Which and Critical Modifiers in GMAT

[alexcey]

There was a post from Ron saying that on GMAT which refers to the closest noun that the pronoun agrees with in number. In the odds and ends section of the SC Guide, 4th edition there is a section on critical modifiers and modifiers with relative pronouns.

Below is an example from GMATPack1:

"Roughly twice each century the planet Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, an occasion known as a transit of Venus, during which it makes the outline of the planet visible in stark relief."

B. during which the outline of the planet becomes

B is the correct answer.

Which agrees in number with both transit and Venus, creating a potential ambiguity. Does the critical modifier exception also apply to which on GMAT? My understanding is that yes, it's a general exception for all relative pronouns but then I'm not clear on how to decide when a sentence is "clear enough" in meaning to allow such a modifier to exists.

I'll provide another example from OG 13 DT to clarify my point.

"As an actress and, more importantly, as a teacher of acting, Stella Adler was one of the most influential artists in the American theater, who trained several generations of actors including Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro."

The official explanation is that who must always be placed after the noun/pronoun it modifies, a statement that's simply not true in general. I would say that in this sentence who clearly enough points to the pronoun one and is separated by the mission-critical modifier "of the most influential artists in the American theater". "In the American theater" or "of the most influential artists" cannot be moved anywhere in the sentence for example.

The official explanation also mentioned that in "generations of actors including" the word including modifies "generations". I've thought that grammatically participles always modify the words they immediately follow.

[tim]

Ron was referring to "which" following a comma. The word "during" here puts the "which" into a separate category - as it is no longer a relative pronoun, the rules for relative pronouns no longer apply..

In the Stella Adler problem, the problem is that the "who" does not have a clear antecedent - I have always thought that Stella Adler was the obvious antecedent, but you chose a completely different antecedent. This is perhaps the most telling evidence of ambiguity..

"generations of actors including" can have the "including" modify "generations"; remember, as long as the only things coming between a modifier and the noun it modifies are other modifiers, the touch rule is still satisfied..

[a.r.deepak]

B. during which the outline of the planet becomes

E. such that the outline of the planet becomes

What is the problem with E ?

Thanks
Deepak

[tim]

what does "such that" mean? if you think about what it means in this case, you will realize that it doesn't belong..

[alexcey]

"generations of actors including" can have the "including" modify "generations"; remember, as long as the only things coming between a modifier and the noun it modifies are other modifiers, the touch rule is still satisfied..

Thanks for the explanation Tim. I have one more questions about ING and ED modifiers in general.

The OG13 explanation for Q49 of the diagnostic test states that "including modifies the whole phrase, but the two actors named are not generations of actors." This explanation seems to imply that in "generations of actors including" the participle including cannot possibly modify actors and always modifies the whole idea (whole noun phrase). Thus my question is as follows:

In phrases such as "Noun preposition noun2 ING-modifier" and "Noun preposition noun2 ED-modifier", is it possible for the modifier to only modify the closest noun2? In both examples the "preposition noun2" phrase is assumed to be a modifier for the first noun.

In this specific example with "generations of actors including", why can't, according to the grammar, word including refer to actors and not the whole noun phrase? In terms of the context in the sentence that's what we would actually want.

I'm trying to understand if ING and ED modifiers follow rules that differ from those for relative pronoun modifiers, which can refer to both nouns, depending on the context and singular/plural agreement.

[tim]

it could potentially modify either. please understand that the OG explanations are not always entirely reliable for SC. their *answers* are always correct, but they often give explanations that are fishy or outright wrong..

[rajkiranmareedu]

As an actress and, more importantly, as a teacher of acting Stella Adler was one of the most influential artists in the American theater, training several generations of actors whose ranks included Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.

Ranks is singular verb and whose refers to actors, which is plural.

WHOSE RANK IS WRONG HERE?

Regards

[tim]

In this sentence "ranks" is a plural noun, not a singular verb. Does that clear things up?

[krrishna.chirumamilla]

what does "such that" mean? if you think about what it means in this case, you will realize that it doesn't belong..

Hi Tim,

My understanding: Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun so that (meaning of such that) the outline of the planet is visible.

Could you please help me understand what I am missing here. Thanks a ton (:

[krrishna.chirumamilla]

what does "such that" mean? if you think about what it means in this case, you will realize that it doesn't belong..

Hi Tim,

My understanding: Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun so that (meaning of such that) the outline of the planet is visible.

Could you please help me understand what I am missing here. Thanks a ton (:

Hi Tim,

Now I get what you mean. Such that means to the extent that. If we insert to the extent that in this sentence, it doesn't make sense.

Please correct me if I am wrong. (:

[tim]

Glad you caught your error. You can't just substitute "so that" for "such that" when they mean very different things! :)

[RonPurewal]

Since both of the problems in the original post are from sources that are not actually allowed here (paid question packs / OG books), the thread is now locked.