Southern Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities,

Question

Southern Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities,  which doubtless marks the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country has   disappeared, buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay and marsh.

A. , which doubtless marks the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country has

B. , which doubtless marks the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain among the Tigris and the Euphrates; as a consequence, all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country would have certainly

C. , which doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country have

D. , which doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates; however, all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country

E. that doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial marshy plain among the Tigris and the Euphrates; however, all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country has

CrackverbalGMAT · Accepted Answer

Hi Aarushi

There are two reasons that I can think of for (D) being incorrect.

1) The more difficult reason to spot is the logical/meaning related one. The use of "however" indicates a contrasting transition between the first part (which states that Southern Mesopotamia was an alluvial country where ancient cities were located on marshy land) and the second part after the semi-colon (which states that traces of ancient culture have disappeared "buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay and marsh"). Now, logically, if the cities have disappeared beneath marsh and the ancient land was marshy (ie; damp and soft), this is only to be expected and not a surprise for which a contrasting transition is required.

2) The easier reason to reject option (D) is that the impact of the "traces of Neolithic culture" disappearing is (presumably) being felt even today (since the sentence mentions city mounds as well). Therefore, usage of present perfect tense (have + participle) for "disappear" is more appropriate than a simple past tense.

Hope this helps.

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

Correct answer: D

(A): Incorrect. Singular verb "marks" is incorrectly paired with plural noun "cities." Further, singular verb "has" is incorrectly paired with plural noun "traces." Also, "so that" implies a causality that is not clear. 
(B): Incorrect. (B) has the same subject/verb error in "marks." Further, (B) incorrectly uses "among" to mean between (i.e. in the middle of) two things. The "would have" conditional is also suspect, given no setup for the conditional. 
(C): Incorrect. (C)'s use of "so that" creates a causality that is not clear in a logical reading of the sentence; the sentence is stating that although it is likely known where the oldest settlements were, those settlements were lost to nature. Also, "so that ..." is not an operable standalone sentence as required by the preceding comma. 
(D): Correct. (D), unlike (C), establishes the contrast with the conjunction "however." 
(E): Incorrect. The comma before "that" and after "land" indicate that the nonessential modifier "which" should be used. Further, singular verb "has" incorrectly matches plural noun "traces."

aarushisingla · Answer

Hi,

Could you please tell why D is incorrect ?

InVinoVeritas2 · Answer

D is the only answer that makes sense to me. Is there something wrong with the answer function do I just dont get it?

trigradius · Answer

After narrowing it down to C and D based on - cities...mark...between the Tigris and The Euphrates, i went with C because C alludes to a connection between the presence of the ancient cities between the marshy plains as a reason for losing traces of its ancient culture, leading to its current state as an alluvial country.

In D, it feels as if the loss of traces of their old culture is unrelated to the countries current state, mentioned in the previous line.

In D, it feels as if the loss of traces of their old culture is unrelated to the countries current state, mentioned in the previous line.

globaldesi · Answer

Hi  svasan05 
Can you explain why C seems better than D?

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Both the above mentioned errors have been corrected in (C).

i) The contrasting transition "however" is replaced by the cause-effect transition "so that", which makes complete sense.
ii) It uses the present perfect tense "have disappeared".

Therefore (C) is a better option than (D).

krndatta · Answer

EducationAisle

Can you mention your reasoning to eliminate option D? 
Not able to understand.

Thanks

EducationAisle · Answer

Well, easiest way to eliminate D would be on the basis of  tenses .

Since we are talking about an "unspecified time in the past", present perfect tense ("have disappeared") is preferable to "simple past" ("disappeared").

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  krndatta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option D alters the meaning of the sentence through the use of "however"; the use of "however" incorrectly implies that the ancient cities are situated in the alluvial marshy plain,   but   all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country have disappeared; the intended meaning is that the ancient cities are situated in the alluvial marshy plain,   and as a result,    all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country have disappeared.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Southern Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities,

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Southern Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities,

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