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MartyTargetTestPrep
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled Updated on: 09 Dec 2016, 06:13
Originally posted by MartyTargetTestPrep on 08 Dec 2016, 20:48.
Last edited by MartyTargetTestPrep on 09 Dec 2016, 06:13, edited 2 times in total.
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E
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35% (medium)

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65% (01:26) correct 35% (01:32) wrong based on 270 sessions

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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the hikers' progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(A) Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the hikers' progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(B) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers' progress was stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(C) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, obscuring the trail and covering landmarks normally used for navigating.

(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

(E) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.



Source: TTP Beta Testing
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 08 Dec 2016, 21:27
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the team’s progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(A) Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the team’s progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(B) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the team’s progress was stalled by the heavy snowfall, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(C) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the team found their progress stalled by the heavy snowfall, obscuring the trail and covering landmarks normally used for navigating.

(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the team found their progress stalled by the heavy snowfall that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

(E) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the team found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.



Source: TTP Beta Testing
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I think their does not have a valid reference in the question as team is a collective noun. The sentence must be rewritten as 'the team found its progress.....' atleast in the correct answer choice. Correct me if I am wrong.
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 08 Dec 2016, 21:59
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Vyshak
I think their does not have a valid reference in the question as team is a collective noun. The sentence must be rewritten as 'the team found its progress.....' atleast in the correct answer choice. Correct me if I am wrong.
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Does a team find anything? A team is just a grouping. So I don't think that a team can find something.

Most of those collective nouns can be considered singular or plural depending on the context.

Going to have to look into this some more.

I appreciate the feedback. Was wondering about it myself.
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 08 Dec 2016, 22:15
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Vyshak
I think their does not have a valid reference in the question as team is a collective noun. The sentence must be rewritten as 'the team found its progress.....' atleast in the correct answer choice. Correct me if I am wrong.
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In researching the topic, I found arguments for using 'their" with "team".

Still, I am not sure that I really like it either, and maybe the seemingly incorrect relationship could be distracting. So I replaced "team" with "hikers".
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 08 Dec 2016, 23:13
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Why is option B wrong? I picked B, I was trying to avoid passive voice.
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 08 Dec 2016, 23:18
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ilaukikt
Why is option B wrong? I picked B, I was trying to avoid passive voice.
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B is incorrect because the climbing must be performed by hikers. The opening phrase in B modifies hikers' progress.
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 09 Dec 2016, 00:51
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My thinking :

(A) Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the hikers' progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating. - [ Modifier error : who climbed halfway up the mountain? Heavy snow? illogical]

(B) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers' progress was stalled by the heavy snowfall, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating. [ Modifier error: Hiker's progress climbed halfway up the mountain? Illogical]

(C) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snowfall, obscuring the trail and covering landmarks normally used for navigating.[ Here the first modifier is correct. The second verb-ing modifier ' obscuring & Covering' modifies the entire preceding clause but has to make sense with the subject- 'hiker'. What is obscuring the trail and covering landmarks? The hiker? illogical - The snow is obscuring the trail and covering...! ]


(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snowfall that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating. [ First modifier is correct. second sentence did not sound right to me , although i could not exactly pinpoint what was wrong. snowfall cannot cover landmarks? would this sentence be correct if 'snow' had been used instead of 'snowfall'? also should it be 'That obscured and that covered'?]

(E) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating. [ 1st modifier is correct, 2nd modifier is correct - best of the lot]
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 09 Dec 2016, 02:20
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Why is 'D' wrong? Is it a diction error? Snowfall can't obscure trails but snow can?
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 09 Dec 2016, 05:51
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shawrochis
Why is 'D' wrong? Is it a diction error? Snowfall can't obscure trails but snow can?
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Oh man. I didn't realize that I had used both "snow" and "snowfall". I might edit the question. Anyway, here is an explanation of why E is better than D.

(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled.

In the opening modifier, "only" is misplaced. The point is not the the hikers only climbed. The point is that they had climbed only halfway up.

snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

In this version "normally" is misplaced. In the OA version, the landmarks are "landmarks normally used for navigating." This version basically conveys that the snow covered normally used landmarks and that the snow did that for the purpose of navigating.

The snow covered normally used landmarks for the purpose of navigating. - illogical

The snow covered normally used landmarks for navigating. - illogical, or at least ambiguous and awkward - I could see how one could argue that this is ok.

The snow covered landmarks normally used for navigating. - clear and logical - This is better than D, and even if you were inclined to disagree with that assessment, I think you would agree that the combination of the placement of "only" and the placement of "normally" makes E the clear winner.
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 09 Dec 2016, 06:39
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shawrochis
Why is 'D' wrong? Is it a diction error? Snowfall can't obscure trails but snow can?

Oh man. I didn't realize that I had used both "snow" and "snowfall". I might edit the question. Anyway, here is an explanation of why E is better than D.

(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled.

In the opening modifier, "only" is misplaced. The point is not the the hikers only climbed. The point is that they had climbed only halfway up.

snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

In this version "normally" is misplaced. In the OA version, the landmarks are "landmarks normally used for navigating." This version basically conveys that the snow covered normally used landmarks and that the snow did that for the purpose of navigating.

The snow covered normally used landmarks for the purpose of navigating. - illogical

The snow covered normally used landmarks for navigating. - illogical, or at least ambiguous and awkward - I could see how one could argue that this is ok.

The snow covered landmarks normally used for navigating. - clear and logical - This is better than D, and even if you were inclined to disagree with that assessment, I think you would agree that the combination of the placement of "only" and the placement of "normally" makes E the clear winner.
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I was in doubt with 'Only'. E was the winner for me to. I just wanted to clear my confusion between 'snowfall' and 'snow'. And thanks for the clarification of 'normally'. It completely escaped my judgement.
Thanks :) :)
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 05 Jan 2017, 10:03
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MartyMurray
Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the hikers' progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(A) Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled the hikers' progress, obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(B) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers' progress was stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.

(C) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, obscuring the trail and covering landmarks normally used for navigating.

(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.

(E) Having climbed only halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow, which obscured the trail and covered landmarks normally used for navigating.



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nothing but E makes sense...

the introductory modifier must modify the hikers - not their progress..
A and B are right away eliminated.

in C - the second ing modifier must associate with the subject and verb of the preceded clause...but it is not used correctly...so C is out too.

D - only having climbed - changes meaning.

E it is!
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Having only climbed halfway up the mountain, the heavy snow stalled 05 Jul 2023, 00:29
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