Snowygary

Let us consider two choices A and E.

A) The success of the first landing on the moon emboldened some scientists to claim that a Mars landing was imminent, vastly underestimating the difficulties entailed in such a feat. --- here the previous clause is --- the success of the first landing on the moon emboldened --- and this is modified by—‘vastly underestimating …’ Please ask whether a success can underestimate! You can see why A is logically meaningless.

E) Emboldened by the success of the first moon landing, some scientists claimed that a Mars landing was imminent, vastly underestimating the difficulties such a feat entails.

In E, the previous clause is--- some scientists claimed … --- the modifier modifies the scientists which is the subject of the previous clause and their action claimed --- and does so correctly
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Official Explanation Magoosh:

(A) incorrectly implies that the noun of the sentence “success” vastly underestimated the difficulties. It was the scientists.

(B) changes the meaning so it sounds like the scientists were emboldened by the fact that they vastly underestimated the difficulties, not that they were emboldened by a successful moon landing.

(C) “first moon landing success” slightly changes the meaning. That is, there could be many prior moon landings and this one was the first successful one. However, the OA is clear that the very first moon landing was a success. Also, it is a bit odd to move “underestimated” to passive voice. Not wrong in of itself, but fishy. Finally, “entailed in such a feat” seems slightly verbose compared to “such a feat entails”. So nothing is majorly wrong with (C), just a bunch of little things.

(D) scrambles up the sequence of events. Scientists were emboldened by a successful moon landing and so they went on to make bolder claims. (D) implies that in vastly underestimating the difficulties, scientists were emboldened by the success of the first moon landing.

(E) The sequence of events is correct, and “vastly underestimating” correctly modifies scientists.
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I took the test a few day ago and fail on verbal, specifically on sc.

I am obsessed too much with grammar rules and do not focus on meaning.

this question is typical of sc thinking, meaning and logic.

I choose E here because it is most logic.

all other choice are wrong because meaning problem

because my english is enhanced already, I hope to fix verbal score in two month.

I think that the logic of sc and cr can be learn in a few months if the english of the test taker is enhanced alread

there are 2 problems for non native : english proficiency and skill on gmat. the first can be learn in 6 months, the second in 2 months. without the first, I can not learn the second

can anyone explain what's wrong with option A?
"success of first landing on the moon" is much clearer than "first moon landing". Also, i have read somewhere that on gmat, "of something" is more preferred than " something's" . is it so?

Hello grr8pe

Comma before -ing modifier means that modifier modify the whole clause.
In this sentence clause is
The success of the first landing on the moon emboldened some scientists to claim that a Mars landing was imminent, vastly underestimating the difficulties entailed in such a feat.

So we received meaning: "Success ... emboldened ..., vastly underestimating the difficulties entailed in such a feat."
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Can someone please explain opt C

Hello snowygari

C) The first moon landing success emboldened some scientists to claim that a Mars landing was imminent, a prediction in which the difficulties entailed in such a feat were underestimated.

The beginnings of phrase change original meaning: first moon landing success implies that were some moon landings and this was successful, but original meaning was: The success of the first landing: first landing - success.

difficulties underestimated - unneeded passive form

difficulties entailed in such feat I am not sure but think this is not correct or at least awkward form of saying: difficulties such a feat entails.
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opt a - the success of landing on moon emboldened some scientist to claim... thus underestimating the difficulties... modifying everything before..i.e. success, emboldened,claim etc....

opt e - simply says - scientist emboldened by success, claimed .. thus underestimating the difficulties (result of claim)

please check my understanding here

Hi,

Do we consider "Comma + Vastly underestimating" as "Comma + ING" modifier?

Hi! Yes this is correct! This modifier modifies the clause preceeding it.
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Hi! =)

For (C), is it OK to say ", a prediction ..."?
"The first moon landing success emboldened some scientists to claim that a Mars landing was imminent, a prediction in which the difficulties entailed in such a feat were underestimated.
In this case I believe that "a prediction" is an appositive of "that a Mars landing was imminent," and "which was" is omitted here?

C is closed but, "The first moon landing success" changes the meaning => C is definitely not the answer.

Hello egmat , daagh

I remember coming across an example from e-gmat module:

Mary's father wants her to become a doctor, making a difference in people's lives

Here the modifier entity(making a difference in people's lives) and modified entity ("to become") have a common doer("Mary")

On similar lines in option A

modifier entity: underestimating the difficulties
modified entity: to become
doer: scientists

Still can't understand why A is wrong. Please help!!

You won't belive, but I had the same thing in mind, cuz I remeber this case during my egmat course. Left with A and E, I chose E because it stresses "sientists" as a main doer of the action. Here scientists are "less passive". GMAT has tendency to like active voice over passive one.

thangvietname hit the nail on its head. I think searching for the right meaning and the right splits effectively halves the time to search for mistakes. In this question, I was stuck between 2 choices but the meaning gave me the right solution. It is absolutely critical to be thinking about the meaning along with grammatical errors.

Hi,

I have a doubt over here. Should not the comma + ING-Modifier should be modifying the most immediate clause? In the correct answer E, we have :

Emboldened by the success of the first moon landing, some scientists claimed that a Mars landing was imminent, vastly underestimating the difficulties such a feat entails.

In the above case, the clause in the Bold should get modified, which is non-nonsensical in this case.


Hi mikemcgarry, AjiteshArun, egmat

Could you please clarify this doubt

Hi abhishekmayank,

The , -ing structure doesn't have to refer to the closest clause. It can, but it doesn't have to.
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