Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously

Question

Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated  their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

(A) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated

(B) Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated

(C) Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated

(D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations communicated

(E) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellished them and communicated

blueseas · Accepted Answer

hi,

correct question is as follows:

Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated  their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

A) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated

B) Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated

C) Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated

D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations communicated

E) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellished them and communicated

The core of the sentence here is "monks communicated." The other pieces are modifying: "through their manuscript illuminations" tells us how they communicated, as does "meticulously embellishing." Because they're telling us how, these are both adverbial modifiers.

The problem, though, is that we can't stack two modifiers in a row if they're modifying the same thing. Effectively, what we have is: 
Subject, adverbial modifier, adverbial modifier, verb... 
We need to conjoin these modifiers (if they're modifying the same thing), or change one of them to modify something else.

A) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated 
Two adverbial modifiers modifying the same thing.

B) Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated 
Same issue here - the modifiers were simply moved to the beginning of the sentence, but it's still two adverbial modifiers modifying the same thing.

C) Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated 
Here, the idea of "embellishing" has been changed. The "with which" tells us that this is now modifying the word that came before it: "illuminations." It's a modifier nested within another modifier - in other words, they're modifying two different things. CORRECT

D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations communicated 
Here, the modifiers aren't directly in a row, but they're still both adverbial modifiers trying to modify the same thing.

E) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellished them and communicated 
This sentence now makes "embellished" a verb rather than a modifier. This fixes the modifier issue, but it changes the meaning. "Embellished" and "communicated" are not parallel ideas. 
Furthermore, the use of "them" is incorrect. We can't use "their" to refer to monks and "them" to refer to the manuscripts in the same sentence.

hope it helps

daagh · Answer

The point here is that when a present participial modifier( verb+ing) starts a sentence, it modifies the following subject by virtue of its being an adjectival modifier. However, if the verb+ing modifier is placed in the middle of a sentence, it can modify only a previous clause. If there is no clause before the modifier and if there is only a phrase, then it may not modify the phrase. In A, and B, there is no clause with an authentic verb for the modifier to modify. Hence, they are out of the reckoning; In E, we have no clear referent for the pronoun ‘them’. In addition, ‘embellished’ and ‘communicated’ are not two separate, equal functions. So both cannot be tensed; the core function ‘communicated’ has to be tensed and the ‘embellishing’ has to be participled.

In D, The verb is far removed from the subject monks and hence is inferior to the more dynamic C although it is hard to explain whether such a hair - split is substantive enough to reject a choice.

The final choice may be C with a pinch of salt.

In D, The verb is far removed from the subject monks and hence is inferior to the more dynamic C although it is hard to explain whether such a hair - split is substantive enough to reject a choice.

The final choice may be C with a pinch of salt.

shanmugamgsn · Answer

Oh i went with B.. later found i'm wrong

B)Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks
 C)Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks

C and B seems to give same logical meaning IMO....
can anyone comment on this???

vishu1414 · Answer

Explanation as per Source -
Correct answer: (C)

In the original sentence, the subject “medieval monks” is separated from the main verb “communicated” by two modifiers (“through their manuscript illuminations” and “meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy”). This would only be a Second-Tier error—a question of precision and style—were it not for the Verb Form error: “embellishing” should not be in the present continuous tense because it should agree with “communicated.” Answer (B) puts the sentence elements in a more logical order, joining “medieval monks” to “communicated” more closely, but it retains the Verb Form error. 
Answer (C) is correct because “Through their manuscript illuminations” modifies “medieval monks” even though the two elements are separated by “with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy,” which now grammatically modifies “illuminations” instead of “monks.” This clarifies the relationships between the sentence elements and reunites the sentence’s main subject and main verb with each other.

Now the question is - Do we follow this style of "remote modification " as in C?

b2bt · Answer

can anyone explain this in details?
especially option (C) vs. (D)

My thought process:
After reading all options everything looked the same. I went back to the first one, and I concluded that 'meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy' was also something which monk did with the manuscript
(A) Unclear how monk meticulously embellished the elaborate calligraphy - two modifiers placed next to each other
(B) same as (A)
(C) Clears our doubt as elaborate calligraphy was done by the manuscripts. Even though two modifiers are placed next to each other, their relationship is clearly defined by 'with which'
(D) Separates the two modifier and hence a strong contender. When compared to (C), its easy to understand that calligraphy is not task by itself it was done using the manuscript somehow. Also, unclear placement of commas
(E) Completely incorrect as calligraphy is gone now and manuscripts are embellished

KarishmaB · Answer

Manuscript illuminations are small illustrations (borders, pictures, letter decorations) that were done to increase the value of the manuscript (an original handwritten document).

The monks embellished calligraphy with illuminations e.g. gold dots on first letters, silver underlining of important people names etc. 
So the gist of the sentence is "Through their manuscript illuminations, medieval monks communicated their understanding of the texts."

(C) clearly states the message:

Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated ...

Since the monks embellished the calligraphy with illuminations, this option clarifies the role of each part of the sentence.

(D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations communicated ...
Here, the meaning of the sentence is lost.

neeraj609 · Answer

Hi,

As per my understanding comma in the middle is not underlined. So I read the core sentence of option C after masking the modifiers, it looks something like this:

C.  Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy,  medieval monks , communicated their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

This is a fragment with just the subject Medieval Monks because of the comma between monk and communicated.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance!

daagh · Answer

Neeraj 
Hi

This is a simulated version of the OG question, OG 13 -- Q no 104. 
Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives, capitalized on her keen observation and love of the natural world.

