initiated on Columbus Day

[gingeryoung]

Initiated five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992, Project SEIT pledged a $100 million investment in the research for extraterrestrial intelligence.
(a) the same
(b). Initiated on Columbus Day 1992, five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, a $100 million investment in the research for extraterrestrial intelligence was pledged by Project SEIT.
(c). Initiated on Columbus Day 1992, five centries after Europeans arrived in the New World, Project SEIT pledged a $100 million investment n the research for extraterrestrial intellingence.

Since I can easily rule out D and E.. I just omit them.
the right answer to this question is C. I know B is wrong because of the wrong subject.
But i still cannot figure out why the original sentence is wrong?? why the word On Columbus Day need to be next to initiated??

[RonPurewal]

the original sentence states that europeans "arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992" -- and that the project was founded 500 years later, in the year A.D. 2492. that's grammatically ok, but it's total nonsense.

[ramsundargovindarajan]

I think of this sentence as 2 modifiers (Initiated on Col.. and 5 centuries after... )modifying Project SETI . These are noun modifiers. By the touch rule the modifier and the noun should touch each other. however that does not seem to be the case here. Can you please explain what is wrong in my reasoning ?

[RonPurewal]

I think of this sentence as 2 modifiers (Initiated on Col.. and 5 centuries after... )modifying Project SETI . These are noun modifiers. By the touch rule the modifier and the noun should touch each other. however that does not seem to be the case here. Can you please explain what is wrong in my reasoning ?

"five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World" modifies "columbus day 1992". so, in effect, you have a modifier within another modifier:

(Initiated on Columbus Day 1992(, five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World,)) Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment n the research for extraterrestrial intellingence

[RichaChampion]

@Ron I have a doubt in the last two options -

(D) Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the initiation of Project SETI five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992.
(E) Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, on Columbus Day 1992, the initiation of Project SETI took place.

My question is why is pledging not modifying "a $100 million investment" It is a participial (Verb+Ing) it should modify the noun that it touches?

[RonPurewal]

'Pledging a $100 million investment...' is a single modifier.

[JadeK255]

Hi instructors,

I deleted option c because the subject- Project SETI doesn't come right after the initial modifier:
Why in this case the subject that the initial modifier is modified doesn't have to come right after the comma?

(C) Initiated on Columbus Day 1992, five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

[RonPurewal]

that whole thing—all the way up to the comma before "project seti"—is the initial modifier.

this is covered by the discussion here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p116361

^^ check out that post, especially the SECOND example given.

__

··•• ONCE YOU'VE READ THAT POST ••··

"five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World" is a description of "columbus day 1992".
...so, ALL of those words would be the BROWN INITIAL MODIFIER (...as in the SECOND example given at that link).

if "five centuries..." were replaced by something else describing columbus day '92, then, this construction would be incorrect.

[JadeK255]

Thank you Ron, the explanation is very clear and super helpful!

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.