Lorraine Hansberry

[Guest]

The first commercially successful drama to depict Black family life sympathetically and the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made into both a film and a musical.

A. it was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun that won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and was later made
B. in 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was later made
C. Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, and it was later made
D. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959 and was later made
E. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it


In D, Does "Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the sun" create any modification issues.

In E, Is "it" ambiguous or is it a standard usage "later made into"...

In E ,In case the comma before "and" is removed, can "E" win

[RonPurewal]

In D, Does "Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the sun" create any modification issues.

nope.

(d) should be the oa.

In E, Is "it" ambiguous or is it a standard usage "later made into"...

"it" isn't even ambiguous; it's downright wrong.
here's the problem:
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959, and later made it
notice the parallelism here. 2 parallel verbs, with no change of subject.
this means that the same noun - namely, "a raisin in the sun, by lorraine hansberry" - functions as the subject of both verbs.
that's a problem, because then "it" can't refer to the play (you'd have to use "itself").

In E ,In case the comma before "and" is removed, can "E" win

nope. see above.
although you are correct that the comma should be excised.

[Guest]

because then "it" can't refer to the play (you'd have to use "itself").

Can you pls elaborate more as to why "it" cant refer to the play..Is it that we need reflexive pronoun to refer to the play

But dont you think, "itself" would make sound that the play itself made into a film..that would change the meaning


Is this true??

Only "and" is economical and effecient to be used when subject is common for both the clauses

", and " when we need to introduce a different subject

In short, when to use "and-without no comma" ----" and preceded by a comma"

[shobuj40]

I think this is something like :

IPCL won the Noble prize and is consisted of several enviornmentalist around the world.

A Raisin in the Sun later made into both film and musical Drama by someone else not it can make itself into film and musical Drama.[/quote]

[JonathanSchneider]

Yes, the "itself" would be awkward there, because the "it" isn't actually the thing that performs the action. D is in the passive was: "was made" because the play did not make itself into anything.

As for the "and," part, I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but here's a general breakdown:

We can simply use the word "and" to connect two verbs for the same subject. When we want to start a new subject-verb clause, however, we must first have a comma, then the word "and."

[manuelkader]

I understand why A, B, C, E are wrong, but am pretty intrigued about D being right.

According to the "touch rule" A raisin in the sun, should come right next after the comma, but in D it is instead embedded in a possessive form -Lorraine Hansberry's A raisin in the sun. The Sentence Correction guide says "modifiers cannot normally modify a noun in the possessive case".

Do we have an exception here?

[messi10]

Hi manuelkader,

According to the "touch rule" A raisin in the sun, should come right next after the comma, but in D it is instead embedded in a possessive form -Lorraine Hansberry's A raisin in the sun. The Sentence Correction guide says "modifiers cannot normally modify a noun in the possessive case".

You have raised two issues. One about the touch rule and other about the possessive form.

Firstly, the touch rule is still very much intact this sentence. By adding "Lorraine Hansberry's" we are not violating it. There is a similar example in the book on pg84 (4th edition):

A lover of mice, my cat hunts night and day.

The addition of "my" between the modifier and the noun does not change that we want to modify "cat" or "my cat".

In regard to the rule about possessives, the SC is correct and so is the answer choice i.e. its not an exception as this rule is not being violated here. We are not trying to modify Lorraine Hansberry. We are modifying "A raisin in the sun", which is not in possessive form.

Hope this helps

Regards

Sunil

[manuelkader]

Sunil,

It would have been wrong if what was to be modified was "Lorraine Hansberry". But as you mentioned, the first part of the sentence is modifying, "A raisin in the sun", and not Lorraine Hansberry.

Lorraine Hansberry's A raisin in the sun = the cat

I had got confused with what was being modified. So no problem with option D now after your explanation. Thank you so much!

Manuel

[RonPurewal]

Sunil,

It would have been wrong if what was to be modified was "Lorraine Hansberry". But as you mentioned, the first part of the sentence is modifying, "A raisin in the sun", and not Lorraine Hansberry.

Lorraine Hansberry's A raisin in the sun = the cat

I had got confused with what was being modified. So no problem with option D now after your explanation. Thank you so much!

Manuel

yep -- good explanation

[Levent-g]

Hi,

would (E) be correct in case "it" would come right after "later" as following: ...1959, and later "it" made into both...

Thanks

[tim]

i would caution you against ever asking "what if" questions about changing parts of verbal questions, because there are often several interconnected parts that cannot be fully accounted for by a single change. just focus on why the right answer is right and why all the wrong answers are wrong..

[NarenS469]

Hello Instructors,

Can you help explain the issue with answer A?

Thank you,

Naren

[RonPurewal]

you can eliminate choice A as soon as you see the first word. there is no need at all to read any further.

the sentence starts with a modifier that describes the play. this modifier MUST be followed IMMEDIATELY by the play (= "A Raisin in the Sun" or "LH's A Raisin in the Sun").

more on this here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p116361

this is delightfully simple (and VERY fast), so don't overcomplicate it.

[KaushikR796]

Thanks for the explanation. I was stuck between B and D.

Can someone please elaborate on why B is wrong?

[RonPurewal]

• this sentence starts with the modifier "The first commercially successful drama..."
...this modifier must be followed IMMEDIATELY by the name of the play ("a raisin in the sun" or "LH's a raisin in the sun").
"in 1959" is not a modifier of the play itself, so, that placement doesn't work.

• in context, it's clear that "in 1959" is only meant to describe the FIRST verb ("...won the award").
this is unambiguous, since the second verb has the word LATER on it—meaning that we're not talking about 1959 anymore.
...but, in choice B, "in 1959" erroneously applies to the entire parallel structure, including both verbs. (contrast this with the placement of "in 1959" in the correct version.)