Last visit was: 18 Nov 2025, 22:24 It is currently 18 Nov 2025, 22:24
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2   3   
avatar
ankursethi297
avatar
Joined: 08 Jan 2017
Last visit: 22 Jun 2018
Posts: 11
Own Kudos:
12
Given Kudos: 12
GMAT 1: 750 Q51 V40
GPA: 3
Products:
My Reviews
GMAT 1: 750 Q51 V40
Posts: 11
Kudos: 12
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 06 Jun 2017, 11:46
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Isn't this a run off sentence?
Clause1: The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape

Clause2: its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark........

Please suggest
User avatar
egmat
User avatar
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 02 Nov 2011
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,108
Own Kudos:
32,884
 [4]
Given Kudos: 700
GMAT Date: 08-19-2020
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,108
Kudos: 32,884
 [4]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 06 Jun 2017, 21:07
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
2
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ankursethi297
Isn't this a run off sentence?
Clause1: The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape

Clause2: its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark........

Please suggest
Show more


Hello ankursethi297,


Let me help you resolve your confusion about this official sentence. :-)

If two independent clauses are connected by just a comma, then the structure is called a run-off sentence.

However, this official sentence is not a run-off sentence because there is only one independent clause in this sentence the SV pair of which is The single family house... was.

Please note that the words overlaid and banked are verb-ed modifiers that modifies the preceding noun entity its framework of poles.

Generally, test takers mistake all the verb-ed words as modifiers. But that is not the case. To learn how to distinguish between the verb-ed modifier and the simple past tense that also ends in "ed", please review the article named ED FORMS - Verbs or Modifiers in the following link:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ed-forms-verbs-or-modifiers-134691.html


Now let's talk about the structure its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet. This tructure can very well be connected to a preceding clause by a comma because it is what we call at e-GMAT is a Noun + Noun Modifier in which its framework of poles = Noun and overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet = Noun Modifiers.

We have a super detailed article named Noun + Noun Modifiers: The most "versatile" modifier that explains in excruciating details how these modifiers work with numerous official examples. You can review this article in the following link:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-noun-modifiers-the-most-versatile-modifier-137292.html


So, this official sentence contains an independent clause that is connected to a modifier by a comma.


Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha
User avatar
soodia
User avatar
Joined: 30 Apr 2017
Last visit: 02 Jan 2018
Posts: 45
Own Kudos:
13
 [2]
Given Kudos: 74
Posts: 45
Kudos: 13
 [2]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 25 Oct 2017, 04:28
Kudos
Add Kudos
2
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
GMATNinja
This one is pretty tricky, in my opinion. We’re mostly dealing with parallelism here, but it's not as straightforward as I’d like.

Quote:
A. banked with dirt to a height of

The underlined portion follows the word “and”, so we definitely need to think about parallelism. Here, the word that follows “and” is “banked.” In this case, "banked" is an adjective.

So what is “banked” parallel to? Well, “overlaid” is our nearest adjective, and that makes some sense: “its framework overlaid with poles… and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.” Not bad! That makes sense: the framework was banked with dirt. Keep (A).

Quote:
B. banked with dirt as high as that of
The only difference between (A) and (B) is the pronoun phrase, “that of.” “That” is a singular pronoun here, so it needs a singular antecedent. And we don’t have good candidates: “dirt” is the nearest singular noun, but that doesn’t make sense: “banked with dirt as high as the dirt of three to four feet.” Nope.

You can try the same thing with other singular nouns in the sentence (pine, cedar, bark, framework, house, etc.), but once you try to insert them into the sentence in place of “that”, you'll see that none of them make any logical sense. So (B) is gone.

Quote:
C. banked them with dirt to a height of
This is a little bit more subtle, but once “them” is added to the sentence, things get weird. The issue isn't necessarily that "them" is ambiguous (sure, there are a few different plural nouns that "them" could refer back to, but the nearest one, "slabs", is arguably OK). The real problem is that the parallelism doesn't really work. If "banked" is parallel to "overlaid", it doesn't make sense anymore: "its framework of poles... banked them with dirt"?!

OK, so what if "banked" is actually a verb, and it's parallel to "was"? That wouldn't make sense, either: "The single-family house constructed by the Yana... banked them with dirt." (C) is gone.

