It is impossible to truly understand a different culture nei

[Yuguang]

It is impossible to truly understand a different culture neither having grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time.
A. neither having grown up in that culture nor
B. if you haven’t grown up in that culture or
C. having not grown up in that culture nor
D. having neither grown up in that culture nor
E. without either having grown up in that culture or

Instructors, I don't quite understand the question above, which comes from M-GMAT CAT. How come the culture can become the subject of "having grown up", in the structure of "a different culture having grown up.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

How come the culture can become the subject of "having grown up"?

I'm not sure that I understand your question here. The word 'culture' isn't the subject of 'having grown up'. The phrase '[not] having grown up in that culture' is a modifier that gives information (here: a reason) for the first clause. Let me give you a simpler example: 'Not having done his homework, Bob performed badly on his test.' The first phrase (Not...homework) is a modifier that explains the second phrase.

[Yuguang]

thank you for your reply.

I think I can't change the structure like this, as “having" is modifying "it".
"Having neither grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time, it is impossible to truly understand a different culture. "

When "doing" is touching the noun WITHOUT comma (SVO doing), the "doing" is modifying the closest noun. Then, we've got "It is impossible to truly understand a different culture (which is) having neither grown up..." Am I right? If so, having growing up is not indicating a reason here, but the modifier of "culture".

Please correct me. Thank you!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Very good point. Yes, usually we'd have a modifier "NOUN -ing" or "CLAUSE, -ing", but this is a slightly different type of modifier. I should amend my reply to your first question.

I would put this one in the same category as "preposition + -ing". For example, "I often go running without having had breakfast." (fine) Or I could say "I often go running not having had breakfast." Here, 'having had' indicates an action before the 'running'.

I think I can't change the structure like this, as “having" is modifying "it".
"Having neither grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time, it is impossible to truly understand a different culture. "

Yes, I agree with you here.

In any case, this is a tricky modifier issue, and we don't actually need to rely on it to solve the problem. Parallelism is the main issue here.

[Yuguang]

I can understand now. Thank you !

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Good to hear that.

[KulvinderS680]

Hello Manhattan Team,

A small follow up question on the question above?

1. Here is the example you mentioned: I often go running without having had breakfast." I understand the phrase (without having...) shows an action before running. But still we need a doer of this action. In this case its the subject - Correct

Lets go to the correct answer choice of the original question:

It is impossible to truly understand a different culture having neither grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time

There is no noun/doer of the phrase (neither having grown up nor having immersed). So, it seems as if thisphrase is modifying the noun culture : Clearly Non sensical

I got this question yesterday in my mock exam. I found the parallelism issues but I was not at all confident.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

We're getting into some deep complications with modifiers here. I have to confess that I'm at the limit of my grammatical knowledge here (suggesting that what follows isn't essential for GMAT).

Although it's good to ask "what is a modifier modifying?", it seems that we've got an implied person here. I read the sentence as:
It is impossible [for someone] to truly understand a different culture neither having grown up in that culture nor immersed oneself in it for an extended period of time.

Alternatively, perhaps I've misinterpreted the sentence. We could see the words 'having grown up' not as a modifier, but as a gerund (a noun made from a verb), i.e. an activity. Take a simpler example: 'It is hard to score well on GMAT without having studied.'

[KulvinderS680]

Thank you:)

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

You're welcome.