Located in Carpinteria, California, a tiny beach town approximately 75

Question

Located in Carpinteria, California,  a tiny beach town approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, which sits in a neighborhood, the house overlooks the mountains and is a few short blocks from the ocean .

A. a tiny beach town approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, which sits in a neighborhood, the house overlooks the mountains and is a few short blocks from the ocean

B. a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, the house, which is just a few short blocks from the ocean and sits in a neighborhood that overlooks the mountains

C. a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, the house, which is just a few short blocks from the ocean and sits in a neighborhood which is also overlooking the mountains

D. the house is approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, a tiny beach town just a few short blocks from the ocean and overlooked the mountains

E. a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles and overlooks the mountains, the house is just a few short blocks from the ocean

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

This problem forces you to examine the sentence's many modifiers to determine whether each modifier provides a logical description. Answer choice (A) incorrectly says that the city of Los Angeles sits in a neighborhood. Answer choices (B) and (C) fail to have a primary verb for the sentence. Answer choice (D) states that Los Angeles is a tiny beach town just a few short blocks from the ocean, and also incorrectly uses the past tense, "overlooked." Only the correct answer (E) correctly describes that the town "sits" and "overlooks," and correctly completes the sentence, "the house is just a few short blocks from the ocean."

daboo343 · Answer

How is E correct. Could you please tell me what is the main subject and main verb in this sentence. what is the verb of " a tiny beach"

chandan335 · Answer

Hi, 
I think "a tiny beach town" modifies Carpinteria...

Here the main subject is the house, which IS in Carpenteria which is a tiny beach town overlooking mountains..

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Option A - Incorrect

"a tiny beach town approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, which sits in a neighborhood" -- here "which" seems to refer to "the city of Los Angeles".
Even if you consider "which" to refer to the entire noun phrase "a tiny beach town ...", this does not make sense.

"the house" sits in a neighborhood, not the "tiny beach town" itself.

"which sits in a neighborhood" -- does not make sense. All houses presumably sit in a neighborhood. It would have more sense if the option described "the kind of neighborhood".

Option B - Incorrect

"Located in Carpinteria, California, a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles, the house, which is just a few short blocks from the ocean and sits in a neighborhood that overlooks the mountains"

Not a complete sentence.

the structure is this -- "Modifier 1, Modifier 2, Subject, Modifier 3".

Note that Modifier 1 = "Located in Carpinteria, California" refers to the subject = "the house".

Modifier 2 = "a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles" describes Modifier 1.

Modifier 3 = "which is just a few short blocks from the ocean and sits in a neighborhood that overlooks the mountains" again describes the subject.

No main verb or predicate.

Option C - Incorrect

Same error as B. Not a complete sentence.

In addition -- "neighborhood which is also overlooking the mountains"; note that "which" must be separated by commas.
"is also overlooking" (present continuous) is not appropriate for describing general truths. Use simple present instead.

Option D - Incorrect

"a tiny beach town just a few short blocks from the ocean and overlooked the mountains" illogically refers to "Los Angeles".

"overlooked the mountains" illogically states that this town NO LONGER OVERLOOKS the mountains.
 
Option E - Correct Answer

Located in Carpinteria, California    , a tiny beach town that sits approximately 75 miles north of the city of Los Angeles and overlooks the mountains    , the house is just a few short blocks from the ocean

MODIFIER 1 refers to the subject of the MAIN CLAUSE -- "the house"
MODIFIER 2 refers to "Carpinteria, California" in MODIFIER 1.

hope this helps

sayantanc2k · Answer

Main subject: the house
Main verb: is

"a tiny beach town" is an appositive modifier ( a noun refering to another noun) referring to Carpinteria, California and does not require a verb.

The structue can be broken down as follows:

Main clause: The house is just a few short blocks from the ocean.

Add past participle modifier   for "the house":

The house is just a few short blocks from the ocean.

Add an appositive modifier {M2} for "Carpinteria, California" (M2 is nested within M1):
  The house is just a few short blocks from the ocean.

Add a relative clause modifier (M3) for "a tiny beach town" (M3 is nested within M2, which is nested within M1):
  The house is just a few short blocks from the ocean.

sureshhbs · Answer

I got issue with this solution.

Even though the it is grammatically right, but the intended meaning changed from the overall sentence. In the base sentence it says house overlooks the mountain. In E it says the town overlooks the mountain. The meaning ls changed.

Please explain this.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Located in Carpinteria, California, a tiny beach town approximately 75

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Located in Carpinteria, California, a tiny beach town approximately 75

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