Quote:
D. was banked with dirt as high as

The verb phrase "was banked" follows "and", so it has to be parallel to some other verb phrase. "Was conical in shape" seems to be our best option, but that wouldn't make much sense, since it would imply that "The single-family house constructed by the Yana... was banked with dirt." And that's not quite right: the framework of poles was banked with dirt -- not the entire house. That's why it makes more sense to leave "banked" parallel to "overlaid", as in option (A). Eliminate (D).

Quote:
E. was banked with dirt as high as that of
(E) has the same pronoun error as (B), and the same parallelism/logic error as (D). So we’re left with (A).
Show more


Hi GMATNinja

I have a basic problem with this question. if we split the sentence and delete non-essential modifier we have
1)The single-family house constructed by the Yana was conical in shape,
2)its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

two Ic cannot join each other with a comma
am I wrong?
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,445
Own Kudos:
69,779
 [4]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,445
Kudos: 69,779
 [4]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 02 Nov 2017, 11:01
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
2
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
soodia

Hi GMATNinja

I have a basic problem with this question. if we split the sentence and delete non-essential modifier we have
1)The single-family house constructed by the Yana was conical in shape,
2)its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

two Ic cannot join each other with a comma
am I wrong?
Show more
Ah, I think I see where the confusion is coming from. The 2nd phrase ("its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark... and banked with dirt...") isn't an independent clause at all. "Overlaid" and "banked" are both modifiers here -- NOT verbs. So the entire phrase (beginning with "its framework") is actually just an absolute phrase, which is basically a type of noun (accompanied by tons of modifiers in this particular case) that's used to modify the preceding sentence.

In other words, the phrase that you have listed as #2 above is just giving us more information about phrase #1, and phrase #2 definitely is not an independent clause. Tricky!

chesstitans
how not to mistake "banked" for "was banked for"? I mean, how to know which parallels with which?
Show more
The best way to think about parallelism in this question is to react to each individual answer choice, and figure out how the parallelism works in each. Notice how I wrote the full explanation above: for each answer choice, I figured out what followed the parallelism trigger "and", and went from there. The parallelism turns out to be illogical in certain answer choices, but not in others.

Explanation is available here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-the-sin ... l#p1854761. Let me know if that doesn't clear it up.

I hope this helps!
User avatar
NandishSS
User avatar
Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Last visit: 28 Jan 2021
Posts: 720
Own Kudos:
1,721
Given Kudos: 579
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Finance
GPA: 3.35
WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)
Posts: 720
Kudos: 1,721
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 24 Mar 2018, 23:56
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

(A) banked with dirt to a height of
(B) banked with dirt as high as that of
(C) banked them with dirt to a height of
(D) was banked with dirt as high as
(E) was banked with dirt as high as that of

HI GMATNinja,

How in Option C banked them with dirt to a height of, "banked " is a verb but not an adjective?

Banked should modify poles
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,445
Own Kudos:
69,779
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,445
Kudos: 69,779
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 26 Mar 2018, 10:01
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
NandishSS
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

(A) banked with dirt to a height of
(B) banked with dirt as high as that of
(C) banked them with dirt to a height of
(D) was banked with dirt as high as
(E) was banked with dirt as high as that of

HI GMATNinja,

How in Option C banked them with dirt to a height of, "banked " is a verb but not an adjective?

Banked should modify poles
Show more
You're correct that "banked" SHOULD be an adjective that modifies "its framework of poles", and that's exactly what happens in the correct answer. In the explanation above for answer choice (C), I was just pointing out that it doesn't make sense for "banked" to be an adjective. And then I presented a hypothetical: what if "banked" is functioning as a verb instead? And it turns out that it can't do that, either. See above for more.

