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Acme
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 26 Oct 2021, 18:57
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Hi AndrewN
can we eliminate option A for the reason that the meaning is conveyed as 2 separate clauses ?

Thanks in advance for your reply
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Oct 2021, 01:55
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Acme
Hi AndrewN
can we eliminate option A for the reason that the meaning is conveyed as 2 separate clauses ?

Thanks in advance for your reply
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Hello Acme,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt.

Your observation is indeed correct; the separation of the meaning of the sentence into two clauses is an error in Option A. Moreover, this separation actually alters the meaning of the sentence, slightly. The use of an independent clause incorrectly implies that Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology and the two of them being "armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity" are two independent actions; the intended meaning is that Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly were armed with only an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity, when they began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Oct 2021, 09:15
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Acme
Hi AndrewN
can we eliminate option A for the reason that the meaning is conveyed as 2 separate clauses ?

Thanks in advance for your reply
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Hello, Acme. I would like to add my own bit to what ExpertsGlobal5 has written above. The good news about the original sentence is that we do not even have to consider whether the intended meaning is distorted.

Quote:
Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.
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Could a sentence, some sentence on the topic, be written to convey two separate thoughts across two independent clauses in such a manner? Sure. The sentence is grammatically functional. We may not be in a position to judge whether the sentence in isolation is meant to have the latter part comment on the former. But the introductory modifier should be followed by the doer of the action, and in 1905 is grossly misplaced (or, alternatively, the comma is grossly misplaced and ought to appear after the year instead as part of the modifier). Consider a parallel sentence:

After throwing his 600th touchdown pass, in 2021 Tom Brady...

There is no argument that can be made for the soundness of the above opening—in 2021 could be placed in a few spots within the sentence (e.g., at the beginning, or prior to the comma, or somewhere in the main clause), but not after this particular comma. If such placement is incorrect in a parallel sentence, then it is also incorrect in our original sentence, and we can eliminate (A) without delving any deeper than scratching the surface.

I love reading for meaning in SC, and I recommend doing so; at the same time, if I can pick off an easy target, I will not hesitate to do so. In this sort of sentence, I would consider meaning only after I had already eliminated the easy stuff.

I hope that helps add a different angle to the analysis provided earlier. Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question.

- Andrew
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Oct 2021, 09:46
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In C, Is the verbed modifier "armed only" modifying the subject(Bela and zoltan) by going over the verbing modifier("traveling the..")?
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Oct 2021, 09:51
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Thanks ExpertsGlobal5 And Thank you AndrewN for a different insight to the problem.
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Oct 2021, 09:54
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.
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(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only
Travelling has to follow after Bela and Zoltan is mentioned in order to make sense that the starting point of their carrer and getting rid of the idea that the road travel helped in kick-starting their career which is not the case therefore out

(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed
Dependent clauses are seperated through commas distorting the meaning therefore out

(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only
The meaning is perfect along with the usage therefore let us hang on to it

(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed
There is no need of semi-colon which distorts the meaning therefore out

(E) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only
arming themselves isn't the right usage therefore out

Therefore IMO C
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 26 Dec 2021, 08:58
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ChrisLele
(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only

The subjects 'Bela Bartok' and 'Zoltan Kodaly' should immediately follow the participial phrase 'traveling the back...'

(B) In 1905, Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed

Dropping the adverb 'only' thus splitting the verb phrase, 'were armed', while not clearly wrong, should usually be avoided. Also breaking the sentence up into the independent clauses means that it is not concise.

(C) In 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only

This answer choice nicely corrects a problem in (A) and (B). The 'armed only' was separated from the participial phrase 'traveling the back roads..'. Because 'armed only' describes how they traveled (C) combines the two thoughts. In doing so it is concise and obviates the second independent clause.

(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed

Same problem as (A).

(E) Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only

The '1905' breaking up the subjects and the verb 'began' is awkward.
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Hi Chris,

Isn't "armed only with......." modifying Hungary rather than the travellers ?
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 27 Dec 2021, 07:42
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Flowerybunny
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! :) TomATManhattanGMAT
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v-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
    >Again it is not an issue that will lead to elimination, ie we can say “Tom is reading, and his friend is cooking”, no problem, but in comparison, C is better again

C in the contrary -> key point is they began the work, the rest is just modifier = concise structure
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Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Bela Bartok and Zoltan Ko 08 May 2023, 03:03
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