During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was

Question

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers,  Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of  many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.

(A) Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of

(B) Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of

(C) Native Americans, with their intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, helped to rescue

(D) having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped the rescue of

(E) knowing intimately the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped to rescue

Here, I can eliminate D, E since the first clause is dependent and started with during, and second clause must be an independent clause and this independent clause should start with a subject which is 'Native Americans'.

So that left me with A, B, and C options ..
A is wrong probably meaning is not right?

I am not confident why B is wrong .... may be it should have a comma "land intimately, and this enabled " or there is no proper reference to "them"?

Can some one explain for me in detail?

daagh · Accepted Answer

(A) Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of …. . Were a help in the rescue of ---- wordy and unidiomatic

(B) Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of….  distorted meaning: knew the ecology of the land and not the ecology and the land. The pronoun ‘this’ lacks a proper antecedent 
 
(C) Native Americans, with their intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, helped to rescue…  the right choice using the right idiom 'helped to rescue’

(D) having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped the rescue of ….  1. Helped the rescue of – unidiomatic 2. The unseemly insertion of the modifier phrase ‘having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land’ may lead to mismodification of the new comers rather than of the Native Americans
 
(E) knowing intimately the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped to rescue ………….  The unseemly insertion of the modifier phrase ‘knowing the ecology of the land’ may lead to mis-modification of the new comers rather than ofthe Native Americans

noboru · Answer

So 2 consecutive noun modifiers are not correct?

PTK · Answer

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers,  Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of  many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.
(A) Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land,  were a help   in the rescuing of  -  Native americans were a help in the rescuing of ? - this is reallly horrible to the ear.

(B) Native Americans  knew  the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help  in the rescue of  -  why knew- this usage is not required here ? end of the sentence is awkward.  
(C) Native Americans, with their intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, helped to rescue - Correct
(D) having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped  the rescue of  -  must begin with independent clause 
(E) knowing intimately the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped to rescue-  must begin with independent clause

yashii9 · Answer

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers, Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.
(A) Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of
(B) Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of
(C) Native Americans, with their intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, helped to rescue
(D) having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped the rescue of
(E) knowing intimately the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped to rescue

1. 
1st clause- modifier that modifies the noun
2nd clause (Native Americans)- Noun

These two are rightly placed. Based on this we can eliminate D & E.

2. Looking at the end of underlined sentence we can notice 
a. rescue of
b. to rescue

to rescue is the correct idiom also if you dont know the correct idiom, "in the rescue of" sounds really awkward.
This leave us with C.

Hope this helps.

daagh · Answer

After the customary POE of dropping A, B and D based on wrong use of idiom, C and E remain. Between them, C is superior simply because the modified noun is placed immediately after the initial modifier in C, while the modified noun appears after an additional modifier in E, thus rendering modification uncrisp

yashii9 · Answer

1. did u eliminate A on the grounds of correct usage of rescue of and rescue to?
correct me, i may be wrong, but rescuing of is not a wrong idiom.

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rescue -this should help.

As said by many -any gmat sentence will have more than one error to help us eliminate the answer choice.

2. does intimately knowing and intimate knowledge had any role to play in deciding the choice?

Yes indeed. But if you manage to eliminate answer choices based on "Rescue to" then your next selection becomes easier between c and E

However, if you are stuck at A - closely looking at the 3rd clause " intimately knowing" - we have an adverb which is modifying an gerund. This is incorrect usage.

Adverb can only modify another adverb,Main verb or adjective.

heygmat · Answer

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers, Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.
(A) Native Americans, intimately knowing the ecology of the land, were a help in the rescuing of
(B) Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of
(C) Native Americans, with their intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, helped to rescue
(D) having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped the rescue of
(E) knowing intimately the ecology of the land, Native Americans helped to rescue

in D and E modifier (M)------M1,M2, SUBJECT +VERB+ EXTENSION IS NOT DESIREABLE ONE Unles there is no relation between M1 AND M2, SUBJECT++++++++++++

SO out D and E.

B . sentence construction is not paralell in subject matter. the sentence should have been stood as separately, though that would be wordy, clumsy, and confusing. this could be ------ Native Americans ,knowing intimately the ecology of the land, helped to rescue.  this refers to entire preceeding clause but i have never seen such construction as this one.

A. Initial modifier impels to deal with the active subject rather than passive one i think. so wordy and bad construction should be avoided if possible

c........officially correct so it is correct. but i am showing you some arguments to support this option. modifier with construction modifies the entire clause not a specific one in the sentence.-----"how native americans helped to rescue many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardshi" is clearly described by the modifier begins with "WITH" GOT IT ?

daagh · Answer

It is the wrong idiom that is even more important than the awkwardness( awkwardness is after all a matter of opinion) of the clause.   - were a help in the rescuing of -  is demonstrably a blatant idiomatic error. It should be the straight  -helped to rescue- 
 
That is why A is off the hook

mbaiseasy · Answer

This is a past event. 
"Settlement WAS viewed..." 
"Native Americans helped..."
Keep everything past tense. Thus, eliminate A, D and E.
B is wordy.