I hope this helps!
User avatar
Raksat
User avatar
Joined: 20 Feb 2017
Last visit: 13 Feb 2025
Posts: 151
Own Kudos:
524
 [4]
Given Kudos: 489
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Strategy
WE:Engineering (Other)
Posts: 151
Kudos: 524
 [4]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 05 Jun 2018, 22:39
4
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Wonderful explanations BY egmat and GMATNinja
I have one minor doubt in this question. What is the correct usage of " to a height of" and "as high as".
As per my understanding "as high as" should be followed by a definite attribute and not a range.
Is this correct ?
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,445
Own Kudos:
69,779
 [5]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,445
Kudos: 69,779
 [5]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 06 Jun 2018, 08:57
4
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Raksat
Wonderful explanations BY egmat and GMATNinja
I have one minor doubt in this question. What is the correct usage of " to a height of" and "as high as".
As per my understanding "as high as" should be followed by a definite attribute and not a range.
Is this correct ?
Show more
Ooh, interesting question, Raksat! I'd never thought about that, to be honest, but I think you're right: I don't think it makes sense to say "as high as three to four feet". If we're saying "as high as", then we should specify an absolute maximum value ("four feet", in this case), not a range. Good call.

To be fair, this isn't the sort of thing that I would bet my life on - you'll see far more serious errors in many GMAT answer choices, so I'd be conservative about it. But fundamentally, I think you're 100% spot-on. Nice observation.
User avatar
gmatman1031
User avatar
Joined: 27 Nov 2018
Last visit: 07 Mar 2019
Posts: 40
Own Kudos:
40
Given Kudos: 204
Posts: 40
Kudos: 40
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 12 Feb 2019, 12:19
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
When deciding between (A) and (D), I personally think that it makes sense to say "The single-family house ... was banked with dirt ..."

Thus, I wouldn't feel comfortable eliminating (D) based on that meaning. In other words, I think (D) would be just as attractive if it had instead read:
was banked with dirt to a height of

The problem I find with (D) is the phrase "as high as three to four feet". If something is "as high as three to four feet", then it would mean the same thing and would be much more succinct to say "as high as four feet". Thus, I believe the author intended to say "to a height of three to four feet". This has been discussed earlier by GMATNinja and Raksat.

Finally, I don't agree with egmat's statement:
egmat
A thing that we must bear in mind is that the function of the original sentence is not only to provide one of the five answer choices. The original sentence presents the context. In absence of any other information, we must rely on the context set by the original sentence to understand the intended meaning.
Show more
Here is an example where the original sentence has the wrong meaning:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ability- ... 81390.html
User avatar
GMATGuruNY
User avatar
Joined: 04 Aug 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,344
Own Kudos:
3,795
 [1]
Given Kudos: 9
Schools:Dartmouth College
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 1,344
Kudos: 3,795
 [1]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 12 Feb 2019, 13:13
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
anujag24
Option A and D have confused me
Show more

A: its framework...banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet
Here, the portion in blue is an ADVERB serving to modify banked, expressing HOW the framework was BANKED.
Question: HOW was the framework banked?
Answer: It was banked TO A HEIGHT OF THREE TO FOUR FEET.

D: its framework...banked with dirt as high as three to four feet
Here, the portion in red seems to be an adjective describing dirt.
Question: What KIND of dirt?
Answer: Dirt AS HIGH AS THREE TO FOUR FEET.
Not the intended meaning.
The intention here is not to describe the type of dirt but to express how the framework was banked.
Eliminate D.
User avatar
Kinshook
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 03 Jun 2019
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,793
Own Kudos:
5,509
Given Kudos: 161
Location: India
Schools: HBS '26 CBS '26 Wharton '26
GMAT 1: 690 Q50 V34
WE:Engineering (Transportation)
Products:
My Reviews
Schools: HBS '26 CBS '26 Wharton '26
GMAT 1: 690 Q50 V34
Posts: 5,793
Kudos: 5,509
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 24 Mar 2020, 23:23
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
chunjuwu
Source : GMATPrep Default Exam Pack

The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.


(A) banked with dirt to a height of

(B) banked with dirt as high as that of

(C) banked them with dirt to a height of

(D) was banked with dirt as high as

(E) was banked with dirt as high as that of


Verbal Question of The Day: Day 15: Sentence Correction


Subscribe to GMAT Question of the Day: E-mail | RSS
For All QOTD Questions Click Here

Show Spoiler
Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America
By Theodora Kroeber
University of California Press, 1961

Attachment:
Annotation 2019-08-18 192153.jpg
Show more

The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.


