Located on the North Sea coast of Scotland, Lauriston Castle was the s

Question

Located on the North Sea coast of Scotland, Lauriston Castle was the stronghold of Gregory the Great  which was the last one of the Pictish kings .
a) which was the last one of the Pictish kings
b) who was the last one of the Pictish kings
c) who was one of the last Pictish kings
d) who was a Pictish king being the last
e) which was one of the last Pictish kings

Source: GMAT Ultimate Grammar from GMAT Club (Question number 9 in intermediate test)

In my opinion, correct choice is option B. My reasonings are as follows:
a)  "which" should not be used with person 
b)  "who" is used correctly and meaning of the sentence is unchanged. 
c)  "who" is used correctly, but the meaning of the sentence is changed. Originally, Gregory the Great was mentioned as the last which is specific. But here Gregory the Great is one of the last Pictish kings. 
d)  Awkward construction 
e)  Incorrect usage of "which" and changed of meaning as in option C.

But, according to the book, B is  not  correct answer. I am curious about where am I wrong. If anybody has different viewpoint, let's discuss.

doe007 · Accepted Answer

I could not understand why "kings" is wrong is the option B. What I interpret is that Pictish kings is a group or collection of many generations of kings and Gregory the Great was the last one of the series. In that case, option B is perfect.

Option C implies many Pictish kings can be called as last one. How that can be true? If we talk about individuals, there can be only one person as last one. If it was written as "one of the last four Pictish kings", it would have been correct. But, suppose there were only two Pictish kings; in that case, "one of the last Pictish kings" will bear no meaning!

I find option B is clear but option C is not so clear.

tuanquang269 · Answer

This is the meaning issue. Gregory the Great is the name of a king.

b) who was the last one of the Pictish kings => This choice makes a sense that Gregory the Great is the last one of Pictish kings. Gregory the Great sounds like thing, not human being. If translate in the human sense, Gregory the Great was the last king of the Pictish kings, still sound like things or be redundant. In this case, the plural "kings" must be removed. 
c) who was one of the last Pictish kings => sound more correct.

jumsumtak · Answer

1.) X was one of the last Y
2.) X was last one of the Y

In this context, when you want to say that Gregory was among the last few kings, use 1. It is syntactically (idiomatically) correct.

For what you want to say (Gregory was the last and not one of the last) there would be no 'one' mentioned in the sentence. It would have been: .... who was the last xyz king. 
With 'one' added, it creates a very awkward structure, having no meaning.

doe007 · Answer

Thank you, jumsumtak, for the response. I apologize as I am replying after a few months of dormancy. 
As I see, your second example makes sense if Y is plural.

Here, Pictish Kings means one particular dynasty of rulers. There were many successive rulers who fall under the category "Pictish Kings". It is ok to say "Gregory was last one of the Pictish Kings" (which is intended to convey that "Gregory was the last Pictish King").

There is little difference between meaning of option B and meaning of option C. Option B means Gregory was the last Pictish King and option C means Gregory was one of the last Pictish kings. Following 2 scenarios will clarify the concept.

********************************************
Scenario 1: Assuming chronological order of the Pictish Kings was - 
Bridei, Ciniod, Alpín, Talorgan, Dubhtolargg, Drest, Conall, Caustantín, Óengus, Drest,  Gregory , Eógan

Here Gregory was not the last Pictish King, but he was among the last two Pictish Kings. In this case, it would be wrong to say "Gregory was the last one of the Pictish kings" (option B), but it would be right to say "Gregory was one of the last Pictish kings" (option C).

Scenario 2: Assuming chronological order of the Pictish Kings was -
Bridei, Ciniod, Alpín, Talorgan, Dubhtolargg, Drest, Conall, Caustantín, Óengus, Drest, Eógan,  Gregory

Here Gregory was the last Pictish King and thus he was among the last two Pictish Kings. In this case, it would be right to say "Gregory was the last one of the Pictish kings" as well "Gregory was one of the last Pictish kings".
********************************************

Original sentence meant Gregory was the last Pictish King and same thing is conveyed in option B. Option C has a little change of meaning as we cannot get any information on whether Gregory was the last Pictish King or he was last but one Pictish King.

Problem with option B is that the construction "Gregory was the last one of the Pictish kings" is wordy. Economic expression would have been "Gregory was the last Pictish king".

To compare:
Option B: retains meaning (+ point) but wordy (- point)
Option C: changes meaning (- point) though concise (+ point)

IMHO, B wins over C as B retains the meaning and C twists the meaning subtly.
However, considering the OA, it seems style is more important than meaning.

campex · Answer

The text says: "was the last one of the Pictish kings.".

I also picked B. C changes the meaning, right?

manyu2409 · Answer

Hi campex, You are correct in saying that option C seems to change the meaning of the sentence, but option B is grammatically (as well as historically) incorrect. Some part of option B is redundant. GMAT doesn’t appreciate wordiness and redundancy in the correct options. It considers redundancy an error. Hence, option B can't be correct. b.) who was the last one of the Pictish kings This same meaning can be conveyed by saying ‘….who was the last Pictish king.’ In this case ‘ one of the ’ becomes redundant in the sentence. So, there is a redundancy error in the sentence. c.) who was one of the last Pictish kings This option represents the meaning in a very concise manner. Although this meaning seems different from the original sentence, it is grammatically as well as historically correct. History: Gregory the Great was not the last Pictish king, he was one of the last kings. Google that. :-D

Hope this helps!

Manyu

daagh · Answer

Dear Debbiem 
You may eliminate wordiness or may not, but you can't afford to diverge from meaning

deepak268 · Answer

hello sir, 
please help understand why B is wrong?? 
I thought C is diverging from the meaning so eliminated it

sayantanc2k · Answer

Even if you consider that GG was the last king, then the correct option would have been "who was the last Pictish kings". The phrasing " who was the last one of the Pictish kings" is wordy and awkward and generally such wordiness is not accepted in GMAT.

Do not eliminate answer just because of meaning divergence. It may well be the case that the original sentence does not convey the intended meaning.

vegetate · Answer

So what I am trying to figure out is that:
In option B(which I chose), it is actually wordy, since the concise saying should be "who was the last Pictish king"?

THX.

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

This is not an official GMAT question, so I wouldn't generalize anything from it.

daboo343 · Answer

Here in the above sentence  Which pronoun is used to denote noun (person) and is wrong.    pronoun Who is correct to refer person 
 That is why A and E is wrong. 
 Optiopn D is wron because wrong usage of being 
Now between B and C
C seems awkward
hence B

Abhishek009 · Answer

Which without a comma preceding it , is generally wrong on the GMAT , So options (A) and (E) can be rejected....

(C) means Gregory the Great was not the last , he was one among the last..

(D) Incorrect usage of being ...

Hence correct answer is (B)

souvonik2k · Answer

'who was the last one...' is awkward as compared to 'who was one of the last...', so the answer is C

abhimahna · Answer

Brother, Meaning wise I think C is incorrect, as per your reasoning. But have a look at the below post : located-on-the-north-sea-coast-of-scotland-lauriston-castle-136038.html I think we are missing something here.

law258 · Answer

I agree with Abhishek009. Based on the intended meaning we can pull from the original sentence, we're looking for the answer that conveys he was the last of this reign of kings, not he was one of the last to rule in this reign of kings.

OA should be B.

OA should be B.

arirux92 · Answer

C makes more sense.

For those who are arguing about meaning of B, wouldn't it have been more simpler to say :

Last pictisch king 
instead of the last one of the pictish king

One of the last makes sense...

Last one of the doesn't... It is unnecessarily adding 3 words which have no relevance to the meaning of the sentence

leanhdung · Answer

Located on the North Sea coast of Scotland, Lauriston Castle was the stronghold of Gregory the Great  which was the last one of the Pictish kings .

a.  which  was the last one of the Pictish kings

b. who was the last  one  of the Pictish king s 
-->  one  has no grammatically-correct antecedant.

c. who was one of the last Pictish kings
--> correct.

d. who was a Pictish king  being  the last

e.  which  was one of the last Pictish kings

maheshmadhukar · Answer

In my opinion, B and C here , are both correct !
They both imply different meanings though.
If we have to preserve the original meaning in the question stem, B is the best best here.
C may sound more concise, but it twists the intended meaning .
Experts, your inputs please !

Located on the North Sea coast of Scotland, Lauriston Castle was the s

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Located on the North Sea coast of Scotland, Lauriston Castle was the s

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