Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped

Question

Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize .

(A) Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize

(C) Mother Theresa focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize

(D) Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, winning the Noble Peace Prize

(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities, and focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize

PiyushK · Accepted Answer

Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize

(A) Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize
-ing modifier is not appropriate:, winning Nobel prize is not the immediate consequence of the founding the missionaries

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize

As mentioned above, founding missionaries and winning prize are not in immediate cause and effect relationship, so we can write them in separate clauses. Therefore, B is right.

(C) Mother Theresa focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize
-- huge meaning error : Mother T dropped along the gutters.. nonsensical.

(D) Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, winning the Noble Peace Prize
-ing modifier focusing is not right.

(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities, and focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize
Moving some idea from main clause to modifier is not acceptable. doing so shifts the emphasis. further above sentence has many meaning error.

medanova · Answer

I would also take B, because the sentence in A sounds a bit strange to me:
 ...founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize

what is the official answer?

yoma21 · Answer

I picked B and here is how I eliminated the others.

(A) "winning the Nobel Peace Prize" can be misunderstood to modify charity, not Mother Thereasa.

(B) Mother Theresa,  (focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata) , founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize :  paralleleed verbs, which are placed in order of time

© Mother Theresa focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize
 "winning the Nobel Peace Prize" can be misunderstood to modify charities, not Mother Thereasa. and "focused on the orphans ~~" is the reason that she found the charitey organization. So this phrase should be a modifier, not a main verb.

(D) Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, winning the Noble Peace Prize
"winning" should be connected by "and", but even if so, it doesn't explain cleary the relation of each verbs.

(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities, and focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize 
 the long modifier makes the reader confued what it really modifies.

hirendhanak · Answer

daagh,

I agree B as the right answer , but i think the construction of the sentence is ambiguous, is it or not ? can you pls give your comments, it will be a great help

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on the orphans deserted by their parents  and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata,  founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize

whom does dropped along the gutters of the city of kolkatta actually refer to ?

daagh · Answer

It is the orphans who have been deserted by their parents; It is the orphans who have been dropped along the gutters of the city of 
Kolkata. Both are past participles.

GMatAspirerCA · Answer

Parallel construction.
 Mother Theresa 
1. founded the missionaries 
2. won nobel prize

leaves us with B or E.

(A) Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize
winning is in present tense

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize
correctly formed with past tense for both of parallel actions founded and won. also Subject is moved to the beginning of sentence which makes the following sentence clearer.

(C) Mother Theresa focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize
winning - wrong
(D) Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, winning the Noble Peace Prize
winning - wrong
(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities, and focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize 
I think it makes sentence clearer if the subject is moved to the beginning of the sentence. if some one has better explanation here, please share.

Thanks

nailit · Answer

(A) Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities,  winning  the Nobel Peace Prize -  same as D

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize -  correct

(C) Mother Theresa focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize  - same as D

(D) Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata,  winning  the Noble Peace Prize -  tense error

(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities, and focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize -  MODIFIER INCORRECTLY MODIFIES Mother teressa

Motown89 · Answer

Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities, winning the Nobel Peace Prize

(A) Focused on x, Mother Theresa founded y, winning x :  changes meaning

(B) Mother Theresa, focused on x, founded y and won z :  parallel   Correct

(C) Mother Theresa focused on x, founded y, winning z :  changes meaning

(D) Mother Theresa founded x, focusing on y, winning z :  changes meaning

(E) Founding x, and focusing on y, Mother Theresa won z :  changes meaning.

The best bet in SC is to remove the chaff from the sentence. Everything becomes clear then.

sleepynut · Answer

Hi all,
Just wonder why do we need past participle in option B,which reads :

Mother Theresa , focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata,  founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Isn't Mother Theresa the doer of the action " focus on"?

AR15J · Answer

I considered A correct choice as I am assuming that winning the Nobel prize is the result of the previous clause.

Winning the Nobel prize can be the result of founding that organization.

I still don't think that choice A is incorrect. Please help !

sayantanc2k · Answer

Your logic is valid. I do not see any problem with option A either.

reena.phogat · Answer

in the answer B , there is no main verb. all are modifiers so it should be wrong.

abhimahna · Answer

We do have a main verb in B. 
(B) Mother Theresa,  focused  on the orphans deserted by their parents and  dropped  along the gutters of the city of Kolkata,  founded  the Missionaries of Charities and  won  the Nobel Peace Prize

Those marked in  red  are verb modifiers and those marked in  blue  are the verbs, joined together via a conjuction "and".

abhimahna · Answer

No,  , focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata,  tells how she founded the Missionaries of Charities.

nks2611 · Answer

hi Daag sir i have a doubt regarding option B , it seems like it follows parallelism and mother teresa did there things but does it make sense and can you explain why one should prefer B over A , to me A is more concise ? i could be wrong , help.. :!:

abhimahna · Answer

Notice the sentence between two commas in A. If we remove "Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities", the sentence will not make sense. The sentence will become something like

Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

But when you do so in B, you will get a meaningful answer.

Remember, as per GMAT rules, if we remove a sentence/phrase between two commas, the sentence MUST makes sense.

Thus, B is preferred over A.

leanhdung · Answer

Hi  daagh

(E) Founding the Missionaries of Charities ,    and  focusing on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize

I think that in option E, the  comma  before  and focusing  is wrong because we join only two identities:  Founding the Missionaries of Charities  and  focusing on the orphans deserted... , so we don't need comma before conjuntion  and . We use  comma  before conjuntion  and  only for list that contains three or more items.

Is my above reasoning right?

Many thanks!

daagh · Answer

leanhdung wrote

Hi
You are correct. The comma before 'and' focusing is unnecessary. We use the comma when we have more than two items in a list and when two ICs are joined by fanboys.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice places information vital to the sentence between two commas; the phrase "Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities" is placed between two commas, and if it is removed the resulting sentence reads "Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped along the gutters of the city of Kolkata, winning the Nobel Peace Prize". As this sentence is clearly incomplete, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B:  This answer choice conveys the intended meaning of the sentence, maintains parallelism, and is quite concise. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice C:  This answer choice suffers from several distinct errors. The phrase "winning the Nobel Peace Prize" is a modifier that has been incorrectly included in a list of actions, including "focused" and "founded"; this inclusion leads to a parallelism break between "focused" and "founded" and "winning". There is also a subtle shift in meaning in this sentence; the intended meaning of the sentence is that Mother Theresa was focused on the orphans and driven by this quality, she founded the Missionaries of Charities and won the Noble Peace Prize. What this answer choice conveys is that Mother Theresa took the action of focusing on the orphans and took the separate action of founding the Missionaries of Charities; this action then led to her winning the Noble Peace Prize. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D:  This answer choice also implies that Mother Theresa focused on orphans as part of the act of founding the Missionaries of Charities, through the phrase "Mother Teresa founded..., focusing on the orphans". Additionally, the phrase "winning the Noble Peace Prize" is incorrectly used to modify "focusing on the orphans..."; these two verb phrases are both subordinate modifying phrases to "Mother Theresa founded the Missionaries of Charities" and should be joined by the conjunction "and". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice describes the acts of founding the Missionaries of Charity and focusing on the orphans as two separate activities that led to Mother Teresa winning the Noble Peace Prize, rather than describing the latter as being a driving factor of the former. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between Two Commas on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdcgAqmg7bU

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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Focused on the orphans deserted by their parents and dropped

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