(A) banked with dirt to a height of

(B) banked with dirt as high as that of

(C) banked them with dirt to a height of

(D) was banked with dirt as high as

(E) was banked with dirt as high as that of

IMO A
avatar
Gj1990
avatar
Joined: 14 Dec 2018
Last visit: 27 Jul 2021
Posts: 2
Given Kudos: 10
Posts: 2
Kudos: 0
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 09 May 2021, 02:16
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Experts Please help ,


Option A , ambiguity -

1) The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was (X) conical in shape , its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and (Y) banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet .

2) The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles (X) overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, (Y) and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

Isn't option A ambiguous in parallelism ?.

I see two parallel structures which could be derived and therefore creating different meanings .
Isn't this ambiguity a significant enogh to eliminate option A) .

AND WHEN SHOULD I CONSIDER PARALLELISM AMBIGUOUS !
avatar
giovannisumano
avatar
Joined: 27 Aug 2020
Last visit: 21 Aug 2021
Posts: 32
Own Kudos:
9
Given Kudos: 146
Posts: 32
Kudos: 9
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 20 May 2021, 12:02
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
gmatexam439
souvik101990

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 15: Sentence Correction


Subscribe to GMAT Question of the Day: E-mail | RSS
For All QOTD Questions Click Here

The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

A. banked with dirt to a height of
B. banked with dirt as high as that of
C. banked them with dirt to a height of
D. was banked with dirt as high as
E. was banked with dirt as high as that of

Every question of the day will be followed by an expert reply by GMATNinja in 12-15 hours. Stay tuned! Post your answers and explanations to earn kudos.


GMATNinja : Why can't a house be banked? I thought that the house had been banked; therefore I ended up selecting "D".
The statement never explicitly states that the house CAN'T be banked.
In my opinion I don't feel that banking of house is awkward either. So why is "D" incorrect.

Please help me with this.
Regards
Show more

I understand what you are saying, I still have doubts about the provided explanations. I actually feel that there is an implicit was before the verbs "overlaid" and "banked", because the frame cannot "overlay with barks himself", nor "bank himself". In other words, someone had to overlay the frame with barks and bank the frame with dirt:

The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles [was] overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and [was] banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

But even if this is the case "banked with dirt" still modifies "framework of poles", so the parallelism is kept with the non-underlined text:
The house
+was canonical..,
+its frame was
-overlaid..
-banked..

In order for banked to modify the house the non underlined section should have a structure similar to
The house
+was canonical..,
+overlaid with..,
+banked with..,

Having said all of this I think that there's a definite reason to eliminate option D

D. was banked with dirt as high as three to four feet -> "as high as x to y" is incorrect, if you want to give a range instead of a single value you would say "to a height of x to y feet"
User avatar
NikhilJose
User avatar
Joined: 19 Nov 2020
Last visit: 30 Nov 2021
Posts: 22
Own Kudos:
3
Given Kudos: 27
Location: India
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V38
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V38
Posts: 22
Kudos: 3
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 08 Jun 2021, 08:12
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi GMATNinja,
Just a quick question to enhance my understanding.

Let say hypothetically the non-underlined portion said "it framework of poles was overlaid...."

Could we in this case go with option D considering parallelism.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Nik
GMATNinja
This one is pretty tricky, in my opinion. We’re mostly dealing with parallelism here, but it's not as straightforward as I’d like.

Quote:
A. banked with dirt to a height of

The underlined portion follows the word “and”, so we definitely need to think about parallelism. Here, the word that follows “and” is “banked.” In this case, "banked" is an adjective.

So what is “banked” parallel to? Well, “overlaid” is our nearest adjective, and that makes some sense: “its framework overlaid with poles… and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.” Not bad! That makes sense: the framework was banked with dirt. Keep (A).

Quote:
B. banked with dirt as high as that of
The only difference between (A) and (B) is the pronoun phrase, “that of.” “That” is a singular pronoun here, so it needs a singular antecedent. And we don’t have good candidates: “dirt” is the nearest singular noun, but that doesn’t make sense: “banked with dirt as high as the dirt of three to four feet.” Nope.

You can try the same thing with other singular nouns in the sentence (pine, cedar, bark, framework, house, etc.), but once you try to insert them into the sentence in place of “that”, you'll see that none of them make any logical sense. So (B) is gone.

