Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek

Question

Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only  with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.

(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only

(B) In 1905, Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed

(C) In 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only

(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed

(E) Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only

Nihit · Answer

C for me now ! . 
I don't like the placement of gerund in C since it modifies the entire sentence before the comma. Between armed only with and only armed with mmm C makes more sense.So i would rather go with the correct idiom than gerund modifier in this one !

hanumayamma · Answer

(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only –  Modifier issue - Traveling the back roads of Hungary incorrectly modifies year

(B) In 1905, Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed –  Modifier issue (“only” was intended to modify with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.)

(C) In 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only - Hold it

(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed -  modifier issue - same as A

(E) Bacla Bartaek and Zoltain Kodaily, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only - awkward and modifier issue

My Answer: C

gmat4life · Answer

IMO - C

Attacking this question vertically I knew the correct ac would began by "In 1905" etc, and then like the above poster, i wanted to pick the AC with the correct idiomatic ending....

what was the OA?

amitdgr · Answer

OA is C.

I picked the correct answer, but is E awkward ? what is wrong with E ?

ventivish · Answer

I think the issue here is parallelism. Travelling the back roads of Hungary and arming themselves only is given the same importance. When in fact BB and ZK ,travelled the backroads armed with an Edison photograph and insatiable curiosity. They did not travel the backroads and also arm themselves with an Edison photograph and insatiable curiosity.

GMAT TIGER · Answer

C. correct modifying phrase and keeps the meaning of the sentense intact but its not a case of llism.

ventivish · Answer

I mentioned parallelism in reference to whats wrong with answer E. Agreed that C is not a case of parallelism

Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bacla Bartaek

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