In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Lea

Question

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary  Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African cave paintings.

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of

(D) Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

(E) Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 96: Sentence Correction 
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GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

This is a sneaky, sneaky question. The most important part of the sentence comes right at the beginning: “in addition to her work…” It’s not quite a comparison, but imagine what would happen if this said “in contrast to her work…” You’d want to follow the comma with something that can be logically compared with “her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record”, right? And that would be “Leakey’s contributions…” not “Leakey” herself.

The same is true with the “in addition to.” It’s not ideal to say “in addition to her work…, Leakey…” (A), (B), and (C) are all flawed for that reason, but some of them have other issues, too.

The same is true with the “in addition to.” It’s not ideal to say “in addition to her work…, Leakey…” (A), (B), and (C) are all flawed for that reason, but some of them have other issues, too.

(A) also has a parallelism error. After the parallelism trigger “and”, we have “painstakingly documenting.” So we need something in the same format, and I just don’t see any options. “Her discovery” would be the closest thing, but that’s still not structurally parallel to “painstakingly documenting.” (A) is gone.

The biggest problem with this is probably the “in addition to her work…, Leakey” thing we discussed at the top. But I also think it’s wrong to say “Leakey contributed… by her discovery…” You could talk me into “with her discovery” or “by documenting” – but not “by her discovery. Ditch (B).

“Leakey was a contributor to archaeology” is a very odd way to say that she “contributed to archaeology”, but I’m not 100% certain that it’s wrong. But we still have the same “in addition to her work…, Leakey” thing that we discussed at the beginning. (C) is out.

The beginning makes much more sense now: “in addition to her work…, Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include…” That’s great, both because it’s parallel (two possessive nouns) and because it makes a whole lot of sense. The parallelism is better, too: “Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include  her discovery  of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and  her painstaking documentation …” Can’t ask for much better. Keep (D).

This isn’t horrible, but it’s not as good as (D). First, “include her discovering” is pretty crappy – it makes much more sense to put the possessive “her” in front of the common noun “discovery” instead of the gerund “discovering.” The parallelism is also a little bit off: “Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include  her discovering  the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and  painstaking documentation …” It’s weird to have the possessive + gerund in the first part, and then a nice noun in the second part of the parallel list.

Again, (E) isn’t a total disaster, but it’s clearly a weaker answer than (D).

tkarthi4u · Answer

This question is among the brutual SC list. I remeber it well because as you i was stunned when my answer choice was wrong.

I found an explaination in another forum. Just sharring it with you.
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In this case, the right answer might actually look wrong to many people (which often happens on tricky questions). The opening phrase is talking about her work and saying "in addition to" her work on the fossil record - so we need to say what it is that is referring to this work. Her work on the fossil record was one of her contributions, just as her discovery of hominid activity was one of her contributions. But that's pretty subtle - if you're reading too quickly, you'll think that the opening modifier is referring to Mary Leakey and so we need to have her follow the comma. (But that's not really what's going on - what's actually going on is that we have a list of 3 contributions, but one comes at the beginning of the sentence and the other two come towards the end.)

A simpler sentence with the same set-up: 
In addition to food, the mother's contributions to her child include shelter and love. 
And as a straight list: 
The mother's contributions to her child include food, shelter, and love. 
Mary Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African paintings.
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ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem :
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Parallelism + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• In the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction
• Any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.
• For referring to the method by which something is done “verb + though + noun” is the correct idiomatic construction.

A:  This answer choice incorrectly uses “In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record” to modify “Mary Leakey, leading to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between “her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity” and “painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings”; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.

B:  This answer choice incorrectly uses “In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record” to modify “Mary Leakey, leading to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option B incorrectly uses the unidiomatic “verb + by + noun” construction to refer to the method by which an action is taken; remember, for referring to the method by which something is done “verb + though + noun” is the correct idiomatic construction.

C:  This answer choice incorrectly uses “In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record” to modify “Mary Leakey, leading to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option C uses the passive voice construction “Leakey was a contributor to archaeology”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D:   Correct.  This answer choice correctly uses “In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record” to modify “Mary Leakey’s contributions to archaeology”, conveying the intended meaning – that Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings. Further, Option D correctly maintains parallelism between “her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity” and “her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings”. Additionally, Option D avoids the idiomatic error seen in Option B, as it uses the clause “contributions include” rather than the verb “contributed” to refer to the method by which Mary Leaky contributed to archaeology. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E:  This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity” and “painstaking documentation of East African Cave paintings”; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqgMtdyK2D4

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

prasannar · Answer

D for me ..

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary  Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African cave paintings.

calls for Leakey's contributions.. thus A,B,C are out

now between D&E

D is the best, E modifies the meaning

A. Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

B. Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting-> by her .. is awkward..

C. Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of->

D. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

E. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of-> "her discovering" ?

gixxer1000 · Answer

I came a little late to the party but got D as the answer and here is why.

The sentence starts out 'In addition to'. For this reasons we need to say 'Leakey's contributions to acheology include' because we must include the work on the hominid fossil as one of them.

ex. If we say;

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of ....

This implies that the work on the Miocene hominid fossil is not a contribution.

ex. In addition to X, Mary Leakey contributed to Y..
This sentence structure suggest that X and Y are different.

ex. In addtion to X, Mary Leakey's contributions to Y include..
This sentence structure suggest that X and Y are related.

Zarrolou · Answer

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary L eakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African cave paintings.

A and B and E are not parallel with/by   her discovery   /   painstakingly documenting  
or  her discovering and painstaking documentation  in E.

C. Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

C and D remain, and they both look fine taken by them self. Look at the initial modifier "In addition to her work": what should complete it?

"In addition to her work" Leakey’s contributions <== correct - in addition to her work there is her contributions to etc...
"In addition to her work" Leakey <=== not correct as it states that "she" is an addition to her work.

Hope it's clear

jns · Answer

In addition to her work on the Miocene homicide fossil record, Mary  Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African paintings.

Possessive pronoun (her) can have a non-possessive noun (Mary Leaky) as its antecedent. So both Mary Leaky and Mary Leaky's are fine.

Parallelism: her work (noun), her discovery (noun) and her painstaking documentation (noun)

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  her work (noun), her discovery (noun) and painstakingly documenting (participle) - not parallel

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting  Same as A

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of  was a contributor.. with is incorrect. It should be 'was a contributor through'

(D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of  correct

(E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of  her work (noun), her discovery (noun) and painstaking documentation (no her) - not parallel

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record,  Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of  East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

Same reasons as for the 1st question. A is correct.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Ankur, I'm happy to respond. :-)

Here's a blog you may find helpful: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-pronoun-traps/ The rule is: a noun in the possessive (such as " Leakey's ") cannot be an antecedent of a pronoun unless the pronoun is also in the possessive . A noun in the possessive can be the antecedent for a possessive pronoun. Thus, " Leakey's " can be the antecedent of " her ." This appears often on the GMAT SC, and it often trips up the students who believe that a possessive noun can never be an antecedent. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

mohish · Answer

Hello Mike, in view of this, can you suggest why the following is correct?

Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess  Bona Dea's aid  in healing physical and mental ills or thanking  her  for such help.

My understanding is that possessive noun "Bona Dea's aid" is an antecedent of object pronoun "her".

May be I am not interpreting your rule accurately:(.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Mohish, My friend, I am happy to help. :-)

This, of course, is from the OA of OG13 SC#109. Understand that grammar is not mathematics. The rules are not "absolute right" vs. "absolute wrong." If you think this way about grammar, you will get yourself confused. The most important thing about a pronoun is that it is unambiguous in its referent. If we cannot discern the antecedent of a pronoun with complete clarity, the pronoun is useless. This is virtually non-negotiable. The guideline that antecedents should not be in the possessive, unless the pronoun is in the possessive --- this is a stylistic point, not something absolutely necessarily for the sentence to have meaning, but something that tends to indicate elevated style. If the GMAT is testing you on this point, in all likelihood, they will be expecting you to make the "high style" choice. Is this an absolute rule? Technically, no, but this gets into subtleties. Many folks thing of parallelism as a grammatical structure, but parallelism is primarily a logical structure. The grammar has to align itself with the logic, which is deeper. As a logical structure, parallelism can inform other logical relationships in this sentence. In this sentence, the " her " is unambiguous, because there is only one female entity in the sentence, and the parallelism reinforces this pronoun-antecedent link, making it utterly clear. With such powerful logical links in place, this allows us to relax the stylistic rule a bit. This is what GMAC is doing on its own, and is NOT a matter that it would ask you to apply. Notice that this particular SC question gives the student no choice about the pronoun. All of this gets into more detail that you need to know. What you need to know is, that when the GMAT is asking you directly and putting the issue on the line for your to choose, stick with the guideline that the antecedent can't be in the possessive unless it's a possessive pronoun. You will be tested on that. You will not be tested on the more sophisticated stuff. Keep in mind that GMAC is aware of all the discussions we have here: they know the rules that students enshrine like mathematical truths, and they write questions such as this one, specifically designed to perplex the students who are too attached to the rules. You simply cannot achieve SC mastery through memorizing some complete list of rules. You have to read. You have to develop a habit of reading every day, so that you develop an ear for sophisticated language. If you try to reduce grammar to rules, you will miss the forest for the trees. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

gmatexam439 · Answer

My answer: D (Awaiting OA)

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary  Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African cave paintings.