Quote:
C. banked them with dirt to a height of
This is a little bit more subtle, but once “them” is added to the sentence, things get weird. The issue isn't necessarily that "them" is ambiguous (sure, there are a few different plural nouns that "them" could refer back to, but the nearest one, "slabs", is arguably OK). The real problem is that the parallelism doesn't really work. If "banked" is parallel to "overlaid", it doesn't make sense anymore: "its framework of poles... banked them with dirt"?!

OK, so what if "banked" is actually a verb, and it's parallel to "was"? That wouldn't make sense, either: "The single-family house constructed by the Yana... banked them with dirt." (C) is gone.

Quote:
D. was banked with dirt as high as

The verb phrase "was banked" follows "and", so it has to be parallel to some other verb phrase. "Was conical in shape" seems to be our best option, but that wouldn't make much sense, since it would imply that "The single-family house constructed by the Yana... was banked with dirt." And that's not quite right: the framework of poles was banked with dirt -- not the entire house. That's why it makes more sense to leave "banked" parallel to "overlaid", as in option (A). Eliminate (D).

Quote:
E. was banked with dirt as high as that of
(E) has the same pronoun error as (B), and the same parallelism/logic error as (D). So we’re left with (A).
Show more
User avatar
mSKR
User avatar
Joined: 14 Aug 2019
Last visit: 10 Mar 2024
Posts: 1,290
Own Kudos:
938
 [1]
Given Kudos: 381
Location: Hong Kong
Concentration: Strategy, Marketing
Schools: IE (A) IIML-IPMX '22 (A) HKUST '22
GMAT 1: 650 Q49 V29
GPA: 3.81
Schools: IE (A) IIML-IPMX '22 (A) HKUST '22
GMAT 1: 650 Q49 V29
Posts: 1,290
Kudos: 938
 [1]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 08 Jun 2021, 15:43
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
NikhilJose
Hi GMATNinja,
Just a quick question to enhance my understanding.

Let say hypothetically the non-underlined portion said "it framework of poles was overlaid...."

Could we in this case go with option D considering parallelism.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Nik
Show more


The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.

Your proposal: The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles WAS overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and WAS banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.
Identify core: The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American people who lived in what is now northern California, was conical in shape, its framework of poles WAS overlaid with slabs of bark, either cedar or pine, and WAS banked with dirt to a height of three to four feet.
>> <NOUN> <HELPING VERB> <MAINVERB >, <NOUN> <HELPING VERB>< VERB> and <HELPING VERB> <VERB>
You can see it's a sentence construction error. 2 independent clauses connected only with a COMMA
SO in your proposal new construction would be wrong too


I hope it helps
User avatar
KittyDoodles
User avatar
Joined: 21 Jan 2020
Last visit: 26 Mar 2025
Posts: 102
Own Kudos:
6
Given Kudos: 346
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Posts: 102
Kudos: 6
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 11 Jun 2022, 05:19
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi Experts,

What does "the framework of poles banked with dirt" mean in this sentence.

Thanks
User avatar
ryanstarr
User avatar
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 22 Sep 2021
Last visit: 17 Nov 2025
Posts: 55
Own Kudos:
127
Given Kudos: 12
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V49
GMAT 2: 790 Q51 V50 (Online)
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 790 Q51 V50 (Online)
Posts: 55
Kudos: 127
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 11 Jun 2022, 08:26
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

What does "the framework of poles banked with dirt" mean in this sentence.

Thanks
Show more

Basically there's are wooden poles arranged in a conical way (sort of like the poles of a tipi) that serve as the skeleton of the structure, and then that skeleton is wrapped in bark or other things. After that, dirt is kind of pushed up against its lower sides to a height of 3-4 feet, so its lower wall is sort of clad on the outside with dirt. If you've seen an ice cream cone partially dipped in chocolate, that might serve as a good analogous illustration. This dirt bank/half-wall served to keep rain from flooding into the house.
User avatar
KittyDoodles
User avatar
Joined: 21 Jan 2020
Last visit: 26 Mar 2025
Posts: 102
Own Kudos:
6
Given Kudos: 346
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Posts: 102
Kudos: 6
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 11 Jun 2022, 08:42
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ryanstarr
KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

What does "the framework of poles banked with dirt" mean in this sentence.

