Tough Old GMAT Prep Question

[sudaif]

Somber in tone and menacing in content, [b]the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope that they would be released by the end of the week.

(A) leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope that they would be
(B) leader of the terrorists holding the hostages sent a message that left little hope for their being
(C) leader of the terrorists holding the hostages sent a message leaving little hope of the hostages being
(D) message sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope that the hostages would be
(E) message that was sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope for the hostages to be[/b]

Below is my take on each choice. Instructors, please share your thoughts on each answer choice. OA is D.

A) wordy b/c of the use of "who were holding" -- there more succinct phrases in other choices. Also, the phrase "sent a message leaving little hope" seems off. "leaving little hope" seems to be modifying "message" when in fact it should be a consequence of the message sent. Thus, the use of "that left little hope" would be preferrable.
b) This was my pick. It is concise. Some may raise an issue with the use of "their" pronoun, BUT, per Ron's guidelines, it is not okay to dismiss an answer choice solely based on an ambiguous pronoun reference when everything else is good
c) In my opinion, has the same problem with the use of modifier "leaving little hope" that seems to be modifying "message" when that is actually a consequence/result of the message
d) i dismissed b/c it is in passive voice. This is the OA. The only justification i can fathom is that...since the message sent left little hope...this would be preferable compared to phrase where "leader" was subject
e) unnecessarily wordy and in passive voice

Will appreciate feedback.

[dinesh19aug]

Hello Sudaif,
The original sentence has two issues:

1. ".....little hope that they would be " --- pronoun error. Who does they refer to? Terrorists or hostages?

So A is ruled out. After that I was not able to see any more error. So I scanned through the list and canceled out
B and C: "...little hope for their being" ---- illogical sentence. (I rule out most of the sentences being. Being is almost always incorrect. But Gmat rarely has sentences which are correct. But I take my chances :-))

Then I am left with only 2 possible choices D OR E.
I compared the beginning and that is when I noticed the second error.

2. Modifier - "Somber in tone.... menacing in content, the leader". The leader can be somber, but he cannot be a content.

Now if you compare the two sentences E is ruled out because it says -
"message that was sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope for the hostages to be"

It means that hostages were hoping that they will not be released by end of week. However the meaning of the sentence is that people who read or will read the message content will have little hope for the hostages that they will be realeased earlier.

Hence D.

[sudaif]

thanks for the input. good catch on the modifier issue. for some reason, i dont see the change in meaning that you pointed out.
also, regarding the pronoun reference, i read on Ron P's posts that by itself the pronoun ambiguity point cannot be used to eliminate a choice.

[dinesh19aug]

thanks for the input. good catch on the modifier issue. for some reason, i dont see the change in meaning that you pointed out.
also, regarding the pronoun reference, i read on Ron P's posts that by itself the pronoun ambiguity point cannot be used to eliminate a choice.

Sudaif for the

Let me take another chance in explain the change of meaning in E.
Say you are kidnapped by terrorist. Terrorist sends a harsh message to your family. After reading the message "X" feels that you will not be released soon.

Now if question - "Who feels that you(hostage) will not be released soon" --- > Your family will feel that you will not be release soon.

So in E, the meaning is changed to :
"...message that was sent by the leader of the terrorists who were holding the hostages left little hope for the hostages to be"

I hope it helps you understanding my reasoning.

[mschwrtz]

Dinesh is perfectly right on the first split. The initial modifying phrase "Somber in tone and menacing in content," modifies the subject of the main clause, and so that subject must be the letter, rather than the leader.

I'm not sure that I follow Dinesh's reasons for rejecting E, though. Here is my reason for rejecting E. First, the phrase "hostages to be released at the end of the week" seems to refer to hostages scheduled to be released at the end of the week. That's not the original meaning of the sentence. Second, the clause "left little hope for the hostages," suggests that the hostages were left little hope, rather than that some unspecified others were left little hope. This too changes the original meaning.

Is the second your point Dinesh?