This means that (E) is wrong.

This leaves (C) and (D), both of which are, for practical purposes, grammatically correct. Choice (D) replaces the correct pronoun "it" with the noun "the novel" --- this is a little more wordy and pedantic, but not incorrect in and of itself.

The problem with (D) is subtle and can be hard for ESL learners to appreciate. Choice (D) is awkward, because it has an "over-modified noun." What do I mean by that? All of the following sound awkward in English
the new car hauling truck ...
the President interviewing reporter ...
the loudly singing soprano ...
It's true that a participle, either a present participle or a past participle, can be used as a noun-modifier. We can use a participle by itself as an adjective preceding the noun, but when we start to add an adverb or direct object to the participle, essentially we are starting to build a participial phrase, and this is too much to include in a before-the-noun adjective. We should change that information into a full phrase or clause, because it's too much for a before-the-noun adjective. Thus:
the truck for hauling new cars ...
the reporter who interviews the President ...
the soprano, singing loudly, ...
Much in the same way, the phrase "less restricted novel contents" is awkward and doesn't sound right. We are trying to modify the noun "novel contents" with a participle "restricted," but then we modify the participle with the adverb "less," and this is too much. Now it is starting to sound like something phrase-like or clause-like stuck at the beginning of the word. It doesn't work.
A correct formulation would be an entire clause to express that idea:
the content of novels was less restricted
Ah! A clause-like batch of information actually given a full clause to express itself! Much better! Of course, this is precisely what (C), the OA, has.

Of course, Paris is a physical location, so use of the relative adverb "where" in reference to it is perfectly correct.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

since pronoun HE is wrong usage to refer to possesive noun joyce's hence we can easily eliminate A and B.
D and E has wrong usage of WHICH refering to PARIS hence we can eliminate D and E.

left with C.

hence C

1. he published it in Paris, in which there were less restricted novel contents
2. he published the novel in Paris, which had less restricted novel contents
3. Joyce published it in Paris, where the content of novels was less restricted
4. Joyce published this novel in Paris, which had less restricted novel contents
5. Joyce published this novel in Paris, in which there were less restrictions for the contents of such novels

HOPE IT HELPS

A,B ==>Straightaway wrong...because possesive nouns are antecedent of possesive pronoun only..therefore use of pronoun HE is wrong here.
D and E are unncessary wordy....."there were less restriction"===>unnecesary use of there.

hence...C..concise and gramatical.

(A) he published it in Paris in which there were less restricted novel contents. Incorrect. Ambiguity in pronoun. For Paris it should be 'where'. Also 'he' has no referent.
(B) he published the novel in Paris which had less restricted novel contents. Incorrect. 'he' has no referent.
(C) Joyce published it in Paris where the content of novels was less restricted. Correct. Noun has been mentioned which gets rid of the ambiguity.
(D) Joyce published it in Paris where there were less restrictions for the contents of novels. Incorrect.'there' is redundant.
(E) Joyce published this novel in Paris in which there were less restrictions for the contents of such novels. Incorrect. Same as D, also wordy and awkward.

mikemcgarry Can you Please steap ahead and Explain.

he pronoun has no issues.

In E less is wrong fewer should be correct.

Agree honchos...Use of LESS is wrong ..since RESTRICTIONS is countable quantity so correct usage is fewer restrictions.

all the other incorrect options have various other errors too.

Blueseas their is much more in this sentence then what we have thought, I am waiting for some faculty member to reply.

Honchos,

Blueseas's explanation is spot on.

Option C has to be the correct answer.

"he" pronoun has no antecedent as there is no mention of Joyce(Joyce's is mentioned).

Further, in option C, "less" modifies "restricted"....an uncountable noun and therefore is correct as is.



Regards

Argha

Their is much bigger picture to this question, I will post the official explanation If I find one.

