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555-605 Level|   Parallelism|   Subject Verb Agreement|                     
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egmat
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 25 Nov 2020, 16:39
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TheUltimateWinner

Request Expert Reply:
Hi honorable experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, VeritasPrepHailey, BrightOutlookJenn, AjiteshArun and other experts
I'm totally confused with the meaning of choice E and F. Are these 2 versions same in meaning?
(F) the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and of representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics at San Lorenzo attest

Something like:
I want to eat banana, drink water, take medicine.
Vs
I want to eat banana, to drink water, to take medicine.

Any difference in meaning here? Appreciating your help, experts.
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Hello TheUltimateWinner,

The structure of Choice E is similar to the structure of the second example sentence in my response to your previous post.

The price (of the pen and the of the pencil) is $10.

Choice E talks about just one finding. This one finding pertains to two objects - the latex balls and the ceramics. But the core subject - the finding - is the singular noun. Hence, it must take a singular verb. The usage of the plural verb "attest" for this singular subject leads to the number agreement error between the subject and the verb.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 25 Nov 2020, 16:42
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plaverbach
Why A is right?

Can waterlogged latex balls attest ANYTHING?
This seams like a personification...
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Hello plaverbach,

I am not sure whether you still have this doubt. Here is my response nonetheless. :-)

The word "attest" means "provide or serve as clear evidence of". The usage of this verb in this official question is absolutely correct because the latex balls and the ceramics are indeed the evidence of the fact mentioned in the sentence.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 24 May 2021, 09:15
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Hello Experts egmat, GMATNinja

I need clarifications on choice D.

My understanding of this choice is:
Subject: the finding
Verb: attests

There is no S-V error.

The only issue is that the intended meaning is changed here.
Use of the phrase "the painting" is making this choice an incorrect one since it points to a specific painting whereas in the original sentence no such meaning is conveyed.

Is this the only error in this option? Or am I missing anything.

Second, in choice A, it states that "waterlogged latex balls .......and representations of ballplayers......attest".
Shouldn't it be the findings that should attest rather than the evidences themselves?
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 29 May 2021, 07:07
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GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Can someone please explain to me how waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest are parallel? I thought I had these rules down but now I'm getting confused. I thought E had the most parallel structure, and I still believe it is parallel (correct me if I'm wrong), but I see the SV error and meaning issue in that answer choice now.
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 30 May 2021, 08:35
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thereisaFire
Hello Experts egmat, GMATNinja

I need clarifications on choice D.

My understanding of this choice is:
Subject: the finding
Verb: attests

There is no S-V error.

The only issue is that the intended meaning is changed here.
Use of the phrase "the painting" is making this choice an incorrect one since it points to a specific painting whereas in the original sentence no such meaning is conveyed.

Is this the only error in this option? Or am I missing anything.

Second, in choice A, it states that "waterlogged latex balls .......and representations of ballplayers......attest".
Shouldn't it be the findings that should attest rather than the evidences themselves?
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The subject is actually "the finding... AND the painting..." This compound subject requires a plural verb (attest), so there is in fact a subject-verb agreement error in (D), in addition to the meaning error discussed in this post.

And for more on your second question, check out these follow-up posts:

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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 01 Jun 2021, 00:09
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khert87
GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Can someone please explain to me how waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest are parallel? I thought I had these rules down but now I'm getting confused. I thought E had the most parallel structure, and I still believe it is parallel (correct me if I'm wrong), but I see the SV error and meaning issue in that answer choice now.
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Both

- waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati
- representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo

are noun phrases. "Balls" and "representations" are the nouns. Rest of the words are modifying the nouns. The basic structure of both phrases is "A found at B".

Option (E) also has similar parallel elements (but has errors) - finding...
- of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati
- of representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics at San Lorenzo
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 12 Dec 2021, 22:18
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khert87

Can someone please explain to me how waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest are parallel? I thought I had these rules down but now I'm getting confused. I thought E had the most parallel structure, and I still believe it is parallel (correct me if I'm wrong), but I see the SV error and meaning issue in that answer choice now.
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Hi khert87

1st part :
waterlogged - past participle acting as an adjective
latex - adjective
balls - noun
found at X - past participle phrase (verd+ed modifier) acting as an adjective
Both waterlogged and latex are paired adjectives describing the noun 'balls'
Construction : {adjective + adjective + noun + adjective phrase } - whole thing together is a noun phrase i.e a noun and it modifiers bunched together

2nd part :
representations - noun
of ballplayers painted on ceramics - prepositional phrase acting as a noun modifier(basically acting as an adjective)
found at X - past participle phrase (verd+ed modifier) acting as an adjective
Construction : {noun + adjective phrase + adjective phrase } - whole thing together is a noun phrase i.e a noun and it modifiers bunched together

So in essence the two noun phrases are parallel. I don't think the literal matching of words that immediately follow 'and' with words that are before 'and' will work here. Doing so might create confusion as to what is parallel to what.
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 28 Jun 2022, 11:13
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Can not "the finding of ... and the painting of..." and
"the finding of ... and of the painting of..." mean the same thing?

