Modifiers. One question

[carlosutrillas]

Hello everybody,

I have been posting some questions on the manhattan forums these days. Sorry for giving you so much work these days ;(

I bought the manhattan sc book and it is amazing. However, I feel I still have some problems with modifiers. Hope you can help me with this doubt (I know I can not post questions from the OG so I am going to change the questions a little bit)

Example 1:
a) Construction of the FCB BARCELONA stadium, which was known as xxx, was finished...

(The which here refers to "FCB BARCELONA stadium")

b) Construction of the FCB Barcelona stadium, known as xxx, was finished...

("know as xxx" is a modifier. Here, "known as xxx" modifies "construction of the FCB Barcelona Stadium". Right?

Example 2:

a) A technique developed for detecting pollutants, called xxx, is useful for...

(Here the "called xxx" modifies " a technique developed for detecting pollutants. Am I right?

Hope you can help me with that because I have been checking the corrections and some comments on the forums but I am still not sure about that.

Thanks to all!

[RonPurewal]

hey,
when you post "tweaked" OG problems, please post the problem number (and edition number) of the original OG question. that way, if it's not clear what you are doing, we can refer quickly to the original.
thanks.

Hello everybody,

I have been posting some questions on the manhattan forums these days. Sorry for giving you so much work these days ;(

these things, they happen.

a) Construction of the FCB BARCELONA stadium, which was known as xxx, was finished...

(The which here refers to "FCB BARCELONA stadium")

yes

b) Construction of the FCB Barcelona stadium, known as xxx, was finished...

("know as xxx" is a modifier. Here, "known as xxx" modifies "construction of the FCB Barcelona Stadium". Right?

no -- or at least that's not the intended meaning. that wouldn't make any sense.
the construction of a stadium is not going to have a name, although the stadium itself will have a name.

in general, as far as i've seen, these kinds of things (", known as...") can modify either the last noun or the last noun+prep+noun.
i.e., if i have
the author of this book, known as xxxxx...
then,
* if xxxxx is a person's name, then it's describing "the author of this book".
* if xxxxx is the title of a book, then it's describing "this book".
i'm pretty sure that either of these can work.

Example 2:

a) A technique developed for detecting pollutants, called xxx, is useful for...

(Here the "called xxx" modifies " a technique developed for detecting pollutants. Am I right?

Depends on what xxx is.

If xxx is the name of a lab technique, then, yes.
If xxx is the name of something that's polluting the air, then, no -- in that case the modifier just describes "pollutants".

don't strip problems of their context!

[carlosutrillas]

Hey Ron, first of all. I think I understand much better this issue.

hey,when you post "tweaked" OG problems, please post the problem number (and edition number) of the original OG question. that way, if it's not clear what you are doing, we can refer quickly to the original.thanks.

OK! The problem numbers are (OG 13) Ex 106 and Ex 112

Ex 106: Originally developed for detecting...

Ex 112: Construction of the Roman Colosseum,...

If I´ve understood your explanations correctly, I am right when I say:

Ex 106: Option C. The first modifier is correct.

"A technique originally developed for detecting air pollutants, called xxx" (Please note I am only interested in knowking if this modifier is correct. I know option C is incorrect"

Ex 112: I know option C is the correct one. If I have understood your explanation correctly, this option could also be correct withouth the "which was"

"Construction of the Roman Colosseus, officialy known as..., began..."

I would appreciate if you clarify these 2 points for me. If I am right, I think I have understood the point.

By the way, I want to say thanks to you (Ron). I have been studying for the GMAT for 6 months. My first attempt did not go well (580). I improved my second score (620- 42q, 34v) and I am having my third attemp in 6 days. My target score is 650-660.

I want to say thanks because I started working with manhattan material 2 months ago (manhattan sc book, thusdays with ron, etc). and I think Manhattan has the best instructors. I am definitely learning faster now
Thanks !

[RonPurewal]

"A technique originally developed for detecting air pollutants, called xxx" (Please note I am only interested in knowking if this modifier is correct. I know option C is incorrect"

i don't think this is actually wrong, but it's not as good as having both modifiers closer to "technique" (as in the correct choice for that problem).

