A group of FBI investigators, in connection with the 1975

[souvik1225]

A group of FBI investigators, in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, are searching a small area of a rural Milford Township horse farm.

A. A group of FBI investigators, in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, are searching a small area of a rural Milford Township horse farm.

B. A group of FBI investigators, in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, is searching a rural Milford Township horse farm, a small area within.

C. A group of FBI investigators, searching a small area of a rural Milford Township horse farm, is connected with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.

D. A group of FBI investigators, in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, is searching a small area of a rural Milford Township horse farm.

E. A small area of a rural Milford Township horse farm is being searched by a group of FBI investigators in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa

OA D
I chose E because I thought "in connection with...." should modify "searched" and not the "group of investigators". Any other way to eliminate E except that it uses a passive construction?

[jnelson0612]

What is the original source of this problem?

[souvik1225]

Hey!
The source is manhattan advanced SC workshop 750 slam homework.

[jnelson0612]

Hey!
The source is manhattan advanced SC workshop 750 slam homework.

Yep, passive is pretty much your reason for elimination. Remember, the GMAT prefers active to passive wording. I am always on guard whenever I see "being" in an answer choice unless "being" is the first word of the sentence.

[souvik1225]

Hey
Thanks but this confuses me even more
I have got a lot of answers correct on the OG, using passive construction and that was also validated by Ron Purewal.
Also "being" is wrong almost certainly when used as a modifier, I agree.
But here "in connection with....." phrase seems to modify the FBI group in the correct answer which is a little iffy to me.
Can you please clarify a couple of these things?
Souvik

[jnelson0612]

Hey
Thanks but this confuses me even more
I have got a lot of answers correct on the OG, using passive construction and that was also validated by Ron Purewal.
Also "being" is wrong almost certainly when used as a modifier, I agree.
But here "in connection with....." phrase seems to modify the FBI group in the correct answer which is a little iffy to me.
Can you please clarify a couple of these things?
Souvik

Two points:
1) Active wording is preferred over passive on the GMAT. However, passive is acceptable if active answer choices have clear grammatical or meaning errors. This concept is what Ron has mentioned on several occasions. That is not the case in this example; the answer choice using active wording does not have any errors. Thus, the answer choice containing the active wording is preferable to the answer choice containing passive wording.

2) In both D (the correct answer) and E (your answer) the "in connnection with" immediately follows the "group of FBI investigators", indicating in both that the "group" is being modified by the "in connection with . . . " phrase. Thus, I'm really not seeing a difference between them in that particular aspect.

[RonPurewal]

hi, thanks for pointing out this problem. in fact, it's pretty clear to me that (e) is the best of these answer choices.

see, the modifier placement is better in choice (e) than in the other choices.
the modifier "in connection..." describes the searching of the farm, not the group of investigators, and so should be attached to the words describing the act of searching. choice E is the only choice in which this modifier is placed in a sensible location.

there's no problem with "is being searched...".
the sentence could also be written in the active voice -- "a group of investigators is searching xxxxxx in connection with yyyyy..." -- but that doesn't mean anything is actually wrong with the passive construction.

i will inquire into fixing this issue.

[happyface101]

hi, thanks for pointing out this problem. in fact, it's pretty clear to me that (e) is the best of these answer choices.

see, the modifier placement is better in choice (e) than in the other choices.
the modifier "in connection..." describes the searching of the farm, not the group of investigators, and so should be attached to the words describing the act of searching. choice E is the only choice in which this modifier is placed in a sensible location.

there's no problem with "is being searched...".
the sentence could also be written in the active voice -- "a group of investigators is searching xxxxxx in connection with yyyyy..." -- but that doesn't mean anything is actually wrong with the passive construction.

i will inquire into fixing this issue.

Thanks Ron -- this is helpful.

Can you please elaborate on why "in connection with the 1975 disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa" doesn't modify (1) Investigators, or (2) group? What is the grammar rule that says it modifies search? Just trying to the understand the rule / correct usage so I can apply to future problems.

[cgentry]

Ok, you've asked a pretty challenging question.

There are several different styles of modifier constructions that are restricted. You're hopefully familiar with modifier constructions that begin with "which", "where", or "who"; these constructions must be clauses (they must contain a verb inside the modifier itself) and they must modify a noun.

Prepositional phrase modifiers are not restricted in this way. They can modify just about anything: nouns, verbs, or even whole sentences. ("I am writing this response at my computer." "At my computer" does not describe "response"; it describes where I am doing the writing.)

So with these types of modifiers, since there isn't a rule, the decision boils down to meaning. If you decide to make the "in connection with ..." modify the nouns "group" or "investigators" then you are literally describing the location of the group or the location of the investigators. This doesn't make sense: the group is not "in" any location that is a "connection".

Consider these two examples:
The dog in the yard is barking. "In the yard" describes the location of the dog.
vs
The dog is barking in the yard. "In the yard" describes where the dog is doing the barking.

It's a subtle difference, but it is a difference.

In answer D, when you use the modifier with the active voice clause, the "in connection with..." describes how the group is searching the area. In answer E, when you use the modifier with the passive voice clause, "in connection with..." describes why the area is being searched.

Answer choice E preserves a more sensible meaning.