If a finding contains two things, the "of" before the second thing cannot be omitted?

Could someone please help explain?
There's no general rule governing this issue. Context is everything here.

Take another look at (D): "the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests..."

In this option we have two things attesting to the fact that this game was established by the 13th century B.C.: (1) the finding of waterlogged balls at El Manati and (2) the painting of representations of ballplayers found at San Lorenzo.

If we had an "of" before the second element, the parallelism would change. Now, the two elements in bold would be parallel to each other: "the finding (1) of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and (2) of the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests..." Take a look at that second element now: "the finding... of the painting of representations found at San Lorenzo." We could refer to "the finding of X at San Lorenzo". We could refer to "X found at San Lorenzo". But we can't refer to "the finding of X found at San Lorenzo". That's redundant.

(Of course, others have pointed out that (D) has a subject-verb disagreement: X and Y attests, and this is probably the easiest way to get rid of this option.)

Now let's revisit (E): "the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and of representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics at San Lorenzo attest..." The structure is different here: "found" doesn't appear in the second element, so we don't have the redundancy issue anymore. But we still have a subject-verb disagreement: "the finding... attest." So (E) is wrong regardless.

Takeaway (shouted very loudly from a snowy rooftop): it's impossible to memorize every acceptable construction or idiom on the GMAT. With a few exceptions, you're far better off relying on the logic, grammar, and structure of a given option than attempting to rely on an ironclad rule.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja

I have the following question. Let's ignore the finding and found.

Given that
(1) the finding of waterlogged ............. and representations of ..........
(2) the finding of waterlogged ............ and of representations of......

I understand that in (2) there is only one subject that is "the finding..".
(2) is much clear than (1) because (2) can convey only one way. But (2) can convey 2 meaning. The first is there are 2 nouns, (I) the finding of... and (II) representations. The other interpretation is there is 1 noun, the finding of... and (of) representations. Am I correct?
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 19 Jul 2022, 18:44
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Hi experts,

I see that this question is discussed in depth, but I did not come across the reason as to why I eliminated Answer Choice (E).

For this part of Answer Choice (E) "While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 900???400 b.c., the finding of waterlogged latex balls" ... I found it awkward to for the part before the comma to focus on the "earlier known ball courts" and then to compare it to the "finding of". In my view, it did not make sense to compare a noun to a noun phrase (I believe "the finding of waterlogged latex balls" is a prepositional phrase but am unsure). Either way, these elements of the sentence did not seem to be alike to present this contrast.

Did I incorrectly eliminate Answer Choice (E) for this reason?

Thank you for your time and help in advance!
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 20 Jul 2022, 05:03
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woohoo921
Hi experts,

I see that this question is discussed in depth, but I did not come across the reason as to why I eliminated Answer Choice (E).

For this part of Answer Choice (E) "While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 900???400 b.c., the finding of waterlogged latex balls" ... I found it awkward to for the part before the comma to focus on the "earlier known ball courts" and then to compare it to the "finding of". In my view, it did not make sense to compare a noun to a noun phrase (I believe "the finding of waterlogged latex balls" is a prepositional phrase but am unsure). Either way, these elements of the sentence did not seem to be alike to present this contrast.

Did I incorrectly eliminate Answer Choice (E) for this reason?

Thank you for your time and help in advance!
Show more

I don't think there's anything wrong with using 'the finding' as the subject of the second clause. I can imagine a sentence that works like this:

"While most of the ball courts date to [really old], the finding of newer ball courts in [a place] shows that the sport endured for centuries."

There's nothing wrong with that. You said 'it did not make sense to compare a noun to a noun phrase,' but this is not a comparative structure. "While" is not comparing anything. It's setting up a logical relationship (I suppose you could call it a logical 'contrast'), but that's not what most people mean when we talk about GMAT comparisons. Comparisons are situations where we say Thing X is 'like' or 'unlike' or 'similar to' or 'different from' or 'more [something]' or 'less [something]' than Thing Y.

