mgmat test question

[mrinal.singh06]

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted.
1) the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted
2) famous because of "The Godfather," the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
3) the ailing mobster, famous because of "The Godfather," came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
4) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of "The Godfather"
5) Corleone, famous because of "The Godfather," was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted

is there a confusion regarding the referrant for he (in bold).It can refer to the ailing mobster or the godfather

[jssaggu.tico]

Nice one...This is kind of mix of modifier and parallelism as well. At very first look, I narrowed down by choice to A and E and then opted A.

Please pay attention to commas, they are acting like a group modifier here. lets have a closer look and go by choices one by one:


According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted.

A) the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted

In this choice the Corleone is followed by a town which is perfect and the ailing mobster is perfectly associated with the sentence opening According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor,
So we have perfect parallelism here. So A is a correct choice..

B) famous because of "The Godfather," the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, is wrongly followed by famous because of "The Godfather," and also badly modified. no parallelism in place at all. SO eliminate B.


C) the ailing mobster, famous because of "The Godfather," came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
Misplaced Modifiers and broken parallelism...So eliminate C.

D) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of "The Godfather"

same as B, misplaced modifiers. So eliminate D.

E) Corleone, famous because of "The Godfather," was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted

E is a wordy, passive and has misplaced modifers too. So eliminate E

[tim]

"The Godfather" is not being used as a person in this sentence, but rather the name of a movie..

[kunkha]

Hi all,

I understand why the right answer is the right answer - B/C/D all have modifier issues. A and E are both right, but A is more concise and written in the active voice, so it's an issue of A being "more correct" than E.

BUT i just realized that 'those' does not have an antecedent. So when I read this question, I think "near to those he most trusted...those what?!". I get that the author's intent is to refer to people - in fact, in everyday situations I would write it like this. But this is the GMAT -- shoudln't "those" link to a noun??

I don't think that my question changes how you should work this problem since none of the other answer choices have an antecedent...but what if one of them did? What if E said "those friends that he most trusted" or something like that. Would E then be correct?

Please advise. Thanks!!

[jnelson0612]

Hi all,

I understand why the right answer is the right answer - B/C/D all have modifier issues. A and E are both right, but A is more concise and written in the active voice, so it's an issue of A being "more correct" than E.

BUT i just realized that 'those' does not have an antecedent. So when I read this question, I think "near to those he most trusted...those what?!". I get that the author's intent is to refer to people - in fact, in everyday situations I would write it like this. But this is the GMAT -- shoudln't "those" link to a noun??

I don't think that my question changes how you should work this problem since none of the other answer choices have an antecedent...but what if one of them did? What if E said "those friends that he most trusted" or something like that. Would E then be correct?

Please advise. Thanks!!

This is a good question! The GMAT does at times allow pronouns that do not have antecedents. As long as the pronoun is clear and does not seem obviously wrong or is not creating a confusing meaning I would not worry about this too much.