(A) he published it in Paris, in which there were less restricted novel contents => less restricted novel contents IS AWKWARD
(B) he published the novel in Paris, which had less restricted novel contents

Paris is the physicial PLACE => We can use either IN WHICH or WHERER
Less restricted novel contents => awkward

(D) Joyce published this novel in Paris, which had less restricted novel contents
Same B

E) in which there were less restrictions for the contents of such novels => WORDY

Answer: C

Good question!

But is it really 700-level question?

Dear Aves,
I'm happy to respond. The user tuanquang269 posted the question and added that tag, so the tag represents his and only his opinion. I am the author of the question, but I would not have used that tag for this question.

Personally, I am extremely skeptical about the very idea of labeling any question as "700 level." See this blog:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/is-this-a- ... -question/

On this question, I do have a modicum of data. It appears that the question has been answered by Magoosh users over 12,000 times, and on average, users get it right 66.4% of the time. The highest third of users get it right almost 80% of the time, and the lowest third of users get it right a little over 50% of the time. In psychometric terms, its item discrimination is fair, but not superb. I don't know whether this is valid assumption at all, but for the sake of argument, let's assume that the percentiles in the pool of Magoosh students roughly equals the overall percentiles in the pool of all GMAT takers. That would mean that the top 1/3 is 620 and above, and the bottom third is about 500 and below. Thus, for this question, the 620 and above folks get it correct 80% of the time, and the 500 and below folks get it right around 50% of time. I imagine that this means that it is not a "700 question," but it's far from clear to me what score we would correlate this question, nor it is clear what the percentages would have to be to make a question this chimerical beast called a "700 question."

Keep in mind, the data that Magoosh has on any question is nothing, a mere pittance, compared to the giant data pools that GMAC has. The idea, though, is that the more you think about the statistics and the psychometrics, the more blurry this idea of a "700 question" becomes.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

a non count noun such as limitation, or restriction can become a count noun when the meaning is specific.

The publication of Joyce's Ulysses was blocked on grounds of obscenity by the courts in the United States, but he published it in Paris in which there were less restricted novel contents.

(A) he published it in Paris in which there were less restricted novel contents
'He' does not have an atecedent and he is there fore a dangling pronoun.
(B) he published the novel in Paris which had less restricted novel contents
same as A
(C) Joyce published it in Paris where the content of novels was less restricted
Correct answer,the usage of 'content of novels was less restrcted' is also correct.
(D) Joyce published it in Paris where there were less restrictions for the contents of novels
less restrictions is wrong usage,since restrictions are countable and should be modified by fewer rather than less.
(E) Joyce published this novel in Paris in which there were less restrictions for the contents of such novels
'Paris in which' is incorrect usage.


I hope i answered correctly.

I have a question, can we use "restricted" verb with "content of novels"?
Is it not like using "funded" verb for "Progress" ? (progress is funded: not making sense)

Dear VKat,

I'm happy to respond.

The "-ed" form of a verb is called the past participle. The "-ing" form of a verb has several uses, one of which is the present participle. It's important to learn and understand this terminology. You can read more here:
[urlhttps://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/participle-phrases-on-the-gmat/]Participle Phrases on the GMAT[/url]

This is an extremely important distinction to understand. When a participle appears with an auxiliary verb, then that group of word together functions as a complete verb
"is funded"
"was restricted"
"will be discussed"
"is running"
"was studying"
All those are full verbs and could be the main verb of a clause.

By contrast, when a participle appears without an auxiliary verb, then it acts as a noun modifier.
"a college funded by the county government"
"the restricted content"
"the topic discussed at the meeting"
"the man running three marathons this year"
"the person studying in the subway station"
In all cases, those are participles acting as noun modifiers. None of those are full verbs: they have a very different job in the sentence.

The -ing form of a verb is very tricky: it is a full verb in the progressive tense when accompanied by an auxiliary verb, and when there's no auxiliary verb, it could be either a participle or a gerund. All of these are important terms to know and important ideas to understand.

Does all this make sense?
Mike