"The finding of latex balls" is a noun phrase. "of latex balls" is a prepositional phrase.

The reason E is wrong is because of standard old subject-verb agreement.

"The finding [of latex balls... and of representations of ballplayers] attest."

"The finding...attest."

It's one finding, but 'attest' is plural. Now, it's one finding OF MANY THINGS, but that 'of' is a modifier, so the noun is still singular.

"The finding of King Tut's tomb and all the treasures inside was one of the most remarkable discoveries ever."

One finding, of many things.
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 20 Jul 2022, 15:45
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AbdurRakib
While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 900–400 b.c., waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest to the fact that the Mesoamerican ballgame was well established by the mid-thirteenth century b.c.
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Quote:
(A) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest
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This looks good, the intended meaning is clear and the latex balls and representations are two elements together that require a plural noun so attest checks out.

Quote:
(B) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests
Show more

This introduces an error in that the two elements described in A have a singular verb “attests”

Quote:
(C) waterlogged latex balls found at El Manati and ceramics painted with representations of ballplayers found at San Lorenzo attests
Show more

This keeps the same error as (B) plus it is much better to say that the ceramics were found rather than the representations themselves.

Quote:
(D) the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attests
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Is it the finding of these things or the things themselves that attest to the fact…? I think the things themselves attest to the fact that ballgame was developed by the mid 13th century. Additionally, was it just the finding of waterlogged latex balls and separately the painting of representations that attest or finding of both - it’s a big mess. Plus the singular verb “attests” with the finding and the paintings doesn’t make sense

Quote:
(E) the finding of waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and of representations of ballplayers painted on ceramics at San Lorenzo attest
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This is one finding that agrees with attest but again (A) is much more clear in conveying that the things themselves attest to the fact that the ballgame was developed by the….

(A) is the answer
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 21 Jul 2022, 00:45
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Hm, they found waterlogged latex balls in Mesoamerica from 900-400 b.c.?!? Wow, the 2018 OG is more interesting than I expected. (My copy of it is looking at me right now. I've barely had time to open it. :( )


I'm not 100% sure that (D) would be absolutely wrong in isolation, but it conveys the meaning much less clearly than (A).


In D plural subject does not agree with "attests"
Yes! And I proudly(?) accepted my demerits above: https://gmatclub.com/forum/while-most-o ... l#p1877969.
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@GIMATNINJA

Isnt the subject "finding" here? "of waterlogged latex balls...and the painting of representations.." is just a modifier, isnt it? The verb "attests" should make sense with singular "finding"
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 21 Jul 2022, 04:23
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Mbagoal123




@GIMATNINJA


Isnt the subject "finding" here? "of waterlogged latex balls...and the painting of representations.." is just a modifier, isnt it? The verb "attests" should make sense with singular "finding"
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Hello Mbagoal123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in Option D, the subject is actually the plural verb phrase "the finding...and the painting..."; please remember, two singular elements joined by "and" function as a single plural noun phrase.

We hope this finds you well.
All the best!
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 03 Aug 2022, 11:33
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Hello Experts,

Can I read the sentence like this? This way it makes complete sense to me.

...The finding of
1. waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and
2. the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo

attests...

The finding can also attest to the fact that the civilisation was older than previously thought. What am I thinking wrong?
AjiteshArun ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja KarishmaB
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 03 Aug 2022, 21:35
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vshr
Hello Experts,

Can I read the sentence like this? This way it makes complete sense to me.

...The finding of
1. waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and
2. the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo

attests...

The finding can also attest to the fact that the civilisation was older than previously thought. What am I thinking wrong?
AjiteshArun ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja KarishmaB
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Hi vshr,

The way you're reading option D is somewhat forced and unnatural. There are multiple problems with option D:
1. The finding of... the painting of representations of ballplayers ← Even if this is technically possible, it's extremely awkward.

2. Is the painting a physical object? If it is, the phrasing is oddly specific (the painting), and we wouldn't normally expect one painting to be on multiple ceramics.

3. If the painting is not a physical object, the painting of... seems to be in a list with the finding of..., because they are so similar to each other (the painting of... is not very similar to waterlogged latex balls). This is why most people would expect the verb to be plural (attest, not attests).

