Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy

Explanation:

A. Eliminate.
Which' incorrectly modifies ‘exhibit’. It should modify the infinitive ‘touch’.

B. Eliminate.
"in turn an activation" modifies "exhibit" - this is illogical.

C. Eliminate.
"it" seems to incorrectly refer to "the Leonardo Project". Causality is not expressed clearly.

D. Correct Answer.
This option is concise and expresses causality correctly.

E. Eliminate.
‘Which' incorrectly modifies ‘exhibit’. It should modify ‘touch’ instead. Same reason as A.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that touching each exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Pronouns + Grammatical Construction

• "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.
• In a “noun + comma + phrase” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• Information vital to the core meaning cannot be placed between commas.
• “that” is used to provide the information needed to preserve the core meaning of the sentence, and the “comma + which” construction is used to provide extra information.

A: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly refers to "each exhibit" with "which thereby activates", incorrectly implying that the exhibit itself activates the animated functions of the piece; the intended meaning is that the act of touching the exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece; please remember, "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.

B: This answer choice incorrectly modifies "each exhibit" with "in turn an activation", illogically implying that each exhibit is an activation of the animated functions of the piece; the intended meaning is that the act of touching the exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece; please remember, in a “noun + comma + phrase” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

C: This answer choice suffers from pronoun ambiguity, as the pronoun "it" lacks a clear referent.

D: Correct. This answer choice avoids the modification errors seen in Options A, B, and E, as it uses the phrase "and thereby activate", conveying the intended meaning - that the act of touching each exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece. Further, Option D avoids the pronoun error seen in Option C, as it uses no pronouns. Additionally, Option D avoids the grammatical construction error seen in Option E, as it places no information between commas. Besides, Option D avoids the modifier error seen in Option E, as it does not use "which".

E: This answer choice incorrectly modifies "each exhibit" with "which...activates", incorrectly implying that the exhibit itself activates the animated functions of the piece; the intended meaning is that the act of touching the exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece. Further, Option E incorrectly places information vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that the animated functions of the piece are activated as a result of visitors touching the exhibit - between two commas; please remember, information vital to the core meaning cannot be placed between commas. Additionally, Option E incorrectly uses "which" to refer to information vital to the core meaning of the sentence; please remember, “that” is used to provide the information needed to preserve the core meaning of the sentence, and the “comma + which” construction is used to provide extra information.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1minute):



To understand the concept of "Which" vs "That" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between Commas" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi, two quick rules to remember about the word "which:"
1. "Which" refers to the nearest noun phrase before it (basically the nearest thing).
So, in this case, "which" refers to the closest noun before it: "exhibit." But then the sentence would say that the exhibit "thereby activates the animated functions..." That's not true; the exhibit does not activate the functions, the visitor does.

2. "Which" is a pronoun, so it can only be used to replace a noun; it can not be used to replace a verb.
So, "which" can not replace "to touch" because "to touch" is a verb and can not be referred to by a pronoun. (if maybe you assumed that the act of touching activated the functions).

For both reasons, A can't be the answer.

Hope that helps.

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates - 'which' refers to exhibit thereby distorting the meaning of the sentence.
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of - incorrect
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate - touching the exhibit thereby activates...CORRECT
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates

The problem with the original sentence is the inappropriate use of 'which'. This case it modifies exhibit (the noun touching 'which') implying the the exhibit activates the functions of the piece. This is incorrect. The activation is caused by visitors 'touching' the exhibit. the sentence that implies this is the correct one.

A. Incorrect for reason mentioned above.
B. Incorrect parallelism
C. 'it' is an ambiguous pronoun. 'It' can refer to nouns only, so there is no chance it is referring to the 'touching' action.
D. 'and thereby' correctly implies that we are talking about the action that activates the exhibit. CORRECT
E. 'which' modifies exhibit - incorrect meaning

There is no plural verb used here. D uses the following parallel structure:

to “touch” each exhibit and thereby (to) activate...

