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Cbirole
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chetan2u Hi Chetan I got confused by the presence of "having" without comma in the option D. Can you please elaborate about rules regarding use of such modifiers without comman?
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Cbirole
It is impossible to truly understand a different culture neither having grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time.


A. neither having grown up in that culture nor

B. if you haven’t grown up in that culture or

C. having not grown up in that culture nor

D. having neither grown up in that culture nor

E. without either having grown up in that culture or

In OA-D, shouldn't a comma precede 'having'?

Does the 'having' modifier modify the entire preceding clause?

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , DmitryFarber , daagh , generis , other experts - please enlighten
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Hi Gladiator59 Same query as above. Shouldn't there be a comma ? I read this like ----> different culture having something.
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I have same question for option D-Is comma not necessary before having?Right now it seems to modify culture rather than the entire clause.
Also for option D,The error is only the presence of either..or..or there is parallelism error as well?
'having grown up in..'(verb-ing modifier) and 'immersed oneself in..'(v-ed modifier) seems parallel.
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Experts, can you explain why the correct answer is used without comma?
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In this whole sentence what "having neither grown up in that culture nor" is intended to modify.

THis phrase modifying culture doesnt make sense.
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IMO Gerund doesnt require punctuation. "having grown up" is gerund that is a verb but functions as noun or complement to sentence.

And participle functions as an adjective. :)

So D :grin:
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So what this adjective is modifying out here ?

Noun modifiers should be nearest possible to noun as per the rule. I can see "culture" is the nearest noun.
So is it modifying "culture" ?
Is that really making sense out here ?
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Official Explanation

(1) Take a First Glance (5 seconds)

Neither indicates that this question is testing Parallelism. The correct construction is neither X nor Y, and the X and Y elements must be parallel.

(2) Read for Meaning

The sentence is trying to say that it is impossible to truly understand a different culture without one of two things: having grown up in that culture or having immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time. In the original sentence, the word having comes after neither, but not after nor. Thus, when you isolate the second portion, it says that it is impossible to truly understand a different culture neither X nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time. The second portion does need a helping verb (nor having immersed), so eliminate answer choice (A).

(3) Find a Starting Point

Start with any difference that seems easiest to you, then move to the next easiest issue, and so on. Stop when you have one answer or you aren’t sure how to address the remaining differences. All errors for each choice are detailed in the next section.

(4) Eliminate (and Repeat)

(A) The second part of the parallel structure says that it is impossible to truly understand a different culture neither X nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time. The sentence needs to repeat having after or. Alternatively, the sentence could move the word having before the word neither and not repeat it: having neither grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it.

(B) This sentence fixes the initial broken parallelism. It is impossible to truly understand a different culture if you haven’t done one of two things: (1) grown up in that culture or (2) immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time. However, the sentence incorrectly shifts from you (second person) to oneself (third person) to refer to the same person. Either form is acceptable, as long as it’s consistent throughout the sentence.

(C) The construction not X nor Y is incorrect. The correct construction is not X or Y. If this sentence changed nor to or, it would be correct.

(D) CORRECT. This sentence fixes the initial broken parallelism. It is impossible to truly understand a different culture having not done one of two things: (1) grown up in that culture or (2) immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time.

(E) This choice has a similar error to the original sentence. The second part of this parallel structure reads as follows: It is impossible to truly understand a different culture without X or immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time. The sentence needs to repeat having after or. Alternatively, the sentence could move the word having before the word either and not repeat it: without having either grown up in that culture or immersed oneself in it.

Answer: D
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