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RonPurewal
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Fri Mar 04, 2011 5:37 am

vjsharma25 Wrote:Can a phrase and a clause,combined act as a modifier as is the case in the given question "....found in Phillipines and that resembles...."?I think because of this reason this choice is wrong.Basic parallelism is faulty here around "and".Is my reasoning correct?


you're correct about this.

be careful not to overgeneralize this principle, however. for instance, if you reversed these two constructions to get
that is found in the philippines and resembles...
... then this would actually be a valid construction. in this case, the word "that" is simply excluded from the parallel structure, giving a parallel structure with two verbs ("is found" and "resembles").

in this case, though, you're correct: the second part of this parallel structure is definitely a whole clause, and so nothing in the first part can be legitimately parallel to it.
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Re:

by samwong Fri Nov 15, 2013 3:53 am

RonPurewal Wrote:
sheetal Wrote:
skoprince Wrote:I'd need more of a sentence there - that may or may not work depending upon the rest of the construction. Can you post the full sentence?

For instance, I might say:
The Wowie bird, found in the Phillipines and resembling a small housecat, is the only bird that blah blah blah.

Try each of those little modifiers by itself: "The Wowie bird, found in the Phillipines, is the only bird..." and "The Wowie bird, resembling a small housecat, is the only bird..." They're both fine.

But I wouldn't say:
The Wowie bird is found in the Phillipines and resembling a small housecat.

"The Wowie bird is found in the Phillipines" is fine, but "The Wowie bird is resembling a small housecat" is not.


I have a follow up question.

I think the core of the sentence is
A bird found and resembling a humming bird has colours.

I understand that for a "Verb + ING" word to act as a verb, it needs to precede with a verb. In (C), we are saying that found and resempling are parallel.
If I am not wrong, "found" is a verb, so we need a verb on the other side of "and" to parallel "found".

In (C), "resemebling" does not have a verb preceeding it, so does it act as a verb here ? All I see is a noun (bird) before resembling.

Are my thoughts in the right direction?


the core of the sentence is
a bird has colors.

both 'found in the philippines'** and 'resembling a hummingbird' are participial modifiers. one of them uses a past participle (actually a passive participle: the bird is found, passive voice) and the other uses a present participle (an active participle), but they are used in parallel.

nota bene: you have also now learned that the gmat is perfectly fine with placing a passive / past participial modifier in parallel structure with an active / present participial modifier. keep this in mind if you see another problem like this one!

--

**digression: note the spelling of 'philippines': one L, two P's.
mnemonic device: 'stuck in new england, philip pines for the weather of the philippines'


Hi Ron,

C is the correct answer. The parallel portion is "animal found in the Philippines and resembling a hummingbird'. You said "actually a passive participle: the bird is found, passive voice". I don't see the "is" in the correct answer. Are you saying "is" is implied in the correct answer?
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Re: Re:

by RonPurewal Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:53 am

See, this is why I don't normally bother with grammar terms. I don't/can't remember them, so I look them up online and hope I'm right. (:

These are both modifiers, so of course you're not going to see the word "is". If you had "is", then you'd have a verb, and so you wouldn't have a modifier anymore.

The point is that "__ed"-type modifiers imply the same type of situation as verbs of the form "is/are __ed".
I.e., if you can write She was a politician elected to Congress in the 1970's, then you can also write She was elected to Congress. And so on.

Call it a passive participle thingy; call it a pink flamingo; call it Bob. As long as you know how it works, it makes no difference at all what you call it (or whether you call it anything).
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by lemonperb Wed Jun 04, 2014 8:11 am

Hi GMAT instructors,
Can I correct the choice to "that is found in the Phillipines and that,resembling"?
The sentence will be:First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird, a four-and-a-half-inch animal that is found in the Phillipines and that, resembling a hummingbird, has shimmering metallic colors on its head;
"that is found...and that has..." is parallel.
Please point out where I am wrong.
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Thu Jun 05, 2014 4:35 am

That's not a sentence. It doesn't have a verb.

It's just "Lina's sunbird" + modifiers.
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by lemonperb Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:54 am

RonPurewal Wrote:That's not a sentence. It doesn't have a verb.

It's just "Lina's sunbird" + modifiers.


Feel enlightened. I should have considered more about the basic structure of the sentence. Thank you Ron!
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:53 pm

lemonperb Wrote:
RonPurewal Wrote:That's not a sentence. It doesn't have a verb.

It's just "Lina's sunbird" + modifiers.


Feel enlightened. I should have considered more about the basic structure of the sentence. Thank you Ron!


In general, you should think about the overall structure of the sentence if there's a reason to think about it.

Most often, if you see choices that alternate between a verb and something that's not a verb (especially __ed and __ing modifiers, which are often mistaken for verbs), then you can eliminate one or the other version by thinking about the structure of the sentence as a whole.
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by lemonperb Tue Jun 10, 2014 6:52 am

RonPurewal Wrote:In general, you should think about the overall structure of the sentence if there's a reason to think about it.

Most often, if you see choices that alternate between a verb and something that's not a verb (especially __ed and __ing modifiers, which are often mistaken for verbs), then you can eliminate one or the other version by thinking about the structure of the sentence as a whole.


Thanks for your helpful advice Ron!
Have a nice day!
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:16 am

You're welcome. And thank you.
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by lindaliu9273 Tue Jul 01, 2014 8:30 pm

RonPurewal Wrote:
devneeetbajaj Wrote:Ron, I am having trouble eliminating choice E:
e. that is found in the Phillipines, resembling

The sentence would read:
A bird that is found in Phillipines, resembling a hummingbird, has colors

Can't "resembling a hummingbird" just be a verbal phrase without the need to be parellel w "that is found"? Or is it misplaced and has to be right next to the "bird" rather than "Phillipines"? I know it does not sound right, but jst trying to understand correct grammar.


that's an incorrect use of the COMMA -ING modifier form.

that sort of modifier has very specific restrictions on its usage. for the basics (and not-so-basics), check out the following post:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/which-usage- ... tml#183920
(i don't usually cross-post from different forums, but i wrote a lot there)


Hi Ron,
Thank you for the link. Now I understand that the ing modifier is wrong here. Besides this, in E can we recognize the parallelism as "that is found..." & "and that has...". That's why I choose E.

Thanks a lot!
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:52 am

You're welcome.
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by lindaliu9273 Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:41 pm

RonPurewal Wrote:You're welcome.


Hi Ron,

In E, can we recognize the parallelism as "that is found..." & "and that has..." ?

Thanks a lot!
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:26 am

lindaliu9273 Wrote:
RonPurewal Wrote:You're welcome.


Hi Ron,

In E, can we recognize the parallelism as "that is found..." & "and that has..." ?

Thanks a lot!


I don't see the red words anywhere in choice E. Where are you seeing those?
(I'm looking at the problem as originally posted on page 1 of this thread.)
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by soumya2022 Sun Aug 17, 2014 4:58 am

GMAT 5/18 Wrote:First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird, a four-and-a-half-inch animal found in the Phillipines and that resembles a hummingbird, has shimmering metallic colors on its head; a brilliant orange patch, bordered with red tufts, in the center of its breast; and a red eye.

a. Same as above
b. found in the Phillipines and that, resembling
c. found in the Phillipines and resembling
d. that is found in the Phillipines and it resembles
e. that is found in the Phillipines, resembling


Dear mentor,

Please explain why option A is incorrect.

Thank you
Regards
soumya
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Re: First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird

by RonPurewal Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:12 am

found
that resembles
Not parallel.