I would really appreciate it if someone can explain why is that in Option C, the modifier “travelling the roads…” is able to modify “Bela and Zoltan”, instead of “ethnomusicology” or “their pioneering work”?
(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.
Here is another question, which I think is about modifiers:
The attorney turned down the law firm’s offer of a position because she suspected that it was meant merely to fill an affirmative action
quota with no commitment to minority hiring and eventually promoting.
(A) quota with no commitment to minority hiring and eventually promoting
(B) quota, having no commitment to minority hiring and eventually promoting
(C) quota and did not reflect a commitment to minority hiring and eventual promotion
(D) quota, not reflecting a commitment to minority hiring and eventual promotion
(E) quota, not one that reflected that minority hiring and eventual promotion was a commitment
In the question pasted above, I chose Option (C) (which is the official answer) as I felt that the preposition/modifiers in remaining answer choices modify “quota” instead of "offer".
Could someone share their insights on how these two questions are different, where first question allows “travelling the roads…” to modify “Bela and Zoltan”, while in the second question, for example answer choice B, “having no commitment” would be unable to modify “offer” in “the law firm’s offer”?
Update: For anyone with the same question. The explanation should be as follows:
Quote from TomATManhattanGMAT on "The Achaemenid empire of Persia reached the Indus Valley in the fifth" question:
These “comma –ing” structures are adverbial modifiers, which modify the preceding clause (subject and verb)In the initial question, "Bela and Zoltan" are the subject of the sentence, while in the second question, "The attorney" is the subject of the sentence. As such “having no commitment” would modify the "The attorney" which is illogical.
Thank you!
TomATManhattanGMATv-ing modifies the whole clause not a single subject, as it was preceded by a comma "comma + v-ing"
unlike many said here I don’t think there is issue with “only armed” vs “armed only”
this is an advanced question as the different is very subtly between B and C, and B is not a wrong answer it is just less good compared to C.
1. “Travelling the back roads..” could modify either Bela and Zoltan” or the subsequent clause “began pioneering work..”; although it is quite clear it is modifying the preceding clause, it is not as good when compared to C
2. The structure is IC+IC; while connected with a conjunction the meaning is lacking
C in the contrary -> key point is they began the work, the rest is just modifier = concise structure
close
26 Oct 2021, 18:57
