Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone live

Question

Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone lives in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes is for him a machine that churns out solitude.

A) Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone lives in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes is for him a machine that churns out solitude.

B) Cold plate-glass windows, towered urban buildings where everyone live in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes is for him a machine that churns out solitude

C) Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone lives in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes are for him a machine that churns out solitude

D) Cold plate-glass windows, towered urban buildings in which everyone lives in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes is for him a machine that churns out solitude

E) Cold plate-glass windows, towered urban buildings in which everyone lives in self-contained apartments, gas stations in the middle of nowhere – the fabric of modern cities and landscapes are for him a machine that churns out solitude

Kindly give me +1 kudos.

ArunSharma12 · Answer

I do not understand why OA is A?
I thought - cold plate.., towering.., gas stations.., and landscapes are - is the correct use here.
can some one please clarify the sentence?

i256 · Answer

First POE: towering vs towered ; towered is wrong, based on meaning; this is an ongoing process

Second POE:  the fabric  of modern cities and landscapes ....  is ... correct usage (correctly refers to "the fabric")

mdhyan2012 · Answer

towered buildings in which is preferred rather than towered buildings where

DoCapalbo · Answer

Why is ''in which'' not correct? 
thanks for helping

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  DoCapalbo . I think you may be getting caught up on the wrong split. Both  where , in reference to a place, and its more formal analogue  in which  are perfectly acceptable in the context of the sentence. Speaking of this sentence, though, the language is way too florid or poetic to appear as such on the GMAT™. I would not worry too much about it. Looking at each of the answers, though, I would identify the key splits as the following:

1.  towering  versus  towered urban buildings —The correct description of urban buildings, perhaps skyscrapers, is  towering .  Towered  seems more fitting of some sort of item stacking:  The towered cards fell over as soon as one of the lower layers gave out .

This first key split allows you to focus on (A) and (C), both of which contain the  where  in question (so you do not need to worry about it).

2.  is  versus  are  in the main clause—The subject of that clause is the singular  fabric , not the plural objects of the preposition  of  (i.e.  cities and landscapes ).

With both of these considerations in mind, only (A), the original sentence, can be correct.

I hope that helps. Not every split in an underlined portion proves to be decisive. With practice, you will get a feel for which ones are more crucial than others. (For starters, subject-verb agreement is a big deal, while idioms are a lesser concern.)

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

ayushgmatclub1 · Answer

Hi  AndrewN , how were you able to figure out that Towered seems like stacking but Towering does not seem to refer to some continuous activity of towering but rather Towering is acting as a modifier? Can you please help me understand? TIA

AndrewN · Answer

Good question,  ayushgmatclub1 . I think my response has more to do with modern American English than with any specific rule. A person might point to a skyscraper and describe it as  towering , but not  towered . If I consult my typical sources for a deeper look into such usage, though, I do come across some interesting findings. The following sentence, for example, is  listed under "towered" in the Cambridge Dictionary  (one of my favorite resources):

I would still say it is safer to describe an actual building, not a drawing of one, as  towering , but I cannot argue with my resource. Perhaps it is these sorts of issues with self-created or third-party questions that convince me to stick with official material for Verbal practice, and why I recommend the same for others.

Thank you for following up, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Ayushman14 · Answer

Between A and B, I don't think the issue is towering vs towered. In B we have ' where everyone live ' and since everyone is singular it should be  where everyone lives  which is correct in A

Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone live

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Cold plate-glass windows, towering urban buildings where everyone live

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards