When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Se

Question

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

(A) When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

(B) Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.

(C) When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it .

(D) A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.

(E) When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement.

Source  :  GMATPREP Default Exam Pack

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

I’m not sure why, but this question seems to punk my students fairly often. So if you struggled with it, you’re not alone!

This is a little bit tricky to spot, but “drafting” is  an “-ing” modifier , and it needs to make sense with the subject that follows. But we never really get a subject that makes sense: the main clause is just “included in it by the author… was a call for female enfranchisement.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton is basically just a modifier here, but the sentence would only work if she’s the subject. (A) is out.

I’m not crazy about the “including a call for female enfranchisement” at the beginning, since that phrase would suggest that we’re introducing some sort of example, and that doesn’t make sense. But the much, much bigger issue is the phrase “that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.” It looks like it’s modifying the convention, and that doesn’t make sense. (More on “that” modifiers in  this article .) (B) is gone.

I like the modifiers in this one, but the verb tenses don’t quite work. The word “when” suggests that two actions happened at the same time, but that’s not reflected in the verb tenses: “When the Declaration of Sentiments…  was adopted …, a call for female enfranchisement  had been included  in it.” That doesn’t make sense: if we’re using “when”, the tenses would have to be the same. Eliminate (C).

This isn’t even a sentence. To have a sentence, we need an independent clause, with subject and a main verb. The structure here is “Noun, modifier, modifier.” The subject, “a call for female enfranchisement” is never actually paired with a verb. (D) fails.

No problems here! The sentence starts with “when”, and the verb tenses are nice and consistent: all simple past, throughout the whole thing. The modifier beginning with “that” correctly modifies the Declaration of Sentiments. (E) is our winner.

egmat · Answer

Best Practice 2 – Communicate “All” Aspects of Meaning of Original Choice Continuing our “Best Practices for SC” series, this week I will present a very vital best practice – Always make sure that the correct choice communicates “all” logical information presented by the original choice. Before I begin, I want to make sure that the readers of this article recognize the importance of understanding meaning of the original sentence. If you have any doubts regarding this aspect, then I suggest you view this session in which I go over this most important aspect of Sentence Correction section. Coming back to this article - in this article we will take a look at an official question and see how the test makers may create an incorrect answer choice by removing key piece of information that the author wants to communicate. And how do you know what it is that the author wants to communicate – you read and comprehend the original choice. So apart from checking for logical meaning and grammatical correctness, you must also ensure that all the logical information present in the original choice is communicated by the correct answer. So let’s read on

STEP 1 - UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF CHOICE A The first thing I will do is read the entire sentence slowly to grasp the intent of the author. After all I need to first understand what the author is trying to tell me through this sentence. When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement. • When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments – Ok the author wants to tell me something about that someone who drafted the DoS. • I read along – that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Right Convention in 1848. Ok. So the DoS was adopted at this specific convention in the year 1848. • Reading along, I see – included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton – the author of this DoS is Elizabeth. And she included something in this DoS. • was a call for female enfranchisement – So she included this call for female enfranchisement in the DoS. So if I were to put the entire sentence together in my mind, I would say that the sentence talks about a document called Declaration of Sentiments (DoS). There is information about when it was adopted, where it was adopted, and who wrote it. We also know that when the author drafted this document, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement. With this understanding we will now review the sentence once again but this time we will be looking specifically for grammatical errors. STEP 2 – IDENTIFY THE ERRORS IN CHOICE A When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement. This sentence begins with an expression “when drafting DoS”. This expression appears to talk about the person who drafted the DoS. We know this is Elizabeth. So this expression logically modifies Elizabeth. But grammatically Elizabeth is not placed close to this modifier for this modification to take place. Thus, this sentence has modifier error. Other than the modifier error, the sentence is written in grammatically correct form, and as we discussed earlier, it presents logical information. Now with this understanding of meaning and errors in the original sentence, we will review the answer choices one by one and find the correct answer. STEP 3 – FIND THE CORRECT CHOICE FROM THE ANSWER CHOICES • Choice B: Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote. This choice is incorrect. Why? Notice the opening modifier “including a call for…” It non-sensically modifies “a draft”. Clearly the draft did not include this mentioned call. Furthermore, notice the modified entity of modifier “that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote” is not clear. It is not at all clear what this modifier modifies. In other words we know that this should modify the DoS, but it is placed next to 1848, illogically modifying this closest noun. Now let’s move to choice C. • Choice C: When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it. After first read, I can see that this choice corrects the modifier error in choice A. But when I read this choice again, I find that it misses to mention one very important point. Who included the call in the DoS? Notice how the verb “had been included” is now written in passive voice and the person who did this action is no longer mentioned explicitly in this choice. So for all we know, someone other than Elizabeth may have included this “call”. May be Elizabeth drafted the DoS, had it reviewed by someone, and this person included this call in it and then later this DoS was adopted at the convention. So this choice is wrong because it does not convey the complete meaning as communicated by the original sentence – more specifically it does not state that Elizabeth included the call. So it is very important to read and comprehend the entire sentence before moving to the answer choices. Otherwise, there is a high likelihood of marking the first seemingly ‘correct’ answer choice. Now let’s look at choice D. • Choice D: A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. This choice is incorrect because there is no main verb in the sentence. The subject “call” does not have any verb. This brings us to choice E, which better be written correctly since we have rejected all other choices

• Choice E: When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement. This choice is absolutely correct. It is written in grammatically correct form and includes all pertinent information as intended by the author of choice A. Notice how the sentence explicitly mentions that Elizabeth included the call in the DoS. So Choice E is the correct answer . Now let’s take a look at the key takeaways from this official question. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Takeaway.png Here are the key things to keep in mind when you solve SC questions. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/TakeawayPic-e1361808079663.png In fact “changing the voice” is one of the strategies used by the test makers to change the meaning of the sentence. For more information, read Strategy # 4 in the article that covers 5 strategies GMAC uses to change meaning of the sentence. Now you are ready to apply your skills on the following exercise question. Keep in mind the takeaways as you answer this question. Good luck

EXERCISE QUESTION Although Google has launched ‘unchic’ glasses with a computer processor, a battery, and a tiny screen to provide Internet access through wearable technology, it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing more fashionable frames. A. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing B. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached so that it can design C. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to design D. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached to design E. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it design

egmat · Answer

Hi All,

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Meaning-icon-final.png

The way this sentence is written the meaning is not very clear. So let us decipher the meaning first. We get some information from this sentence. Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the DoS. She included in it a call for female enfranchisement. This DoS was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grammar.png

Error Analysis:

1. Modifier “When drafting …” is ambiguous in its role. We don’t know what it is modifying. 
2. This sentence needs to be written in a way so that the meaning is easy to comprehend.

POE:

Choice A:  When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included n it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.  Incorrect  for the reason stated above.

Choice B:  Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.  Incorrect. 
1. The opening modifier is illogically modifying “a draft”. The draft did not do the action of including the call.
2. This choice fails to say that who included the call for women enfranchisement in the DoS.

Choice C:  When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it.  Incorrect.  This choice fails to say who included the call in the DoS.

Choice D:  A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.  Incorrect.  This choice lacks a main verb and hence is a fragment.

Choice E:  When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement.  Correct . All the information is clearly given in this choice.

PS-  Pronoun “it” clearly refers to DoS because the sentence clearly says that Stanton drafted the DoS, and when she drafted it, she included in “it” (DoS) the call for women enfranchisement.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

get2aditya · Answer

Although Google has launched ‘unchic’ glasses with a computer processor, a battery, and a tiny screen to provide Internet access through wearable technology,  it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing  more fashionable frames.
A. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing  - second 'it' is ambiguous, 'help for designing' - is incorrect usage. 
B. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached so that it can design  - Passive voices ignores who approached WP 
C. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to design  - There is a subtle change in intended meaning.The reason for approaching WP has been changed from 'helping design' to 'designing'. 
D. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached to design  - Passive voices ignores who approached WP 
E. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it design -  Correct Answer

sumeetkarora · Answer

Could you please explain why the use of "it" in choice E is not ambiguous?

stoy4o · Answer

E. "it" gramatically can refer to Warby Parker and to Google but logically can refer only to Google. A bit confusing, but I believe this is why e-gmat chose this question. You would need to understand the meaning first to determine that "it" logically cannot refer to "Warby Parker" (although gramatically it can). "Google produced "unchic" glasses" implies that it will be seeking someone else's help (aka. W. Parker's) to design the better glasses. It doesn't make sense to say "it" (Google) has approached W. Parker to help "it" (W. Parker) design better frames.

egmat · Answer

Perfect explanation @stoy4o! You are using logic to guide you. Very good. 
Another thing here is that first occurrence of "it" refers to Google. So if logic allows, then the second occurrence will have more propensity to refer to Google.

Regards,

Payal

egmat · Answer

Hi Folks,

Hope this article helped you. Now here comes the detailed explanation of the exercise question:

Although Google has launched ‘unchic’ glasses with a computer processor, a battery, and a tiny screen to provide Internet access through wearable technology, it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing more fashionable frames

Meaning Analysis
• This sentence presents contrast.
• Google has launched glasses – wearable technology that provides internet access
o These glasses contain a computer processor, a battery, and a tiny screen.
o These glasses are not very attractive
• Even though Google has LAUNCHED these glasses, it has approached Warby Parker so that Warby Parker can help it design more fashionable frames.
o Warby Parker is an online eyeglass company.

Errors in Original Sentence
• Clause 1: Although Google has launched ‘unchic’ glasses with a computer processor, a battery, and a tiny screen to provide Internet access through wearable technology,
• Clause 2: it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing more fashionable frames.

1. Use of “for designing” is not grammatical. The correct expression is “help it design…”.

PoE:

A. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it for designing: Incorrect.
Error - Incorrect for the reason stated above.

B. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached so that it can design: Incorrect.
Error 1 – The active voice verb of Clause 2 has been turned into passive voice here. Because of this change, the choice now fails to say that Google approached Warby Parker. It just says that Warby Parker was approached but the information regarding who approached Parker is missing.
Error 2 – The original sentence says that Google approached Warby Parker to help Google design more fashionable frames. However, this choice says that Warby Parker was approached not to help Google design the frames but “to design” frames, i.e Warby will now be designing the frames. This is a clear shift in meaning.

C. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to design: Incorrect.
Error 1 – This choice repeats the same meaning error as in Choice B.

D. Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, has been approached to design: Incorrect.
Error – This choice repeats both the errors of choice B.

E. it has approached Warby Parker, an e-commerce eyeglass company, to help it design: Correct.
This choice corrects the error of choice A.

Takeaways
1. The correct answer choice must contain all the information presented in the original sentence. (Refer to our new article that deals with this topic in detail – link…)
2. Omission of some words may lead to change in the meaning of the sentence. Be wary of such choices.

Hooe this helps. :-)

Thanks.

Thanks.

egmat · Answer

Thanks every one for participating in this question/poll.

Here are the statistics for this question:

Number of responses - 50
48% people answered this question correctly.

Also, for those of you who selected the correct answer, I suggest that you go through the official explanation to confirm that your rationale for rejecting the incorrect choices was sound. Remember its important to select the correct answer, but equally important is that you should reject the incorrect choices for the right reasons.

Thanks.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

I think folks have touched on both the main problems with C, but I want to add some detail to them.

1) It's a problem not to say who included the call for female enfranchisement. Sure, it would be natural to assume that it was the author, but in that case it would be natural to say so. By not saying so, we seem to imply that some other mysterious person included it.

2) The use of the past perfect is a problem here. The past perfect tells us that something happened before some other past event. In this case, that would mean that the call was included before the Declaration was adopted. But why are we saying this? If we assume that the Declaration was written before it was adopted, then wouldn't  all  of its parts already have been included? Why are we going out of our way to say that this part was included before the adoption? After all, we only use past perfect when we particularly want to stress the order of events. (We wouldn't say "When King Lear made its premiere, Shakespeare had written it.") On the other hand, if the point was that the call was added later as part of the adoption process (and maybe not by Stanton), past perfect wouldn't do the job at all.

LogicGuru1 · Answer

E is the correct answer
E is preferred because it has a direct or active voice

A although seems correct but has indirect or passive voice that GMAT avoids. 
Also A wrongly modifies "Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author"
Nothing was included in convention, something was included in the declaration of sentiment.
 
When drafting the  Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the  Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included  in it by  the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

a When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

b. Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.

c. When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it .

d. A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.

e. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement.

daagh · Answer

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

(A) When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement. ---  This is the in passive voice while E is in active voice. That is the reason that A is inferior to E. 
 
(B) Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.--  altered and absurd intent. Cady didn't write the convention

(C) When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women's Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it. --  altered intent. The female enfranchisement was included only when the draft was being made, not before.

(D) A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. ---  A fragment of a sentence. There is no action verb.

(E) When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement. ---  A perfect complex sentence in active voice. It refers to the draft. This is the best choice.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

victory47 , you're right that the inclusion of the call for female enfranchisement could have preceded the adoption of the Declaration. I'll take it a step further and say that it  must   have preceded the adoption. When a group adopts a document, first the document is written and possibly amended, and adoption would typically be the last step. For this reason, past perfect is entirely unnecessary! Remember that while past perfect is certainly used to refer to one event that preceded another, it is only  needed  when that time relationship needs to be made clear. For instance, I would never say "Marie had been born in Poland and died in France." Of course she was born before she died, so we don't need past perfect to make our meaning clear!

Another problem with C is that in shifting to the passive voice in the second half, it obscures  who  included the call for female enfranchisement. It should make clear, as E does, that Stanton included the call herself. As it is written in C, I'd assume that some mysterious person or group inserted this call into Stanton's document. It feels something like this: "When my article was finally printed, I was surprised to find that a disclaimer had been added to it."

gmatexam439 · Answer

My Answer: E

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

(A) When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement. -- The modifiers are all misplaced. " When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848 " should modify Elizabeth and hence should be next to it. Also the last statement " was a call for female enfranchisement " is awkwardly modifying Elizabeth.

(B) Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote. -- Again the initial modifier is misplaced. It should modify Elizabeth. Also, in the latter half of the sentence "that" is wrongly suggesting that Elizabeth wrote Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.

(C) When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it. -- The structure is not quiet clear. When the declaration was adopted, a call had been included. It can be written in a far better way.

(D) A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. -- First and foremost, a "comma" should't appear before "that" in this option. Secondly This sentence is not complete.

(E) When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement. -- Correct. The meaning of the sentence is clear and all the modifiers modify their respective nouns clearly.

daagh · Answer

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement.

(A) When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Conventions in 1848, included in it by the author, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a call for female enfranchisement. --- M odification error. After 1848, ECS must come

(B) Including a call for female enfranchisement, a draft of the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote. ---  She didn't write the convention
 
(C) When the Declaration of Sentiments drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, a call for female enfranchisement had been included in it. ---  a meaning error--- The call was included when the author drafted the Declarations and not when it was adopted 
 
(D) A call for female enfranchisement, included in Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft of the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, that was adopted by the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. ---  fragment

(E) When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement. ---  correct choice.

senti_pra · Answer

Isnt the use of  'it'  in choice (E) ambiguous?. It can refer to the "Declaration of Sentiments" or the "Convention"

Please let me know what I am thinking wrong (or right).

Thanks !

egmat · Answer

Hello senti_pra , I will be glad to help you resolve your doubt.

Following the sentence with Choice E: When Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848, she included in it a call for female enfranchisement . Read the sentence carefully and understand what it conveys. The sentence says that when ECS drafted the DoS, she includes in it a call for female enfranchisement. Her action of including is related to the her action of drafting. And what did she draft? The DoC. So whatever she included, she included in the DoC.So there is no reference ambiguity related to the usage of it in Choice E. Also note that the that clause after the DoC presents some extra information about the DoC. If we remove this clause from the sentence, then there will be no room for nay confusion about the pronoun reference. Please bear in mind that presence of multiple nouns does not make the pronoun reference ambiguous. If a pronoun logically refers to more than one noun in a sentence, then we get pronoun reference error. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

sriramsundaram91 · Answer

Isn't there a problem with E?. Doesn't it miss a semicolon? Two independent clauses should be separated by a semicolon and not a comma?

GMATNinja · Answer

Technically speaking, there's never a problem with the OA, right?

The first clause in the sentence isn't independent because of the "when." Take a simple example: "Tim ate pancakes." Perfectly honorable independent clause. But "When Tim ate pancakes," is not independent - you can probably feel that the construction is incomplete, that the writer is withholding something important. The reason is that the "when" communicates that another action is happening at the same time, and we need that action in order to have a complete sentence. "When Tim ate pancakes, his soul left his body and smiled upon him from heaven." There's no semicolon here, and we don't need one, because we have one dependent clause beginning with "when" and one independent clause beginning with "his soul." The takeaway: if a clause begins with a word like "when" or "although" that clause is not going to be independent. (If you're into terminology, those words are called "subordinating conjunctions." Also, "subordinating conjunctions" might make an excellent name for a rock band. Or maybe a polka band?) I hope that helps!

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Se

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

When drafting the Declaration of Sentiments that was adopted at the Se

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