The arrest of a programmer accused of violating

[tankobe]

The arrest of a programmer accused of violating an American digital copyright law has stirred significant opposition, against both the law itself and against the software company that had initiated the case.

(A) against both the law itself and against the software company that had
(B) against both the law itself and also the software company having
(C) against both the law itself and the software company that
(D) both against the law itself and the software company that had
(E) both against the law itself and also against the software company having

OA is C (highlight to reveal)
i have heard that if have done/have been done try to modify a NOUN as adj--Noun+having done or Noun+having been done, they are wrong. is it right?

[RonPurewal]

The arrest of a programmer accused of violating an American digital copyright law has stirred significant opposition, against both the law itself and against the software company that had initiated the case.

(A) against both the law itself and against the software company that had
(B) against both the law itself and also the software company having
(C) against both the law itself and the software company that
(D) both against the law itself and the software company that had
(E) both against the law itself and also against the software company having

OA is C (highlight to reveal)
i have heard that if have done/have been done try to modify a NOUN as adj--Noun+having done or Noun+having been done, they are wrong. is it right?

i have not seen "having..." used correctly without a comma (as is the case here).

however, i've seen plenty of cases in which "having..." is used correctly in modifiers that are blocked off by comma(s).

for instance:

* James, having finished all of his high school's math courses, is now eligible to take math classes at the local university.

* Having studied these topics for years, I can tell you that everything you have written is wrong.

[tankobe]

i have not seen "having..." used correctly without a comma (as is the case here).

however, i've seen plenty of cases in which "having..." is used correctly in modifiers that are blocked off by comma(s).

for instance:

1* James, having finished all of his high school's math courses, is now eligible to take math classes at the local university.

2* Having studied these topics for years, I can tell you that everything you have written is wrong.

after comma, having done/been done= after sb do sth || after doing sth
1*=James, after finishing all of his high school's math courses, is now eligible to take math classes at the local university.
2*=after studing these topics for years, I can tell you that everything you have written is wrong.

Exception: if Having done is follow a time when it happen, Having done ≠ after doing.
3* Neuroscientists, having amassed a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.
3*= Neuroscientists have amassed a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, and Neuroscientists are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.
3*≠ after amassing a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, Neuroscientists are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.----does not make sense!

Above are the two usages of Having done that can be right, so if we see Having done beyong the two situations, the option,i think, will be wrong.

[purduesr]

Can someone explain why D is wrong? I thought you would need to past tense "had initiated" to correctly indicate that initiation occurred before accusation.

Nevermind...D isn't parallel! :D

[RonPurewal]

Can someone explain why D is wrong? I thought you would need to past tense "had initiated" to correctly indicate that initiation occurred before accusation.

Nevermind...D isn't parallel! :D

Yes. There's a blatant parallelism error here. look at the words that follow "both", and compare them to the words that follow "and". They are not parallel structures.

You must teach yourself to think in this sort of way, because it doesn't come naturally in the everyday use of language. Once you learn to look for it, however, you'll find that many eliminations become much easier as a result.

[RonPurewal]

i have not seen "having..." used correctly without a comma (as is the case here).

however, i've seen plenty of cases in which "having..." is used correctly in modifiers that are blocked off by comma(s).

for instance:

1* James, having finished all of his high school's math courses, is now eligible to take math classes at the local university.

2* Having studied these topics for years, I can tell you that everything you have written is wrong.

after comma, having done/been done= after sb do sth || after doing sth
1*=James, after finishing all of his high school's math courses, is now eligible to take math classes at the local university.
2*=after studing these topics for years, I can tell you that everything you have written is wrong.

Exception: if Having done is follow a time when it happen, Having done ≠ after doing.
3* Neuroscientists, having amassed a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.
3*= Neuroscientists have amassed a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, and Neuroscientists are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.
3*≠ after amassing a wealth of knowledge over the past twenty years about the brain, Neuroscientists are now drawing solid conclusions about how the human brain grows.----does not make sense!

Above are the two usages of Having done that can be right, so if we see Having done beyong the two situations, the option,i think, will be wrong.

I'm sorry, I don't see an explicit question in this post. Are you asking a question here? If so, what is the question?