Thanks

Basically there's are wooden poles arranged in a conical way (sort of like the poles of a tipi) that serve as the skeleton of the structure, and then that skeleton is wrapped in bark or other things. After that, dirt is kind of pushed up against its lower sides to a height of 3-4 feet, so its lower wall is sort of clad on the outside with dirt. If you've seen an ice cream cone partially dipped in chocolate, that might serve as a good analogous illustration. This dirt bank/half-wall served to keep rain from flooding into the house.
Show more

Thanks for the quick reply.

Why would the below parallelism in Option D be incorrect.

"The single-family house constructed by the Yana was conical in shape and was banked with dirt as high as three to four feet".

I rejected this option just because the end of option A "to a height of three to four feet" was better compared to this option.

Thanks
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,193
Own Kudos:
4,760
Given Kudos: 43
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,193
Kudos: 4,760
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 12 Jun 2022, 04:55
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KittyDoodles
ryanstarr
KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

What does "the framework of poles banked with dirt" mean in this sentence.

Thanks

Basically there's are wooden poles arranged in a conical way (sort of like the poles of a tipi) that serve as the skeleton of the structure, and then that skeleton is wrapped in bark or other things. After that, dirt is kind of pushed up against its lower sides to a height of 3-4 feet, so its lower wall is sort of clad on the outside with dirt. If you've seen an ice cream cone partially dipped in chocolate, that might serve as a good analogous illustration. This dirt bank/half-wall served to keep rain from flooding into the house.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Why would the below parallelism in Option D be incorrect.

"The single-family house constructed by the Yana was conical in shape and was banked with dirt as high as three to four feet".

I rejected this option just because the end of option A "to a height of three to four feet" was better compared to this option.

Thanks
Show more

Hello, KittyDoodles,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option D incorrectly maintains parallelism between "was conical in shape" and "was banked with dirt", incorrectly implying that the single-family house constructed by the Yana was banked with dirt; the intended meaning is that the house's framework of poles was banked with dirt; please remember, elements of a sentence should only be parallel is they play the same role in the sentence; here, "conical in shape" is an attribute of the house itself, and "banked with dirt" is an attribute of the house's framework.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
User avatar
ryanstarr
User avatar
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 22 Sep 2021
Last visit: 17 Nov 2025
Posts: 55
Own Kudos:
127
 [2]
Given Kudos: 12
Location: United States
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V49
GMAT 2: 790 Q51 V50 (Online)
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 790 Q51 V50 (Online)
Posts: 55
Kudos: 127
 [2]
The single-family house constructed by the Yana, a Native American peo 14 Jun 2022, 08:15
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KittyDoodles
ryanstarr
KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

What does "the framework of poles banked with dirt" mean in this sentence.

Thanks

Basically there's are wooden poles arranged in a conical way (sort of like the poles of a tipi) that serve as the skeleton of the structure, and then that skeleton is wrapped in bark or other things. After that, dirt is kind of pushed up against its lower sides to a height of 3-4 feet, so its lower wall is sort of clad on the outside with dirt. If you've seen an ice cream cone partially dipped in chocolate, that might serve as a good analogous illustration. This dirt bank/half-wall served to keep rain from flooding into the house.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Why would the below parallelism in Option D be incorrect.

"The single-family house constructed by the Yana was conical in shape and was banked with dirt as high as three to four feet".

I rejected this option just because the end of option A "to a height of three to four feet" was better compared to this option.

Thanks
Show more

To be honest, I'm in the same boat as you--I think that the parallelism in option (D) is at least logical enough to be acceptable. After all, if the framework of poles is banked with dirt, the house itself is also banked with dirt. That does leave its framework of poles overlaid ... pine as a kind of awkward modifier for the first part of the parallel structure, but it's not a dealbreaker--there are worse modifiers out there. As such, like you, I would look to the to a height of vs. as high as split for confirmation that (A) was better than (D). Finding two things not to love about (D) (that comparison and the awkward modifier) seals the deal for me.
   1   2   3   
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7445 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
234 posts
miag
188 posts