In addition to her work on the miocene homicide fossil

[jlucero]

That's correct.

[vasireddy1304]

Hi,
What is the antecedent for her in the answer choice D(Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting)?

[tim]

Mary Leakey's. Were you thinking anything else could possibly have been the antecedent?

[manhhiep2509]

Hi instructors.

Apart from the incorrect use of idiom --"Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with" -- is another error the subject "Mary Leakey"? I mean does whether "Leakey's contributions" or "Mary Leakey" is the subject of the sentence matter?
---

I think that "in addition to X" introduces something else similar to X, so the thing should be important part of the main sentence, not part of a modifier as it is in choice C. Please explain more about the use of "in addition to".

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Hi,

Sorry if I made it a bit confusing. I meant it need not have a noun before in the sentence. It can also have a noun that it refers to somewhere later in the sentence.

With regard to pronouns, this is everything you need to think about:
* What does it "want" to stand for (in context)?
* Is there a NOUN for that person/thing?
* If so, does it match (singular/plural)?

If you know the answer to the first one, and the answers to the second and third are "yes" and "yes", then the pronoun is fine.
Don't complicate the issue.

[aditya8062]

In addition to her work on the miocene homicide fosiil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African paintings.

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of

(D) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

(E) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation

Ron i somehow find difficult to reject choice C
here is my take :
i find parallelism oki in C. also passive construction is not a big reason to reject this option .also usage of "with" does not appear egregiously wrong .plz help me to understand as why this option is so bad

[RonPurewal]

"Her work on the Miocene fossil record" is one of ML's contributions.
So, that modifier makes much more sense if it's placed directly in front of "ML's contributions", rather than in front of "ML".

[lindaliu9273]

"Her work on the Miocene fossil record" is one of ML's contributions.
So, that modifier makes much more sense if it's placed directly in front of "ML's contributions", rather than in front of "ML".

Hi Ron,

I chose C because I'm not sure about the "ML"& "ML's contributions".

I find "in addition" in manhattan book chaptor 13 as comparison. Does that mean "her work" and "ML"/ "ML's contributions" have to be comparible(or parallel?). ML is a person and cannot compare with work. So "ML's contributions" is better. Is it correct?

And I'll be appreciate if you help me figure out whether there's other thing wrong with C.

Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

I find "in addition" in manhattan book chaptor 13 as comparison. Does that mean "her work" and "ML"/ "ML's contributions" have to be comparible(or parallel?). ML is a person and cannot compare with work. So "ML's contributions" is better. Is it correct?

It's not literally a comparison"”"”i.e., nothing is actually compared to anything else"”"”but it needs to make literal sense.

Remember that your reasoning should always start from a difference in the answer choices, not from abstract reasoning about grammatical constructions.
Here, you face a choice between "ML" and "ML's contributions".
In this context"”"”in which the opening part very clearly describes one of her contributions"”"”the decision is clear. Whether the whole thing can be described as a "comparison" is immaterial.

[RonPurewal]

And I'll be appreciate if you help me figure out whether there's other thing wrong with C.

"Was a contributor" is clearly much more wordy than (and thus inferior to) "contributed".

Wordiness isn't actually an error. But, when such a large and clear difference in wordiness exists, you can use it as a reliable guide for elimination.
(Just make sure that all of your judgments about "wordiness" are relative judgments, i.e., comparisons of different answer choices. Never try to judge whether an individual answer choice is "wordy"!)

[NitinG177]

Hello Ron,
The sentence structure of the OA (choice D) ,with respect to its meaning, is clear to me .
Initially, i chose choice C , thinking that in choice D, though the parallelism is better,
there is no antecedent for the pronoun her.
...
Mary leakey's --> does this not become an adjective in this current form ?

If, yes, what is the explanation for "her" being correct in choice D?

What am i missing here ? ( there are some references to this problem in this thread, but i am
unable to pick the correct explanation from them )

Thanks ,
Nitin

[RonPurewal]

Mary leakey's --> does this not become an adjective in this current form ?

DO NOT THINK ABOUT THIS, EVER.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p115704

[NitinG177]

Hello Ron,
I went through the link that you have posted.

It seems that i knew these

possessive noun with possessive pronoun is ok.
non-possessive noun with non-possessive pronoun is ok.
non-possessive noun with possessive pronoun is ok.

rules , but it had totally skipped my mind that "HER" is a possessive pronoun .
(my bad! )

Thanks for the reply. It was helpful.
Nitin.

[RonPurewal]

the most important part of that link is...

be forewarned. thinking about this issue is MUCH more likely to work against you than to work in your favor.

really... just don't go there.
if you think about this at all, you can easily reach wrong conclusions (as has happened in this thrread right here)... and, in exchange for that risk, you get zero benefit (since this 'rule' has NEVER EVER EVER been necessary in any GMAC problem, ever).

high risk/low return = bad investment.

[meetur373]

In addition to her work on the Miocene homicide fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstakingly documentation of East African paintings.

(A) Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstakingly documentation of

(B) Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(C) Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of

(D) Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(E) Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

Hi Instructors,
There are 2 versions of this question. 1 with OA as D (already explained in this thread) and another with OA as A (the question above).
here I am clear on the last part of the sentence - " her discovery ...and documentation " are parallel. (so all options are wrong except A)
the point that i could not understand is why "mary leakey's contributions" is wrong here. it is correct in another version of this question where OA is D.
Kindly help me understanding this.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Meetu