[firemint1983]

Hi
Ron,

Can you please let me know that in the option A if we write in this was if that will be correct

'against both the law itself and the software company that had'

As the first part of the sentence contains 'has stirred significant .....' so if the past perfect tense is correct here..

Example: I have received a high score because i had prepared thoroughly.

[RonPurewal]

Hi
Ron,

Can you please let me know that in the option A if we write in this was if that will be correct

'against both the law itself and the software company that had'

this tense doesn't make sense here, because there is no fixed past timeframe to which "had initiated" may refer.

for more on the perfect tenses, read here:
post58397.html#p58397

As the first part of the sentence contains 'has stirred significant .....' so if the past perfect tense is correct here..

Example: I have received a high score because i had prepared thoroughly.

this example is also incorrect, for largely the same reason; these two tenses are incompatible here.
read the link above. here, "i have received a high score" is written from the standpoint of the present -- meaning that "had prepared" is illogical because the sentence is not written from a fixed standpoint in the past.

[namnam123]

NOUN HAVING DONE never exist in general English grammar, according to book "comprehensive grammar" 1770 pages. It exists in clasical fiction books sometimes.

of course, NOUN HAVING DONE never exist in gmat grammar.

NOUN DOING exists in gmat grammar and can be

noun which did
noun which had done
noun which will done
noun which would do
....... any tense.

COMMA HAVING DONE/DOING following a main a clause modifies the total previous clause and the action of DONE/DOING is created by subject of the main clause and hapens BEFORE/CONTEMPTANEOUS with the action of the main clause. NOUN HAVING DONE must be in right position, relative to the subject on main clause.

HAVING DONE COMMA/DOING preceding a main clause modiies the total the following clause and the action of DONE/DOING is created by subject of the main clause anh happen BEFORE/CONTEMPTANEOUS with action of main clause. NOUN HAVING DONE must be in right postion, relative to the subject of the main clause.

[RonPurewal]

NOUN HAVING DONE never exist in general English grammar, according to book "comprehensive grammar" 1770 pages.

well, ok. but, what worries me here is that you're citing "1770 pages" as though it's some symbol of authority -- in other words, you seem to be thinking "more pages = better".

this is a very bad way of thinking. if you are looking at a 1770-page grammar book, then at least 90% of the stuff in the book will be totally irrelevant to GMAT SC problems. frankly, you should look for something shorter, more concise, more fundamental, and easier to understand.

among others, you should check out "the elements of style" by strunk and white. this is not a grammar book -- it won't explain any points of incorrect grammar -- but there are quite a few themes in there that are important on the test. (obviously, be sure to ignore the parts about literary references, citations, etc.)

when you check out grammar books, stick with the ones that are relatively short (a couple hundred pages max); those books may leave out a lot of subtle obscurities, but leaving out subtle obscurities is not a bad thing.

[wangjieava23]

The arrest of a programmer accused of violating an American digital copyright law has stirred significant opposition, against both the law itself and the software company that initiated the case.

One more question about the underlined part, what role does this part of sentence play? Is "against" viewed as a preposition, and comes along with following words, modifing preceding clause "The arrest ....stirred opposition"?

Thank you in advance.

[tim]

yes it's a preposition, and I would say it modifies "opposition"..

[krishnan.anju1987]

Hi,

The arrest of a programmer accused of violating an American digital copyright law has stirred significant opposition, against both the law itself and against the software company that had initiated the case.

(A) against both the law itself and against the software company that had
(B) against both the law itself and also the software company having
(C) against both the law itself and the software company that
(D) both against the law itself and the software company that had
(E) both against the law itself and also against the software company having

is the usage of against both and both against right? I tried finding examples for both types of usage and could find some. I think the usage of both against and against both is not the cause for this difference

[tim]

either one can be correct depending on the surrounding circumstances of the sentence. don't rule out an answer choice just because it uses one form or another, but rather take a look at the bigger sentence and make sure the parallelism is correct..

[eggpain24]

HI，ron， I got a problem here in choice A about the “past perfect”

as per my own understanding

has stirred → action started in the past and continues to be true in the present

had initiated → happened before “stirred”

“stirred” is logically related with “ initiated” （because it is the initiation of the case → stir opposition）

I ask this question because I have seen several GMAT prep questions where “ past perfect” is used when there is only “present perfect”

Please correct me if I am wrong
thanks in advance！