(A) Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives, 
(B) In her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives, Beatrix Potter 
(C) In her book illustrations, which she carefully coordinated with her narratives, Beatrix Potter 
(D) Carefully coordinated with her narratives, Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations 
(E) Beatrix Potter, in her book illustrations, carefully coordinated them with her narratives and

When you cross-check the transcription of the underlined portion with choice A that is supposed to be the same as in the text, we can see that the comma is underlined. 
Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

A)Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy
B)Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks
C)Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks
D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations
E)Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellished them and 
But for some strange reason, the comma after calligraphy has been omitted from the Veritas question. 
This must be a typo, maybe by oversight. This is the root of confusion, as I see.

A kudos to you for your keen eye.

AbdurRakib · Answer

Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy , communicated their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

A)Medieval monks,  through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy   ........>Meaning error 
 B)Through their manuscript illuminations,  meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy , medieval monks  .........>modifier errror,incorrectly modifying "medival monks" 
 C)Through their manuscript illuminations,  with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy , medieval monks .......>  Correct  ,
 D)  Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy , medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations   .........>Modifier error leading to meanng error 
 E)Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously  embellished  them and   ............>Changed the meaning

thangvietname · Answer

i dont think that gmat will test this kind of question. 
sc test meaning. this mean we have to understand the meaning of each phrase to know which phrase modify which phrase. but if the meaning of a phrase is too specialist which is understood only by a specialist, no one can understand the meaning of that phrase. and so, no one can solve that sc problem.

this sentence require a deep specialist understanding of a phrase. so, on ly a few students can solve this one.

to make a sc harder, gmat can present the scenario in which meaning of each phrase is easy but the combination of the meanings is hard. we do not know which meaning modifies which meaning.

DmitryFarber · Answer

What specialist knowledge are you referring to? The meaning of the word "illuminations" in this context? That's a fairly widely-known meaning and could certainly be fair game on the GMAT. Furthermore, we can solve this using our grammar knowledge without knowing what an illumination is.

sayantanc2k · Answer

"Communicated" is not a part of the underlined portion.

Subject of main clause: Medieval monks
Verb of main clause: communicated

{Note: Please feel free to use the "Request expert reply" button in case you need your query to be responded by one of the verbal experts. You will find the button at the bottom of the first post (the question) }

DmitryFarber · Answer

Okay, so here's the sentence according to D:

Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, communicated their interpretive understanding of the texts they illustrated.

Is there a rule that we can't have two adverbial modifiers in a row (separated or not)? No, but it often causes trouble when we try! Sometimes it makes the intended meaning unclear, and sometimes it just keeps us waiting too long to get to the main clause. In this case, we have an additional adverbial modifier inserted between the subject (monks) and the verb (communicated). This isn't always wrong, but it's an advanced move that one should typically avoid, and it's generally going to work out badly on SC.

Normally, we'd fix this by placing the modifier before or after the action. In this case, since the clause ends in a long modifier, placing "through their manuscript illuminations" before the clause makes the most sense. The problem is that we have another modifier there. If we start with "Meticulously embellishing . . . , through their manuscript illuminations," by the time the reader gets through all that they are just dying to know the subject! For a similar "traffic jam," look at answer choice E of the Stella Adler problem. (E is also wrong for other modifier-related reasons.) https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-an-actres ... 20808.html

So what do we do? Typically, the GMAT will solve this problem by converting one of the modifiers to something else. The right answer of the Stella Adler problem takes one of those adverbial modifiers and puts it into the main clause. The monks problem takes what was an adverbial modifier in A/B/D and turns it into a noun modifier that builds on the initial adverbial modifier. This is not the most elegant solution (C is still fairly bad writing), but it helps to solve the problem.

Another problem with D is that it opens with "Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy." It makes it seem as if there is some existing calligraphy that we're already supposed to know about. To avoid this, we can ditch the article ("the"), as C does, or we can add something after "calligraphy" (e.g. "Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy in their manuscripts, medieval monks . . . ").

DmitryFarber · Answer

Short version:

*Avoid stacking adverbial modifiers together if at all possible.
*Avoid separating the subject and verb with an adverbial modifier if at all possible.

It's important to remember that a sentence shouldn't require deep analysis to reveal the correct relationships between its parts. A well-written sentence should be arranged in order to make interpretation as easy as possible (unless the author is being poetic, which isn't going to happen on the GMAT).

So in this case, it's not enough that logically, both adverbial modifiers clearly apply to the main clause. It works "mathematically," in the same sense that serving your guest all the ingredients for a sandwich in random order is the same as serving that guest a completed sandwich. But that first option isn't polite to your guest, and option D isn't polite to your reader. It chops up the sentence in a way that makes it difficult and halting to read.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, communicated
This argument tries to convey that elaborate calligraphy was the main medium of communication

(B) Through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated
This conveys meaning as though mediveal monks were the one meteculuosly embleshing calligraphy

(C) Through their manuscript illuminations, with which they meticulously embellished elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks communicated
This one nails it exactly as we require it

(D) Meticulously embellishing the elaborate calligraphy, medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations communicated
This also has ambigious meaning

(E) Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously embellished them and communicated
This also has similar problems as D 
Hence IMO C

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Medieval monks, through their manuscript illuminations, meticulously

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards