Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called

Question

Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed , is celebrated everywhere in the Muslim world.

(A) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed

(B) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha

(C) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed

(D) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep

(E) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, called Eid-ul-Adha

VeritasPrepRon · Accepted Answer

The best answer is indeed A. I really like this question, so much so that I wrote an entire blog about it recently.

I break down each answer choice into a little more detail, and hopefully you'll even pick up a little nugget about how the GMAT tests modifiers.

If I'm lucky, maybe we'll even find some cotton candy at this festival:

https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2013/04 ... questions/

Thanks!
-Ron

Zarrolou · Answer

(A) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed

My pick is A.

(B) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha 
The subject of the first clause must follow the comma: what does mark the end ...? the festival. it must follow the comma
 (C) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed 
My reason to eliminate C is "called". It's not clear IMO, it refers to the festival or to the pilgrimage to Mecca?
 (D) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep 
Same as above, plus "featuring" is also wrong
 (E) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, called Eid-ul-Adha 
Same as above, "called" is not clear: what does it refer to?

Waiting for OA
(great question BTW +1)

daagh · Answer

A) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed -----  The best choice, with the participial modifier following norms of proper modification

(B) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha ---  a few unusual things here leading to significant errors. 1. If it is a compound modifier comprising a couple of modifiers but clinging on to a single noun, then both the modifiers should be conjoined by an and; else, the second modifier will be modifying the first one, making a mess of modification.2. the phrase- traditional sacrifice- is rather weird. Is there any non- traditional sacrifice of sheep? 
(C) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally, sacrificed – 1. The noun modifier (called) should as matter of rule modifies the noun before it, in this case Mecca, which is equating a city with a festival. Wrong. 2. A (the indefinite article) festival is ok when we celebrate it for the first time. But to generalize it as a festival for ever is weird. 
 
(D) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep --- Same errors as in C 
 
(E) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, called Eid-ul-Adha ---  a wrong word order;, called Eid-ul-Adha modifies a festival and should be placed close to it.

blueseas · Answer

Hi daagh,

can you please explain me more what you want to say in the following:

If it is a compound modifier comprising a couple of modifiers but clinging on to a single noun, then both the modifiers should be conjoined by an and; else, the second modifier will be modifying the first one, making a mess of modification
.

please elaborate

thanks

SKM

daagh · Answer

(B) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha ---a few unusual things here leading to significant errors. 1. If it is a compound modifier comprising a couple of modifiers but clinging on to a single noun, then both the modifiers should be conjoined by an and; else, the second modifier will be modifying the first one, making a mess of modification.2. The phrase- traditional sacrifice- is rather weird. Is there any non- traditional sacrifice of sheep?

This is referring to Choice B. You find the clause start with two modifiers, separated by a comma and both of them modifying a single noun – the festival-
1. Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca
2. featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep
It is possible to doubt, that the second modifier is modifying the first one. Not that it is definite to happen, but the possibility is there. That is the reason that this style is suspect. However, if they are compounded, then both modifiers become s single unit and it will smoothly pass.

PiyushK · Answer

Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, is celebrated everywhere in the Muslim world.

(A) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed --  No error

(B)  Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca ,  featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep , the festival called Eid-ul-Adha

Two back to back ing modifier modifying same thing are just joined by a comma coordinating conjunction and is required. 
 Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca ,  AND   featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep ,

(C) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed
 called is a ed modifier after comma and it is modifying eligible preceding noun pilgrimage : pilgrimage called Eid-ul-Adha, that is not the intended meaning.

(D) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep
 Same error as explained above.

(E) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, called Eid-ul-Adha
 Fatal meaning error as in option C and D. 
 pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed

nhattruong1302 · Answer

Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed , is celebrated everywhere in the Muslim world.

(A) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed

(B) Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep, the festival called Eid-ul-Adha
 Awkward modify: Noun mofify, Ving modify, S + V

(C) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed
 "called" ambiguously modifies Mecca
 
(D) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called Eid-ul-Adha, featuring the traditional sacrifice of sheep
 "called" ambiguously modifies Mecca

(E) A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca during which sheep are traditionally sacrificed, called Eid-ul-Adha
 "during which" and "called Eid-ul-adha" are placed too far to modify "A festival"

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

This question has everything you can expect to see from a GMAT modifier question: A long sentence, part of the sentence underlined, multiple modifiers (and ritual sacrifice). This implies that the underlined part of the sentence must match the non-underlined portion as we are unable to modify that section in any way.

Let’s break this sentence into its component parts to determine what goes where, much like a puzzle:

Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca: Participial modifier that is describing the festival

The festival called Eid-ul-Adha: This is the subject of the sentence

During which sheep are traditionally sacrificed: relative clause that further describes the activities at the festival (no word yet if there’s also cotton candy)

Is celebrated everywhere in the Muslim word: Not underlined, and contains the verb “is” as well as a description of where the festival is celebrated.

Each portion of the initial sentence is separated by commas, the last of which is not underlined, so all we can change is the order of the first three parts. The original sentence makes sense the way it is written, since the participial modifier at the beginning of the phrase immediately precedes the subject “festival”, and the relative clause describing the unfortunate fate of the sheep is also properly placed directly next to the festival. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the sentence structure, but sentence correction is all about eliminating what we know to be wrong so let’s run through the decision points of the other choices looking for glaring errors.

Answer choices C, D and E all begin with “A festival marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca”, which then forces the (new) participial modifier “called Eid-ul-Adha” far away from the key word festival. It is no longer clear whether Eid-ul-Adha is the name of the festival or the name of the pilgrimage, or possibly something else entirely. Participial phrases need to be as close to the term they modify to avoid this exact problem, so these three choices can be eliminated in one fell swoop. This is the power of a 3-2 split; you can go from 1/5 to 1/2 in a single step (much like multiplying by 5/2).

Answer choice B connects the two modifiers, implying that the second now modifies the first. This again introduces illogical meaning as well as grammatical ambiguity, making it inferior to the initial answer choice. As is the case roughly 20% of the time in sentence correction, the initial sentence was correct and the proposed modifications each introduce new errors that make them inferior replacements.

The correct answer is (A).

vishalsinghvs08 · Answer

I would like to respectfully disagree with the OA.

Sacrificed - verb - ed, Traditionally - adverb
sacrifice - noun , Traditional - Adjective

By saying traditionally sacrificed, we are giving an how aspect of sacrificed
How a sheep is sacrificed adds no means , be it traditionally, religiously, etc 
What we need is to a enhance the meaning of the noun sacrifice using a modifier-traditional
What kind of sacrifice is done? - a traditional sacrifice.

Please correct me if i am wrong here.

Traditional Sacrifice vs Sacrificed traditionally vs tra

DanTheGMATMan · Answer

Not a bad thing to point out, but the word "traditionally" here is functioning as an adverb the way the word "usually" would. Read the sentence with "usually" instead of "traditionally" and you'll see what I mean. They just mean it's traditional to sacrifice the sheep, i.e. they traditionally sacrifice them.

ParamjitDasGMAT · Answer

In addition to what another expert has posted, the options containing 'traditional sacrifice' -- (B) and (D) -- are also incorrect. (B) should have the modifiers conjoined by 'and' for ||ism. (D) should not use a comma before 'called..', which would make the modifier non-essential.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called

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Marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the festival called

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