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winionhi
Doesn't the answer strike as, the "sea" was surrounded by the "wild southern winds" rather than the "fishermen"?

Yes, your understanding is correct. Please refer to the official explanation, in which your point is discussed.
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winionhi
Doesn't the answer strike as, the "sea" was surrounded by the "wild southern winds" rather than the "fishermen"?

Yes, your understanding is correct. Please refer to the official explanation, in which your point is discussed.

Isn't that modifying the meaning of the initial statement?
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Doesn't the answer strike as, the "sea" was surrounded by the "wild southern winds" rather than the "fishermen"?

Yes, your understanding is correct. Please refer to the official explanation, in which your point is discussed.

Isn't that modifying the meaning of the initial statement?

Yes, it does, but it is not mandatory that the original meaning is the intended meaning. If there are two possible gramatically correct answers, then go with the meaning that is in line with the original statement (that too if the original meaning is logical). If there is just one gramatically correct statement, then go for it even if it deviates in meaning from the original. GMAC has not mandated that the original sentence always has the intended meaning.
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Quote:


Yes, it does, but it is not mandatory that the original meaning is the intended meaning. If there are two possible gramatically correct answers, then go with the meaning that is in line with the original statement (that too if the original meaning is logical). If there is just one gramatically correct statement, then go for it even if it deviates in meaning from the original. GMAC has not mandated that the original sentence always has the intended meaning.

Oh. That's something I did not know before. Thanks for that, Sayantan. In this question, I chose to pick an incorrect answer over a grammatically correct one for the only reason that it was in-line with the intended meaning.
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I agree with the grammatical error in answer A, however, wouldn't it make more sense that the fisherman would be surrounded by winds instead of the sea? Using that logic I missed that grammatical error.

I guess its one really big storm to surround a sea
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I think this is a poor-quality question and I don't agree with the explanation. "The sea was in acceptable condition" and "the conditions on the sea were acceptable" seem to have two different meanings.
Consider the opposite "The sea was in unacceptable condition" vs. "the condition on the sea were unacceptable". I feel that there is a difference in the meaning. The former has sea as a focus while the latter has conditions of the sea as focus. Based on the way the complete sentence is framed, the conditions of the sea should be the subject.
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I think this is a poor-quality question and I don't agree with the explanation. The sea cannot be "surrounded" by wild winds. Since the sea continues in all directions and cannot be "surrounded" by wind, the stem implies that it is the local fisherman who are the subject of the passage.
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Whats wrong with option B, modifier looks perfectly alright?
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I think this is a high-quality question and I agree with explanation.
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