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her  discovery of  the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly  documenting  - Both the parts are not parallel.

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her  discovery of  the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly  documenting  - Both the parts are not parallel.

(C) Leakey  was a contributor  to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of - We need present tense

(D) Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include  her   discovery of  the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking  documentation of  - Correct. Both the parts are parallel. Also, I have seen quiet a few official questions that use a pronoun to refer back to noun+'s form. In this case "her" is referring to Mary Leakey.

(E) Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her  discovering the  earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking  documentation of  - Both the parts are not parallel.

MadaraU · Answer

IMO C

Phrase :- In addition to  her  work. Her demands a noun, hence Mary Leaky is required
Eliminate D and E

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology  with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity  and  painstakingly documenting  Not parallel

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology  by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity  and  by painstakingly documenting  Not parallel

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology  with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity  and  with her painstaking documentation of  Parallel yay!!

septwibowo · Answer

I choose D.

- "In addition to" is an appositive phrase, describes someone's work. A,B and C out because her work is not the same with the person itself.
- Now between D and E : E seems strange in "her discovering". What is the function of V-ing here?
- On the other hand, choice D seems parallel between "her discovery" and "her painstaking documentation".

Waiting for OA and wonderful explanation from  GMATNinja  !

daagh · Answer

There are two versions of the same sentence with different OAs. .Both are from GMAT prep...

The first version 
 
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil,  Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her  discovery  of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking  documentation  of  East African cave paintings.

A) Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of --  Parallelism ok 
 
B) Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting ---  discovery and documenting not parallel
 
C) Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of ---- discovering and documentation not parallel 
 
D) Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  discovery and documenting not parallel

E) Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of ---  discovering and documentation not parallel

OA is A

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Another official version of the same topic, 
 
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record , Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting  East African cave paintings.

A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting ---  discovery and documenting not parallel

B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting----  discovery and documenting not parallel

C) Leakey  was a contributor to  archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of --  was a contributor is unidiomtic

D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her  discovery  of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking  documentation  of -- - parallelism is ok

E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of ---  discovering and documentation is not ok

OA is D

kamalakarthi · Answer

Hi GmatNinja,

The sentence is talking about "her" but we have Micky Haley's contributions in OA. Is it not a pronoun issue. I eliminated D and E because I thought both the sentences have pronoun issue.

Can you help me on understanding this.

GMATNinja · Answer

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but in (D) and (E), "her work" is properly compared with "Leakey's contributions", as explained  here . (And by "Micky Haley", I assume that you mean "Mary Leakey"?) And there's no ambiguity problem with the pronoun at all in (D) or (E): the possessive pronoun "her" refers to "Leakey's" -- a possessive (female) noun.

Are you maybe thinking that the word "her" has to refer to "Mary Leakey", instead of "Mary Leakey's"? It's not a problem for a possessive pronoun to refer to a possessive noun.

I'm not sure if I'm on the right track, but I hope this helps!

Skywalker18 · Answer

It seems that there are 2 different questions with different OAs, one of which violates the above principle.

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  mikemcgarry  ,  egmat  ,  sayantanc2k ,  RonPurewal  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  ccooley  ,  GMATNinjaTwo  , other experts -- please enlighten.

MagooshExpert · Answer

AjiteshArun is correct here -- it might not be ideal, but it's not strictly incorrect to say something like "In addition to her work on X, she contributed to the field with her work on Y". Here, there is correct parallelism between "her work on X" and "her work on Y", so it's acceptable to use with "in addition to". To really see that this works, imagine flipping the sentence: She contributed to the field with her work on Y in addition to her work on X. This clearly is correct parallel structure.

-Carolyn

Hareesh2992 · Answer

Doesn't the absence of a noun to which  her  refers to make the options D & E incorrect ?
Please reply .

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Lea

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Lea

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