Since we have an infinitive here (to activate), we cannot use to activates.

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates

The key to this question is to understand the logic. The project encourages visitors to touch the exhibit and as a result of the touch the animated functions get activated.

A: exhibit is not activating the function
B - nonsensical
c: 'it' is not clear
d: correct, the users are encouraged to touch and thereby activate the functions
e: which is not used in proper GMAT way: which vs that

Yes true, the relative pronoun’ which’ is wrongly placed after ‘exhibit, because exhibit cannot activate; It is the act of touching that activates. So we don’t know what that word which is trying to refer to; Hence it simply dangling. The OG says that there is no antecedent for ‘which

Hi there,

What the explanation seems to mean is that there's no logical antecedent for "which". As you've pointed out, "exhibit" can't be the antecedent of "which" in any logical sense. According to the intended meaning of the sentence, it's clearly the action "to touch" that is responsible for activating the functions. Since there's no noun in the sentence that "which" can logically refer to, we can conclude that this pronoun shouldn't actually be in the underlined portion. So, in this sense, there's no antecedent for "which" in the sentence. It seems to refer to the preceding noun, but logically, it can't.

I hope this helps to clarify your doubt.

Regards,
Meghna

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates


in option A) which is referring to exhibit because there is no other noun preceding it.which should refer to "touch".
I understand that "to touch" is an infinitive,an action and not a noun.
I want to know that if we use infinitives as subject can we refer to them with "which" or "it"(pronouns)
eg. 1)To err is human. can we now use any pronoun to refer to "to err".
2)to swim is good for health.


Also want to know that if infinitives can be verbs or nouns or play some other role.
eg In the official question "to touch" refers to an action. so can i call it a verb ?
In the 2nd sentence "To err" is the subject. can i call it a noun ??

i think that both the questions are interrelated.
please help.

please help.

"Activate" is not a verb but an infinitive - "activate" is parallel to "touch". "To" is outside the parallel structure and hence covers both "touch" and "activate". The structure is as follows:

.. encourage visitiors TO touch and thereby activate....

The structure is similar to the following:

The school does not allow the children TO go out or play during the class.

Hi thereisaFire,

There are a couple of things we should look at here:
1. It's usually not a good idea to use pronouns like it to refer to things other than nouns, at least on the GMAT.

2. "Visitors to 'touch' each exhibit and thereby activate {something}" means that the act of touching is what leads to the activation of {something}. Option C, on the other hand, says that visitors will touch something and that it (something) will activate something else. At a minimum, this is ambiguous, because there seems to be no logical antecedent for that it.

I think that perhaps you read touch as the touch. If the sentence had used "the touch", touch would have been a noun. However, the sentence uses touch as part of the infinitive to touch (infinitives are verb forms).

__________________________________
Why is A wrong?

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to "touch" each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates

The solution is pretty simple i.e D.
But what confused me is the explanation in OG for choice A.
According to me 'which ' refers to exhibit and exhibit cannot activate the .... Hence wrong.
But explanation says that 'which' has no antecedent .Hence wrong.

As far as i know , WHICH modifies the immediate preceding noun. Here its "exhibit".

Please let me know where i am going wrong?

When the sentence says encourages visitors to "touch". Isn't it logical to say that the touch activates the functions whereas in D when the sentence says "and thereby activate" it means users activate the animated function. Doesn't using a plural verb activate distorts the meaning to a small extent?

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates (Which is referring to exhibit but it is not exhibit that is activating, it is the touch)
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of (Activation is a noun construction but we already have verb "activate" construction so according to drive the VAN we will go with Verb construction)
C. exhibit, and it will activate (antecedent of it is not clear also it can not refer to touch)
D. exhibit and thereby activate (Correct one, also touch and activate are parallel)
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates (Again same as A use of which is not correct, also which cannot be used without preceding Comma or preposition)

Can you please help me understand why activate is correct and activates is incorrect ?
what is it referring to ?

Thank you.