Like the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth,

[HanzZ]

2.Just as with the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface, astronomers have made new observations

The issue with 'with' aside, is E wrong because 'astronomers' is separated by 'gathering xxx'. The modifier should directly preceed the noun being modified?

NB, it's spelled "precede".
"Proceed" and "precede" are English words. "Procede" and "preceed" are not.

--

As for question #2:

First, that's not really what "gathering xxxx" modifies. That's a comma -ing modifier; like others of that kind, it describes the previous action.
I.e., it gives more detail about the navigators' sailing around the earth.

Second, sometimes there are two modifiers that both describe the same thing. Obviously, in those cases it's impossible to place both modifiers directly after the noun. So they are just placed one after the other.
E.g., in OG Diagnostic #50, you have a way of distributing xxxx on the internet that will yyyyy.
If either of the two colored things appeared alone, without the other one, it'd be placed right after "a way". But they're both there, so one comes first and the other one comes second.

---
Hello Ron,

Like always, thank you very much for your reply. Still, I just want to clarify two things:

So based on your above comment, is my following judgement correct (also about choice e, though I changed the wording a little bit - and I know I should not do this, NO)?

1. Just like the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface, astronomers have made new observations...

So here the opening modifier is correct because there is no other better way to put the 'gathering' thing since it's an internal part that goes with the opening modifier.

2. Just like the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface, in 1990 astronomers have made new observations...

Now this is incorrect because 'in 1990' doesn't belong to the opening modifer and therefore it gets in the way between the opening modifier and the noun 'astronomers'.

Many many thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Yes and yes.

[jha.madhavi85]

[quote="H"]Like the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, to gather information about its size and curvature of its surface, new observations have been made by astronomers that show with startling directness the large-scale geometry of the universe.

(E) Just as with the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface, astronomers have made new observations

Hi Ron ,
Can you please verify my understanding ?
Apart from the parallelism issue with "Just as with X, Y "
the modifier "gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface" creates confusion as we can't tell whether it is acting as adverbial modifier for navigators or as modifier for astronomers .

eg -
i)ust as with the great navigators who first sailed around the Earth, gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface

OR

ii)gathering information about its size and curvature of the surface, astronomers have made new observations

So option (E) is wrong because of modifier confusion too!

Thanks,
Madhavi

[RonPurewal]

That seems to be a valid point.

I'm not 100% sure, though. If you have xxxx, modifier, yyyy, then the default is for the modifier to describe xxxx, not yyyy. But if you have a decision between that structure and something that's less ambiguous, then, yes, you should pick the less ambiguous structure.

[AbhilashM94]

Ron,

Is there an idiomatic issue with (E) as well.

Just as...So....??

[RonPurewal]

No.

In fact, you couldn't use "just as ___, so ___" there. That only works if the two blanks are complete sentences.

It's rather pointless to use an incorrect choice as an example, so here's a correct sentence:
Just as in the final stretch of a 400-meter race, glycogen depletion can cause sudden decreases in athletes' speed and power output in a CrossFit competition.
You can't put "so" in front of the sentence starting with "glycogen depletion", because "in the final stretch of a 400m race" is not a whole sentence.

[thanghnvn]

why C is wrong? pls, explain, thank you.

[RonPurewal]

why C is wrong? pls, explain, thank you.

Please read the entire thread. Joe has already addressed this point.

[eggpain24]

why C is wrong? pls, explain, thank you.

Please read the entire thread. Joe has already addressed this point.

Ron, can you confirm that the use of ving in choice D is one of the rare exceptions in the use of " noun + verbing"

because in 99% cases, the verbing is modifying the closest noun.

But GMAT is the boss....

[jnelson0612]

why C is wrong? pls, explain, thank you.

Please read the entire thread. Joe has already addressed this point.

Ron, can you confirm that the use of ving in choice D is one of the rare exceptions in the use of " noun + verbing"

because in 99% cases, the verbing is modifying the closest noun.

But GMAT is the boss....

I'm not sure which words you are referring to in D. Can you please elaborate?

[douyang]

OK! the official answers are always right.
Ron! but there is still a question worthy thinking :
wether this gathering is used as adv to modify sailed around the Earth or as adj to modify navigators?

according to the original sentence--to gather information about its size... , gather seems like to function as adv to modify sailed around the Earth!
ron or stracey, i really want to read your oppinion!!

i think it is adverbial, yes.

Hi Ron,

So in the correct answer D, does "gathering information about its size and the curvature of its surface" modify the navigators?

I eliminated D incorrectly because I thought D was illogical because "gathering information about its size and the curvature of its surface" could only modify the nearest noun, which is "the Earth".

So I guess the takeaway here is that the verb-ing (no comma) modifier is flexible and what it modifies is based meaning rather than structure. The only restricted modifiers are the ones starting with which/who/whom/whose.
Am I correct?

[RonPurewal]

that's how the modifier is used here, but, otherwise, GMAC's use has been quite consistent (the modifier applies to the noun directly in front of it).

what's MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to notice, though, is that unusual constructions appear along with far simpler eliminations.
• A and B compare navigators with observations. whoops.
• 'where' doesn't make sense in C.
• in E, 'its size' and 'the surface' are non-parallel. (also 'with' is nonsense.)

...so, the weird modifier—like basically everything else that's 'weird'—is just a distraction from easier things.

[douyang]

that's how the modifier is used here, but, otherwise, GMAC's use has been quite consistent (the modifier applies to the noun directly in front of it).

what's MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to notice, though, is that unusual constructions appear along with far simpler eliminations.
• A and B compare navigators with observations. whoops.
• 'where' doesn't make sense in C.
• in E, 'its size' and 'the surface' are non-parallel. (also 'with' is nonsense.)

...so, the weird modifier—like basically everything else that's 'weird'—is just a distraction from easier things.

Can you please elaborate on C?
'where' in C modifies 'Earth': it's on the Earth where navigators gathered information. This is actually logical.

[RonPurewal]

...but that's clearly not the intended meaning.
'gathering information' is what the navigators did as they sailed around the earth. so, for the sentence to make sense, the modifier has to describe that whole action.

by using a modifier that describes only 'Earth' the sentence implies that no such relationship exists—that the action is irrelevant.

consider:
I live in Los Angeles, where the 1984 Olympics were held.
--> correct answer
--> 'where the 1984 olympics were held' modifies 'LA'.
--> most importantly—and (hopefully) quite obviously—the 1984 olympics have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that i currently live in LA.

in other words, the message of that sentence is:
1/ i live in LA.
2/ (UNRELATED BUT INTERESTING FACT) LA is where the '84 olympics were held.

now, make the analogy: choice C implies NO relationship between the gathering of information and the navigators' actual circumnavigation of the globe.
oops.

[RonPurewal]

by the way, that ^^ is a wonderful illustration of why it's so crucial to understand the common-sense meaning of the words BEFORE you look at the choices.

if you're doing 'step one' correctly—just looking at the words, thinking about what they might reasonably mean, and NOT thinking AT ALL about grammar/mechanics—then you will definitely realize that 'gathering information...' should describe the navigators' action of sailing around the world.
you would NEVER think 'oh, that's just a random fact about Earth'. ...so then, when you got to choice C you'd immediately know it was wrong, without having to go through all the mental gymnastics above.