Ex 112: I know option C is the correct one. If I have understood your explanation correctly, this option could also be correct withouth the "which was"

"Construction of the Roman Colosseus, officialy known as..., began..."

yeah, it's fine without "which was", but it's more ambiguous in terms of the timeframe.

if you say "which was known as...", you are making it clear that the Colosseum doesn't actually exist anymore and/or its name has changed.
if the modifier is just "known as...", then that's a possibility, but it also becomes possible that it's still known that way even today.

By the way, I want to say thanks to you (Ron).

you're welcome.

[Ivy Bai]

Hi Ron, I'm very excited to ask you a question since your explanation are often the final answer for the problem we discuss in a chinese forum~

The OG12-112:
[-----]
I chose C, but the problem here is : Will it be better to use the passive voice of "began" which parallels to "was completed"?
Some people said there is no passive voice of begin, but I think is ok to write : "sb. began the construction" as well as "the construction was begun".
Thanks so much!^^

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron, I'm very excited to ask you a question since your explanation are often the final answer for the problem we discuss in a chinese forum~

The OG12-112:
[-----]

I chose C, but the problem here is : Will it be better to use the passive voice of "began" which parallels to "was completed"?
Some people said there is no passive voice of begin, but I think is ok to write : "sb. began the construction" as well as "the construction was begun".
Thanks so much!^^

Do not post OG problems here. It's not allowed, per the express request of GMAC.
This time I'll just purge the problem from your post, because the question is still meaningful without it. In the future, any post containing an OG problem will be summarily deleted.

See below for an answer to your question.

[RonPurewal]

--

Two things:

1/
Active and passive have nothing whatsoever to do with parallelism.
In terms of grammar, ALL verbs are parallel, regardless of tense and regardless of active/passive.
Decisions about tense and active/passive are individual decisions that are based entirely on context. They have absolutely nothing to do with grammar, including parallelism.

E.g.,
My cousin joined the U.S. Air Force in 1989 and will be discharged in 2019.

Note the two parallel verbs here: "joined" and "will be discharged".

* Tenses: "Joined" is in the past, because it happened in 1989. "Will be discharged" is in the future, because it won't happen for another six years. (If this post is still around in 2019, please note that it was written in 2013.)

* Active/passive: "Joined" is active, because my cousin went out and signed up. "Will be discharged" is passive, because my cousin can't discharge himself -- that has to be done by someone else (e.g., his superior officer, or the president, or [hopefully not] a court-martial, or whatever).

2/
"Began" is fine, if the sentence is referring to a process without any emphasis on the agent starting or maintaining it.
E.g., the construction of this statue began in 1961.
"Was begun" is required if you are throwing in a mention of that agent.
E.g., the construction of this statue was begun by Urho Virtanen, but was finished by his son Riku.

[gauravtyagigmat]

Hi Ron,

with reference to OG 12 q 111
I have altered the question above question because OG is a banned source

Construction of the lord cricket stadium, which was known as xxx, began in BC 200, during the reign of king David

In Manhattan SC correction book I read "which" always refer to the preceding noun. If we consider above rule "which" should refer to lord cricket stadium.

But
according to the rule of mission critical modifier rule, which I read in SC chapter 12(Pronoun and modifier Extra) page 238. "Which" should refer to noun phrase " construction of the lord cricket stadium"

even if "which" does refer to " construction of the lord cricket stadium". It makes this construction wrong because how can a construction of something is "was known as XXX"

[RonPurewal]

"Which" can refer to either "Y" or "X of Y". If common sense can determine which one is correct, then the modifier is fine either way.

In this sentence, "which" is obviously referring to the stadium, so it's fine.

[gauravtyagigmat]

--
2/
"Began" is fine, if the sentence is referring to a process without any emphasis on the agent starting or maintaining it.
E.g., the construction of this statue began in 1961.
"Was begun" is required if you are throwing in a mention of that agent.
E.g., the construction of this statue was begun by Urho Virtanen, but was finished by his son Riku.

If we say
the construction of this statue was began by Urho Virtanen, but was finished by his son Riku

the construction of this statue was begun by Urho Virtanen, but was finished by his son Riku
What is the difference between the meaning of above two sentence and which one is correct ?
Please explain with reasons

[RonPurewal]

"Was began" is not a thing in the first place.

Before you start studying how these verbs work, make sure that you know how to form them. For instance, was given, has/have given, and had given are legitimate verb forms, but was gave, has/have gave, and had gave don't exist.

Same with "began".
Was/has/have/is begun are legitimate verb forms. You can't put those in front of "began".