4. There seems to be no need to introduce additional words (the finding of), because the waterlogged latex balls and the representations of ballplayers can themselves serve as evidence.
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 03 Aug 2022, 22:06
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vshr
Hello Experts,

Can I read the sentence like this? This way it makes complete sense to me.

...The finding of
1. waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and
2. the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo

attests...

The finding can also attest to the fact that the civilisation was older than previously thought. What am I thinking wrong?
AjiteshArun ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja KarishmaB
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Think about this - what is the meaning of 'the painting of representations of ballplayers...?'

A painting itself is a representation. Then how can we have 'a painting of representations of something? We can say 'the painting representing ballplayers' or 'the painting of ballplayers'

Besides, the way it is written, 'the finding of ... and the painting of ...' are parallel so reading it the way you suggest is very confusing.
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 04 Aug 2022, 05:30
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vshr
Hello Experts,

Can I read the sentence like this? This way it makes complete sense to me.

...The finding of
1. waterlogged latex balls at El Manati and
2. the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo

attests...

The finding can also attest to the fact that the civilisation was older than previously thought. What am I thinking wrong?
AjiteshArun ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja KarishmaB
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Hello vshr,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, since "the finding" is a gerund that refers to the act of finding, its inclusion in a list with "the painting" seems to suggest that the latter refers to the act of painting; at best we can say that Option D leads to an ambiguous meaning, meaning it can be interpreted that the act of painting representations of ballplayers on ceramics found at San Lorenzo attest to the fact that the Mesoamerican ballgame was well established by the mid-thirteenth century b.c.

Option A is superior because it produces a clear meaning with much less if any, ambiguity.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 06 Oct 2022, 18:24
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Hello AndrewN GMATNinja DmitryFarber - I am having some difficulty with Answer choice E, I understand that "the finding" here is the subject but once I saw the "and" I thought the subject is compound, how to best identify the sentence for an answer choice similar to "E", I know it is a silly question, but as a non-native, I am having hard time bisecting the structure and would appreciate your help, thanks!
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 06 Oct 2022, 19:18
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Hello AndrewN GMATNinja DmitryFarber - I am having some difficulty with Answer choice E, I understand that "the finding" here is the subject but once I saw the "and" I thought the subject is compound, how to best identify the sentence for an answer choice similar to "E", I know it is a silly question, but as a non-native, I am having hard time bisecting the structure and would appreciate your help, thanks!
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Look very specifically at what the 'and' in E is joining. It's not subjects!
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While most of the earliest known ball courts in Mesoamerica date to 90 10 Oct 2022, 11:28
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I have the following question. Let's ignore the finding and found.

Given that
(1) the finding of waterlogged ............. and representations of ..........
(2) the finding of waterlogged ............ and of representations of......

I understand that in (2) there is only one subject that is "the finding..".
(2) is much clear than (1) because (2) can convey only one way. But (2) can convey 2 meaning. The first is there are 2 nouns, (I) the finding of... and (II) representations. The other interpretation is there is 1 noun, the finding of... and (of) representations. Am I correct?
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Yes, "the finding of waterlogged balls and representations of ballplayers" could be interpreted in two different ways:

  • (1) "the finding of (a) waterlogged balls and (b) representations of ballplayers." Here, we're talking about "the finding" of two different things.
  • (2) "(a) the finding {...} and (b) representations." Now, "the finding" and "representations" are parallel.

If we wanted the first meaning, putting an "of" in front of "representations" would probably make it clearer. But if we wanted the second meaning, putting a "the" in front of "representations" would probably help.

But it's important to remember that there are no clear-cut, absolute rules on this sort of thing. As always, you simply have to compare your options and see what's best. Luckily, the parallelism in (A) is much clearer, making (A) a superior option.

Mbagoal123
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Isnt the subject "finding" here? "of waterlogged latex balls...and the painting of representations.." is just a modifier, isnt it? The verb "attests" should make sense with singular "finding"
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As suggested above, the article "the" before "painting" makes the reader think that "the painting" and "the finding" are parallel nouns.

If we ignore that issue and assume that the verb is correct in (D), we run into another problem:

  • Since the first item in the parallel list (waterlogged latex balls) is a concrete thing that was found, we expect the second item in the list to be another concrete thing that was found.
  • So when we read "the painting," we think, "Oh, they found one single painting -- a painting of representations?! Did they find some insanely well-preserved painting that shows a bunch of ceramics with representations painted on them (as opposed to finding the ceramics themselves)?!"

You can do some mental gymnastics to make (D) work, but (A) is a much better option.

I hope that helps!
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