simple way to tell which noun the verb is paired with?

Question

is there a simple technique or rule to find out which verb and noun are paired up? i know one of them is that the noun cant be in a preposition. but im not familiar with every single preposition so i might make a few mistakes on that and end up matching the wrong noun to a verb.

this is an example i had trouble with-

While digging in the Egyptian desert,  huge fossil bones have been found by paleontologists, which appears to have been  the second most massive dinosaur that ever lived.

D. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from what appears to be
E. paleontologists have found huge fossil bones, which are from what appear to be

i was stuck between D and E. i figured the noun and verb would be bones and appear so i picked E. well, the answer is D because the verb is matched with dinosaur. Im pretty sure in the future ill keep getting these types of questions incorrect unless i know how to properly match the correct verb and noun.

GMATPill · Answer

I'm not so sure you need to get caught up in matching the noun+verb here. Try reading the sentence like this:

While digging in the Egyptian desert, paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from   the second most massive dinosaur that ever lived.

The above is answer choice D. Notice the section in brackets -- it can be crossed out and the sentence doesn't lose its meaning. In other words,   is a phrase.

While digging in the Egyptian desert, paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from   the second most massive dinosaur that ever lived.

Further, you can read this sentence as:

While digging in the Egyptian desert, paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from  
While digging in the Egyptian desert, paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from

On the versioning of that phrase  , D would win over E. You don't want to say   since it's kind of describing   which we know is singular noun -- thus "appears" should be used not "appear".

Further, as a hint, simplicity wins on the GMAT when you're stuck between 2 choices -- most of the time. (D) is simpler, and avoids a comma and "which".
The latter parts of (D) are: "from what appears to be"
The latter parts of (E) are: ", which are from what appear to be"

Which one is simpler? (D) also wins.

The best way to set yourself up for success here is to do what we teach at GMAT Pill, breakdown sentences into phrases that can help simplify the sentence structure and give more insight into what groups of words go together. From there, you can make a better choice for what the best answer is.

btan219 · Answer

thanks. i get what youre explanation, kinda. but theres no way im going to make that kind of connection on another similar question, especially if i feel pressure during the actual gmat test. do you have any tips on how to apply what i've learned to future questions? ive been studying for the gmat for 3+months and although ive learned some new things, i feel like nothing is really sticking in my mind so i just go blank when im taking practice tests

damyanti · Answer

It might be tough to come out with a "rule", unless we are willing to understand the meaning.

Here, for example, both D and E have a structure: paleontologists have found huge fossil bones from <something>.

From the meaning, it should be clear that <something> is "dinosaur".

Further, it should be clear that the sentence intends to convey that this "dinosaur" appears to be the second most massive dinosaur that ever lived..

If you thought "bones" appear to be, then again, you should logically think..is the following correct:

"bones" appears to be the second most massive dinosaur that ever lived.

This is just logically incorrect. "bones" cannot be "dinosaur"; this is just not a logical comparison. Bones can be "from" a dinosaur, but bones themselves cannot be dinosaur.

So, "dinosaur appears".

As I mentioned, I suspect that any "grammar rules" can help here. In fact, when I started SC, I also used to look out at cramming a thousand rules; but realized quickly that "meaning" is the first thing that should be clear.

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simple way to tell which noun the verb is paired with?

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