Answer: C

sevenplusplus · Answer

I have the same question.
I guess it is possible if two modifiers are connected using "and"?

egmat · Answer

Hello sevenplusplus , I will be glad to help you out with one. :-)

Firstly, the opening modifier of this official sentence During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers is not a noun modifier. It is an action modifier because the sentence says that something happened during the xyz period. Secondly, two noun modifiers can be uses back to back to refer to a noun entity. But yes, there should be connector between the two for ease of understanding. In Choices D and E, the placement of the modifiers having intimate knowledge of the ecology of the land and knowing intimately the ecology of the land respectively is such that it can associate with the preceding noun newcomers as well as the following noun Native Americans . Hence, their usage in both these options is incorrect. Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

sarathgopinath · Answer

Hi. I have a doubt.
How do D and E modify new comers? A comma followed by ing modifier can only modify the entire clause right?
The subject of the preceding clause is continent.
Please help  egmat

egmat · Answer

Hello sarathgopinath , I will be glad to help you with this one.

It is true that the two verb-ing modifiers in Choice D and E are preceded by a that clause + comma. However, the clause is in the passive voice, the rules for comma + verb-ing modifiers will not be applicable on the clause. This is the grammatical part of the usage. From meaning standpoint, the two modifiers are meant to refer to Native Americans because the context of the sentence makes it absolutely clear that the Native Americans intimately knew the ecology of the land and hence helped to rescue many pilgrims and pioneers. Hence, the two modifiers must be placed correctly to be able to perform their function without any ambiguity whatsoever. But the same does not happen in Choice D and E. Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

malavika1 · Answer

Hello Shraddha, I was not aware of this. Does this mean that when we have a clause in passive voice + comma + verb-ing modifiers, these verb-ing modifiers will modify the word immediately before the verb-ing modifiers?

Is my understanding correct. Is there an official example you can think of, where the correct option uses this kind of structure.

egmat · Answer

Hello malavika1 , Thank you for the query. :-)

See, I am not saying that if a comma + verb-ing modifier is placed after a passive voice clause, it will refer to the noun preceding it. All I am saying that comma + verb-ing modifier rules do not work on clauses in passive voice structure. In this particular official sentence, we know from the context of the sentence that the two verb-ing modifiers used in Choice D and E are meant to modify Native Americans. But their placement is such that they do not their function correctly. I really cannot think of an official correct sentence in which a comma + verb-ing modifier placed after a passive voice clause refers to the preceding noun. Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

malavika1 · Answer

Thanks Shraddha. I think in D and E, even if we go with the normal usage of these comma + ing modifiers, then as sarathgopinath mentioned, in D and E, "having intimate knowledge" is modifying "continent". So, D and E are suggesting that the "continent" had intimate knowledge!

Can we take it this way?

Can we take it this way?

egmat · Answer

Hello malavika1 , Yes, even if you analyze the usage of the verb-ing modifiers this way, you will be able to reject choices D and E. Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

AdityaHongunti · Answer

even though there are great explanations for incorrect choice B, I would like to point one more error:

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers,........................... many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.

(B) Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of

put in B:
During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers,Native Americans knew the ecology and the land intimately and this enabled them to help in the rescue of many Pilgrims and pioneers from hardship, or even death.

Now even if we correct the error " knew the ecology AND the land " the choice would still be wrong :
 the original sentence tries to convey a quality which native americans possess , a quality which proved to be helpful to the pilgrims. 
now read :
During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was viewed as “wilderness” by the newcomers,Native Americans knew the ecology and the land -- this implies that the native americans possessed the knowledge DURING the early years , and not any time before or after that. This is a distortion in meaning.

Though this is too subtle and other errors are more than enough to ditch B, a more clearer picture only increases your knowledge

desertEagle · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION: 
Choice A suffers from the wordy and indirect expression  were a help in the rescuing of.  B creates an awkward,
redundant, fused sentence in which the first clause has to be repeated in the vague  this  of the second clause;
furthermore, the comma required before  and  in larger compound sentences is omitted. D and E are confusingly
worded because they begin with present participles  (having and knowing)  that appear at first to refer to the
immediately preceding noun,  newcomers , rather than to  Native Americans . D also has the wordy and
unidiomatic  helped the rescue of . Clear, direct, and economical, choice C is best.

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

During the early years of European settlement on a continent that was

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