SC: Fossils of the arm

[mayank.hwr]

In option "D" of same Question "the Sloth" isn't the modifier "found in Puerto Rico in 1991" ambigious....

What was found : The Sloth or the The Fossils of the arm of Sloth...

Kindly explain the

Thanks in advance...

[RonPurewal]

In option "D" of same Question "the Sloth" isn't the modifier "found in Puerto Rico in 1991" ambigious....

What was found : The Sloth or the The Fossils of the arm of Sloth...

Kindly explain the

Thanks in advance...

first --
OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWERS ARE CORRECT!
do not question officially correct answers!
far too many students on this forum make the mistake of questioning the correct answers; please note that doing so is a complete waste of your time and effort. i.e., exactly 0% of the time that you spend posting "isn't this official answer wrong?" is productive, and exactly 100% of that time is wasted.

"is this correct?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always yes.
"is this wrong?" / "is this X type of error?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always no.

instead, the questions you should be asking about correct official answers, if you don't understand them, are:
"why is this correct?"
"how does this work?"
"what understanding am i lacking that i need to understand this choice?"

this is a small, but hugely significant, change to your way of thinking -- you will suddenly find it much easier to understand the format, style, and conventions of the official problems if you dispose of the idea that they might be wrong.

--

like many other modifiers, this one requires you to use common sense to identify its referent.
grammatically, yes, it could technically stand for either of these; however, since only one of them makes any sense, it is not ambiguous.

[charlies291]

Hi :),

Can anyone explaining why "making the sloth" is correct? I don't understand what kind of sentence structure and verb tense are being used here.

Thanks in advance.

[tim]

i could, but that would violate one of the most fundamental rules of sentence correction: do not look for a correct answer in an SC problem. your job is to find four wrong answers, at which point whatever is left is the correct answer. if you see something and you don't know why it's correct or whether it's correct, LEAVE IT ALONE (i.e. don't eliminate that choice). focus your efforts on finding errors. very often the best reason something is "correct" on the GMAT is because the GMAT says so..

[viz]

I still don't understand.
Can someone please explain why choice A is wrong?

Thanks.

[tim]

no. there has been a lot of discussion about why A is incorrect. please read the thread and then let us know what specific explanations didn't make sense if you were unable to understand them..

[mayur4gmat]

Dear Sir/Madam, how is 'found in Puerto Rico in 1981' modifying 'Fossils' and not 'the arm of a sloth' or even 'sloth'?

In such sentences (type X of Y, modifier) how can we judge which noun is getting modified?

Please suggest.

[vane.shadows]

I will try and break the sentence into its constituents. I know this is not a recommended practice on a SC question, but it did help me avoid confusions, early on in my preparation. I am just 1 month old in GMAT prep, so please pardon my errors.

Correct sentence:
Fossils of the arm of a sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands.

1 main clause (in blue) + 2 modifiers (in red)

main clause:
subject-'Fossils'
verb-'have been dated at'
prepositional phrase-'of the arm of a sloth'

1st modifier refers to the subject of main clause, whereas the 2nd modifier refers to the entire main clause (thats why positioned at the end). These modifiers have nothing to do with nouns present in prep. phrase.

Hope it helps!

Dear Sir/Madam, how is 'found in Puerto Rico in 1981' modifying 'Fossils' and not 'the arm of a sloth' or even 'sloth'?

In such sentences (type X of Y, modifier) how can we judge which noun is getting modified?

Please suggest.

[jlucero]

Vane,

I don't know where you read not to split a sentence into its core and modifier parts, but I recommend you keep doing what you stated above as it will help you find a lot of common errors in the core of the sentence. Excellent explanation.

Mayur,

To answer your question, in general, when modifiers can be used with or without a comma in front of them, no comma will be used to modify a noun directly in front of the modifier while a comma will allow you to modify something further away in the sentence:

Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991... (modifies sloth)

Fossils of the arm of a sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991... (modifies fossils)

We obviously didn't find a sloth in Puerto Rico, so a comma makes sense here.

[sachin.w]

(E)sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of

I understand this is wrong. I have a few questions here:

Is this sentence structure grammatically correct?
more specifically,
found in Puerto Rico in 1991 being placed between which and was.. is this construction acceptable?

Most of the times 'which' is preceded by a comma which is not the case here. just an observation which leaves me flummoxed.

,which = non essential
which = essential

but from what I remember having read in the strategy guide, that should be used to indicate anything essential.

[liwh_gd]

Hi, instructors

I have a few concerns:
1. choice B: is "sloth, that..." equal to "sloth that..."?
2. choice C: I eliminated C because of the usage of "this" , am I right?
3. choice E: is "sloth which, ..." equal to "sloth, which..."?

please clarify! thanks!

[jlucero]

(E)sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the earliest known mammal of

I understand this is wrong. I have a few questions here:

Is this sentence structure grammatically correct?
more specifically,
found in Puerto Rico in 1991 being placed between which and was.. is this construction acceptable? [/quote]

No. This is awkward because "found in Puerto Rico" shouldn't be inside the modifier about when it was dated. If, on the other hand, it said: the sloth, which, in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made it the oldest...., would be ok, because the modifier (in 1991), inside the other modifier (which was dated), logically tells us when it was dated.

Most of the times 'which' is preceded by a comma which is not the case here. just an observation which leaves me flummoxed.

,which = non essential
which = essential

but from what I remember having read in the strategy guide, that should be used to indicate anything essential.

Correct, and another reason you can eliminate B & E.

[jlucero]

Hi, instructors

I have a few concerns:
1. choice B: is "sloth, that..." equal to "sloth that..."?
2. choice C: I eliminated C because of the usage of "this" , am I right?
3. choice E: is "sloth which, ..." equal to "sloth, which..."?

please clarify! thanks!

B&E are both wrong for the reasons I mentioned above.

C is incorrect because this would more logically refer to the subject of the sentence- fossils.

[thanghnvn]

The point we need to learn here is that a noun can modify a slightly far noun. D oa shows this point. we have to remember this important point.

e gmat experts writes a good article on this point, in the gmatclub forum. I think Ron also mention this point somewhere in this forum.

[ghazal.62]

Hi,

I have a question about the modifier "making the sloth...", I know it modify the previous clause, but I don't understand which type of comma+ING modifier it is: does it MODIFIES THE ENTIRE ACTION of the preceding clause or it is CONSEQUENCE of the main action? if the former be correct then the modifier should apply TO THE SUBJECT of that clause, then the sentence would mean something like "Fossils made the sloth earliest known mammal". how can fossils make the sloth something?
kindly please elaborate how this modifier works.

Thanks a lot.