Uses of Which

[ng27]

The electronics company has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, the length of which is that of a handheld computer, and it weighs less than 11 ounces.

A. to be the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, the length of which is that of a handheld computer, and it weighs
B. to be the smallest network digital camcorder in the world, which is as long as a handheld computer, weighing
C. is the smallest network digital camcorder in the world, which is as long as a handheld computer, and it weighs
D. is the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, which is as long as a handheld computer and weighs
E. is the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, the length of which is that of a handheld computer, weighing

Does which always refers to the noun immedeatly before the comma?

[Hei]

The question is one of the GMATPrep questions.

If the sentence is rewritten to:
The electronics company has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, which is as long as a handheld computer and weighs less than 11 ounces.

Is it okay?
I just wonder whether "claim to be" is okay.

Thanks in advance.

[shaun123]

It should be 'D'

[enginpasa1]

TO BE OR WHICH is not the problem. There are clear modifying and anteceden issues in all choices except for D. QA please

[StaceyKoprince]

Hei - They are claiming that it IS something - not that it "to be" something - so, no, we wouldn't use "to be" here. We'd say "the company has unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest..."

I could say, though, "she claims to be a violinist, but I've heard her play and she's terrible." So there are circumstances in which you could use "claim to be" - but this isn't one of them.

And, yes, answer is D.

[Hei]

Thanks Stacey.

[rfernandez]

You're welcome (on behalf of Stacey).

[Guest]

can 'which' ever refer to an object of a prepositional phrase? so in C), putting everything else aside, does 'which' gramatically refer to 'camcorder' or 'world'?

[RonPurewal]

can 'which' ever refer to an object of a prepositional phrase? so in C), putting everything else aside, does 'which' gramatically refer to 'camcorder' or 'world'?

by default it would be 'world', which makes choice (c) almost laugh-out-loud funny (the world is as long as a handheld computer? i guess all those people who talk about 'small world' are right!)

if you encounter a problem on which ALL of the answer choices become absurd if you attribute the 'which' in this way, THEN, and only then, should you start assigning the 'which' to the entire noun + prepositional phrase construction. in general, the gmat is not very liberal at all with its use of 'which', so following the 'right next to the comma' rule should get you through most everything.

[josh_nsit]

Hi

How do we deal with the sentence fragment? Is it fine here? I understand it is not needed in eliminating the choices. But say if it would have been the only difference in choices, or say A wouldn't had the blasphemous 'it', then what should have been normal course to deal with such a question.

josh

[RonPurewal]

How do we deal with the sentence fragment? Is it fine here? I understand it is not needed in eliminating the choices. But say if it would have been the only difference in choices, or say A wouldn't had the blasphemous 'it', then what should have been normal course to deal with such a question.

josh

i'm not sure what you're asking here.

to which sentence fragment are you referring?

even if you remove "it" from choice (a), it's still horribly wrong, because of a complete lack of parallelism: there's nothing in the earlier part of the sentence to be parallel to "...and weighs...".
you would need a construction such as "..., which is as long as... ...and weighs...", which, non-coincidentally, is exactly the structure in the correct answer choice.

[hberens18]

What is wrong with answer choice E?
Also, what exactly does '...,weighing less than 11 ounces' modify? Does it modify the closest noun (handheld computer) or the subject of the preceding portion (the length)?

[RonPurewal]

What is wrong with answer choice E?
Also, what exactly does '...,weighing less than 11 ounces' modify? Does it modify the closest noun (handheld computer) or the subject of the preceding portion (the length)?

when you have a COMMA + -ING modifier, two things apply:
* the modifier itself MODIFIES THE PRECEDING CLAUSE (not just the noun that precedes the comma);
and
* the SUBJECT of the preceding clause is the IMPLIED SUBJECT of the -ING word.

the above 2 principles explain what is wrong with (e): the nearest clause has "the length of which" as its subject. therefore, "..., weighing" is making the ludicrous proposition that the length weighs about 11 ounces.

[bellthecatnow]

ok. I have a question on 'which' too. I learnt that I can't post the OG problem here so I will try to replace few words on the original problem to give an example.

Originally designed for calculating XYZ , a process called ABC-triggered calculation, which can quickly calculate the numbers, is finding uses in numerology.

Please forgive if the statement doesn't make any sense.

I would like to understand which noun does 'which' modifies here? Is it calculation (immediate preceding noun) or the process or 'ABC-triggered calculation'?

[vikas.panghal]

What is wrong with answer choice E?
Also, what exactly does '...,weighing less than 11 ounces' modify? Does it modify the closest noun (handheld computer) or the subject of the preceding portion (the length)?

when you have a COMMA + -ING modifier, two things apply:
* the modifier itself MODIFIES THE PRECEDING CLAUSE (not just the noun that precedes the comma);
and
* the SUBJECT of the preceding clause is the IMPLIED SUBJECT of the -ING word.

the above 2 principles explain what is wrong with (e): the nearest clause has "the length of which" as its subject. therefore, "..., weighing" is making the ludicrous proposition that the length weighs about 11 ounces.

Well I also marked E my answer. The reason I choose E is that in choice E "is the world’s smallest network digital camcorder, the length of which is that of a handheld computer, weighing" since the underlined part "the length....computer" is separated by commas, it is a non essential clause. So if I remove this non essential clause and try to read the sentence then it makes sense to me. It will be as follows:

The electronics company has unveiled what it claims is the world’s smallest network digital camcorder weighing less than 11 ounces.

Here "weighing" modifies the camcorder, which looks fine to me. Thus I selected the option E.

Ron, Please correct me Where I'm getting it wrong.


Thanks.