GMAT Paper 19

[Samy]

Seldom more that 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the rugged
wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected the Hudson River at Albany to
the Great Lakes at Buffalo, providing the port of New York City with a direct water link
to the heartland of the North American continent.

A. Seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
B. Seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep but running 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
C. It was seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, and ran 363 miles across
the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, but the Erie Canal, connecting
D. The Erie Canal was seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep and it ran 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, which connected
E. The Erie Canal, seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but running 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, connecting

Please can you help with this SC...
Thanks

[GMAT 2007]

Samy,

Is (B) the correct answer?

GMAT 2007

[dbernst]

Although this is a difficult SC question, your process should not vary: look for "splits," rely on your grammatical rules, and consider clarity of meaning and conciseness when grammatical issues have been exhausted.

In this case, choices A, B, and D use "connected," while choices C and E use "connecting." As "connecting" creates a sentence fragment (read C and E in their entirety; niether is a complete sentence), choices C and E can be eliminated. Sticking with the "connected" split, answer choice D includes "which" before "connected," causing "which connected" to incorrectly describe New York rather than The Erie Canal. D is out.

The final two answer choices are close, but at least you now have a 50% chance rather than a 20% chance with a strategic guess. Grammatically, the antecedent of the pronoun "it" in choice A is somewhat ambiguous and the placement of it is awkward. Additionally, the simple past tense "ran" incorrectly seems to indicate that the Erie Canal no longer exists. Finally, "or" from choice B is preferential to "and" from choice A, since "and" indicates that both of these conditions must be met at the same time. It is more logical that the canal is infrequently 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep anywhere along its 363 mile length.

The correct answer is B.

-dan

Seldom more that 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the rugged
wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected the Hudson River at Albany to
the Great Lakes at Buffalo, providing the port of New York City with a direct water link
to the heartland of the North American continent.

A. Seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
B. Seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep but running 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
C. It was seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, and ran 363 miles across
the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, but the Erie Canal, connecting
D. The Erie Canal was seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep and it ran 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, which connected
E. The Erie Canal, seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but running 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, connecting

Please can you help with this SC...
Thanks

[Samy]

Thanks for that AMAZING analysis !!
I was able to eliminate C,D,E.
Only between A and B I went for the B because running seemed a better term to use for a river than covers some distance."Ran" can be used I guess (The river ran across the entire length of the park), but in this case it seems an awkward physical running.

Rest I have documented: Or, It, Tense.

[d_taneja]

Between A & B , a very simple rule

Independent clause, FANBOYS IC
A violate this rule by putting comma between "but" and hence wrong

Hence B is right option

Although this is a difficult SC question, your process should not vary: look for "splits," rely on your grammatical rules, and consider clarity of meaning and conciseness when grammatical issues have been exhausted.

In this case, choices A, B, and D use "connected," while choices C and E use "connecting." As "connecting" creates a sentence fragment (read C and E in their entirety; niether is a complete sentence), choices C and E can be eliminated. Sticking with the "connected" split, answer choice D includes "which" before "connected," causing "which connected" to incorrectly describe New York rather than The Erie Canal. D is out.

The final two answer choices are close, but at least you now have a 50% chance rather than a 20% chance with a strategic guess. Grammatically, the antecedent of the pronoun "it" in choice A is somewhat ambiguous and the placement of it is awkward. Additionally, the simple past tense "ran" incorrectly seems to indicate that the Erie Canal no longer exists. Finally, "or" from choice B is preferential to "and" from choice A, since "and" indicates that both of these conditions must be met at the same time. It is more logical that the canal is infrequently 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep anywhere along its 363 mile length.

The correct answer is B.

-dan

Seldom more that 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the rugged
wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected the Hudson River at Albany to
the Great Lakes at Buffalo, providing the port of New York City with a direct water link
to the heartland of the North American continent.

A. Seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but it ran 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
B. Seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep but running 363 miles across the
rugged wilderness of upstate New York, the Erie Canal connected
C. It was seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, and ran 363 miles across
the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, but the Erie Canal, connecting
D. The Erie Canal was seldom more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet deep and it ran 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, which connected
E. The Erie Canal, seldom more than 40 feet wide and 12 feet deep, but running 363
miles across the rugged wilderness of upstate New York, connecting

Please can you help with this SC...
Thanks

[rash2823]

In B we have "more than 40 feet wide or 12 feet but running 363 miles ...."

Do we have any impact of "OR" / "AND" in the sentence ..??

In OG the answer choice B is having OR given in Question while AND in the Solution.. So bit confused , is it a Typo???

[pawan_chitturu]

Can somebody explain the statement As "connecting" creates a sentence fragment (read C and E in their entirety; niether is a complete sentence), choices C and E can be eliminated in the above explanation by ManhattanGMAT Staff

[RonPurewal]

current posters -- note that gmat paper tests are now a banned source (for the last two years or so, actually; for clarification on exactly which sources are banned, please see the very first post in this folder, entitled "forum rules").

we'll leave the old posts standing (including moderator dan bernstein's), since those posts date from before the ban began; however, we are no longer at liberty to answer questions about these materials, since gmac has specifically requested that we not do so for copyright-related reasons. thanks.