Although often miles beneath the ocean's surface, a seasoned marine

Question

Although often miles beneath  the ocean's surface, a seasoned marine archaeologist can examine shipwrecks with the help of sonar and deep-sea probes.

A. Although often miles beneath
B. Often miles beneath.
C. Although they are often miles beneath
D. Often located miles beneath
E. Having often been located miles beneath

Blair15 · Answer

Shouldn't pronoun before the comma refer to Noun directly after the comma?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Blair15 
 That isn't a rule--pronouns are different from modifiers. If the subject were plural (archaeologists), we would assume that "they" referred to the subject, so it would be confusing to use "they" to refer to another plural noun that hadn't shown up yet. Since the subject is singular, we know to wait to find the correct plural antecedent for "they." Also, since we are only able to adjust the initial portion of the sentence, we really only have two choices: rewrite the modifier to refer to an archaeologist (doesn't make sense here) or turn that portion into a clause with its own subject. Only C does that, so we have to cut all the others.

Having said that, this sentence does seem deliberately confusing. As an editor, I would flag this for rewrite. I think that if the GMAT presented this initial sentence, the correct answer would be reordered for greater clarity, but that would require a longer underline.

PrachiiPrasaad · Answer

Why not option D , why do we require pronoun “they” before comma? Is that some rule

Posted from my mobile device

Blair15 · Answer

Although is required to showcase contrast, imho.
Plus, without "they" all other options make it seem like they are referring to the archaeologist, which is not the case here.

Hope this helps!

DURVAPEDNEKAR · Answer

pls explain again why not answer B

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

DURVAPEDNEKAR

B has the same problem as the other incorrect choices: it is a noun modifier rather than a clause. For that reason, it must refer to the following noun (archaeologist). But the person isn't miles below the surface; the shipwrecks are.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although often miles beneath the ocean's surface, a seasoned marine

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Although often miles beneath the ocean's surface, a seasoned marine

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