Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were recorded by

Question

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Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives  recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

(A) Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives

(B) Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives, and

(C) Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and

(D) Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives

(E) Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were solely oral narratives

daagh · Accepted Answer

The problem is not either with the relative pronoun –that - or idiom -. It has more to do with modification of oral narratives and the way it is conjugated with its modifier - recorded by …….- You can not conjugate this modifier with its modified noun- narratives - with an and. .

C. Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and – same as in B. In addition, no justification for past perfect here.
t

A. Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives ---  The modified noun sitting pretty next to its modifier is properly modified Hence correct . 
B. Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives, and---  the conjunction –and- is the culprit. It is not allowing the modifier to modify the noun  
C. Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and –  same as in B. In addition, no justification for past perfect here.  
D. Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives –  changed meaning  
E. Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were solely oral narratives –  changed meaning

Therefore A is the best

kuttingchai · Answer

I will vote for A and not D because

Ans choice A

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

main Clause - 
Scholars {subordinate clause} now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors
subject: Scholars 
Verb: understand

subordinate clause - 
who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists
Subject: Who --> refers to Scholars from main clause
verb: were

the verb-ed modifer "recorded" refers to narratives

Subordinate clause - 
who have been publishing since 1772 - Here "who" refers to the Scholars
Subject: Who refers to Scholars from the main clause
Verb: have been publishing

Ans Choice D

Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

main clause - 
Native American literatures, {subordinate clause} now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors
subject - Native American literatures
verb - understand 
Native American literatures understand -> wrong doesnot make sense

subordinate clause - 
which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists
Subject - Which - refers to Native American literatures from main clause
verb - were

subordinate clause - 
who have been publishing since 1772
subject - who - refers to Native American literatures from main clause
verb - works
Native American literatures works -> wrong doesnot make sense

vishy007 · Answer

I am with A

..once thought.... were.. is a logical construction.

"and" in the end makes the sentence illogical B & C are out

D & E are wordy

goalsnr · Answer

There is more to it.

D and E have modifier issues. Its the scholars who understand not the Literature.

"and " in B and C change sthe meaning of teh sentence

neeshpal · Answer

can someone please explain A in the below regards.

Arent we missing a "that" in the sentence

Scholars who once thought (that) Native American literatures were solely oral narratives

thanks in advance!

goalsnr · Answer

We dont need a relative pronoun here.

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives
recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to
consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who
have been publishing since 1772.

Scholars who  once thought  X were Y  now  understand Z to consist of P and Q.

noboru · Answer

My issue with the OA, which is A, is that I thought that the idiom was think of X as Y. Becasuse of that I went with B.
Could anybody clarify?
Thanks.

egmat · Answer

Hi Noboru,

You are correct about the idiom that reads “think of X as Y”. However, this sentence is not using this idiom. Let’s look at the sentence structure here:

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives  recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

If you carefully read the portion after “thought” you will see we have a clause there that reads:
Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists

Here, Native American literatures is the subject and “were” is the verb. What is not present here is a “that” to separate this clause with the previous clause “who once thought”. This “that” is not present here because we really do not need it there.

Generally, we find the error with usage of the idiom you have mentioned in the sense that the wording is made incorrect, say “as” has been turned into “to be”, or something similar. Here, through a clause the sentence is saying what the scholars thought once.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

semwal · Answer

Scholars  who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists  now understand  this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

SUBJECT- SCHOLORS....... VERB - UNDERSTAND
 INCORRECT PORTIONS HIGHLIGHTED....

A. Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives.... CORRECT

B. Scholars  thinking  of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives, and

C. Scholars who once had thought  of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and

D.  Native American literatures , which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives

E.  Native American literatures , which some scholars once, thinking they were solely oral narratives

amenon55 · Answer

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

A. Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives 
B. Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives, and -  thinking - refers to scholars and recorded - refers to NAL (sounds weird) 
C. Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and-  had thought - refers to scholars and recorded - refers to NAL (sounds weird) 
D. Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives -  subject is literature here - should be scholars 
E. Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were solely oral narratives -  subject is literature here - should be scholars

daagh · Answer

The structure of choice A: Scholars, the subject of the sentence, followed by a relative clause that describes the scholars, until anthropologists; ‘now understand’ is the verb. This means that the scholars now understand 
However See the problem in D and E : The subject is now changed to Native American literatures, followed by a relative clause that describes the subject until the anthropologists; then ‘now understand’ is the verb:. This means that literatures now understand rather than scholars now understand.

chetan2u · Answer

Hi all,
There has been a lot of discussion on OA here.
its clearly A. D and E just dont fit in ..
if i rewrite the complete sentence with option D..

Native American literatures,  which some scholars once thought were solely
oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists  now understand this body of work to
consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who
have been publishing since 1772.

two reasons..
1) the clause started with "which" does not have a comma in the end telling us where it ends.. here the 'comma' logically should come in non underlined portion after anthropologists. this clearly shows the D and E are not intended to be correct answer.
2) if i strike out the non essential part the sentence reads...  Native American literatures now understand this body of work to ..
it is the scholars who now understand this body of work and not native american literatures.

i believe D and E should be the first one to be eliminated rather than being contender for the right choice.

shalini14 · Answer

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were  solely oral narratives
recorded by missionaries or anthropologists  now understand this body of work to 
consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who
have been publishing since 1772.
A. Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral
narratives- Right chronological order of events i.e. Scholars who thought X(a piece of work here) was something now understand X is something else and so this option is right. 
B. Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives,
and-  Incorrect as thinking isn't right here and also misplaced once is distorting the right meaning. 
C. Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral
narratives and-  Incorrect as use of past perfect is not required here. An event was there in past and now another one is in present tense. 
D. Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely
oral narratives -  Changed the meaning and thus incorrect. 
E. Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were
solely oral narratives-  Changed the meaning and thus incorrect.

ramuramu1838 · Answer

dear  GMATNinja  sir,
Q1 - in the underline portion of option A, should not there be ARE instead of WERE, because What the scholar used to think is a fact that should be written in present simple?
Q2 - should not there be THAT between THOUGHT and NATIVE AMERICANS?

daagh · Answer

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives  recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.

A. Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives ---  This is the best and the correct choice since the modifier recorded by modifies the narratives forthwith.

B. Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once solely as oral narratives, and --- T he first part is just a modifier and one cannot form a viable sentence with conjunction thereafter since there is no clarity about the elided subject of the second part. It could be the scholars or the literatures or the narratives. In addition, there is no parallelism on either side of the conjunction 'and'

C. Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and ---  the same problem as in B

D. Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives ---  Change in meaning due to unwarranted replacement of the original subject scholars

E. Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were solely oral narratives ---  same problem as in D.

IloveMBA123 · Answer

Hi Sir, can you explain why past perfect is not justified to use here? From the sentence we can tell that the student now understand, which means student used to not understand?

BenjaminS · Answer

Hi  waihoe520 
If we refer to the correct structure of the past perfect tense, we use this tense with the simple past tense, not the present simple tense.
However, the issue in answer choice C is the use of "and" that is not parallel with "had thought"

obahr · Answer

Sorry to bring this old topic back again. How can "who" refer to the scholars in (A)? I thought who can only refer to persons? Wouldnt a "which" be more appropiate here?

Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were recorded by

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Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were recorded by

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