SC1000 -11

[amrinder]

A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published, reveals that Twain provided financial assistance to one of the first Black students at Yale Law School.

(A) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published,

(B) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

(C) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published,

(D) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year as he published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that

(E) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that

[dbernst]

amrinder,

In this sentence, the relative pronoun that rather than the compartive as imust introduce the clause The Adventures ... published. Additionally, the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn requires a singular verb. Eliminate A and D.

Choices B and E, due to their awkward constructions, lack clarity of meaning. They seem to indicate that there is some specific "year of publication," during which both this letter and the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were written. This interpretation contradicts the original intent of the sentence, which indicates that the letter was written in the same year that the novel was published.

Choice C, the best answer, is grammatically correct and its meaning is clear and precise.

-dan

A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published, reveals that Twain provided financial assistance to one of the first Black students at Yale Law School.

(A) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were published,

(B) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

(C) A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published,

(D) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year as he published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that

(E) Mark Twain wrote a letter in the same year of publication as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that

[josephgreer]

I get these wrong so often and it kills me!!

I immediately eliminated A-C because I thought that "written in the same year..." attempted to modify Mark Twain. Based on that, I chose D. It sounded bad, but seemed to be the best of the remaining two after ruling A-C out.

Why is the modifier in sentences A-C not modifying Mark Twain? How can I remember this more easily so I don't fall into this trap in the future?

Suggestions most welcome

[hemanth28]

Dont you think that the options 1,2,3 fall in the category of dangling modifiers ?

[JonathanSchneider]

It would be a dangling modifier, if the next part of the sentence were the main subject-verb core of the sentence. However, what comes next is merely a modifier set off by commas. As a result, "a letter" is really the subject of the sentence. We need to read over the following modifier to see that this connects to "reveals" for our subject-verb pair.

[toanpx_hut]

First time, I thought the phrase "written in the same year as ..." modifies Mark Twain, so I ruled A, B and C out. After carefully considering D and E, I chose D because It sounded better and also because E contains awkward structure "in the same year of publication as".

I have read JonathanSchneider's post; however, I don't understand why "written in the same year ..." modifies A letter instead of Mark Twain. Can anyone explain more clearly?

Another point is that I don't understand why, in this sentence, we should use that rather than a comparative AS.

Thanks in advance!

[deependra.hamal]

I could not understand why "written in the same year ..." modifies A letter instead of Mark Twain.

Can you please elaborate this ?

Thanks in advance!

[RonPurewal]

I could not understand why "written in the same year ..." modifies A letter instead of Mark Twain.

Can you please elaborate this ?

Thanks in advance!

well, the rules for participial modifiers are not as strict as the corresponding rules for "which" modifiers.

still, this is a very old thread, dating from before we classified 1000sc as a banned source. while we won't delete the thread (since those rules were not yet in place of the time it was written), we are no longer supposed to comment further on these problems. if you wish to have further information, probably the easiest thing you can do is make up your own sentence, similar to the one in question, and post it separately (with an attribution explaining that this is what you have done).
thanks.

[gurvindersingh2004]

I could not understand why "written in the same year ..." modifies A letter instead of Mark Twain.

Can you please elaborate this ?

Thanks in advance!

well, the rules for participial modifiers are not as strict as the corresponding rules for "which" modifiers.

still, this is a very old thread, dating from before we classified 1000sc as a banned source. while we won't delete the thread (since those rules were not yet in place of the time it was written), we are no longer supposed to comment further on these problems. if you wish to have further information, probably the easiest thing you can do is make up your own sentence, similar to the one in question, and post it separately (with an attribution explaining that this is what you have done).
thanks.

Ron , i have a doubt reagrding this Sc and i am creating a new SC in order to have my doubt cleared

[RonPurewal]

ok

[pushkalk]

hey this is Q-174 from OG-10, does anybody know where the new question has been posted ? I need to uinderstand why the option C is free of a modifier error ?

[RonPurewal]

hey this is Q-174 from OG-10, does anybody know where the new question has been posted ? I need to uinderstand why the option C is free of a modifier error ?

try searching as described here:
post52785.html#p52785

if it's an OG problem, then it's banned here, so you are probably out of luck. (1000sc is banned, too.)

[noor_dalhousie]

In Option C "A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published,", What does "that" mean.

Dont we say in normal english "written in the same year in which the adventures of huckleberry finn was published.?

I got confused with "That" in option C.

Please advise?

[RonPurewal]

In Option C "A letter by Mark Twain, written in the same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published,", What does "that" mean.

Dont we say in normal english "written in the same year in which the adventures of huckleberry finn was published.?

I got confused with "That" in option C.

Please advise?

Yeah. "The year that someone xxxxxx" is wrong unless "year" is actually the object of xxxxxx.
E.g., The year that I spent in Italy was the 1992-1993 school year.

1000SC is a terrible, terrible source. Almost every single problem in it (excepting only the ones that were stolen from GMAT PREP) has issues. Most, like this one, will actively teach you wrong things.
Run away as fast as you can.
If you have 1000SC on paper, burn it.

Incidentally, 1000SC has been a banned source on this forum for a couple of years now, because it's so bad. So I'm going to lock this thread, because this problem shouldn't even be here.