Verbal problems from the *free* official practice tests and
problems from mba.com
Guest83
 
 

Based on records from ancient Athens, each year yount

by Guest83 Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:47 am

Based on records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collarborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

A. Same

B. Based on records from ancient Athens, young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which to dress

C. According to records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress

D. Records from ancient Athens indicate that each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which they dressed

E. Records from ancient Athens indicate each year young Athenian women had collaborated to weave a new woolen robe for dressing

Can someone please walk me throught he errors in this problem?

Thanks!
ALI
 
 

by ALI Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:59 pm

B & E is out since it uses the past perfect tense.
D uses a non restrictive clause 'which', where as 'woolen robe' is restrictive.

D. Records from ancient Athens indicate that each year young Athenian women collaborated to weave a new woolen robe with which they dressed

We are down to the A & C and the only difference between the two is :


Based upon vs According to
I would go with A.
Guest83
 
 

by Guest83 Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:55 pm

Thanks Ali. However, the answer is actually D.

Does anyone else have a better explanation?

Thank You.
ali
 
 

by ali Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:56 am

Ahhh, agree..D is correct for parallelism- indicate that.....and that...
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

by RonPurewal Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:20 am

Choice D has nothing to do with restrictive vs. non-restrictive, because the 'which' in question is the object of a preposition. This 'which' is no more restrictive than is the 'which' in the following sentence:
'Here are the cities to which I've already travelled.'
Obviously, '...to which I've already travelled' is restrictive (the speaker isn't talking about all cities!), but it's TO which. That resolves this issue.

'Based on' just isn't right - it doesn't convey the right meaning. It would apply to the women themselves (the following subject).
The women are not based on ancient records, so that's wrong.

I think both posters realize that E is wrong already, so no need for discussion there.

So it's C vs D.

Both OPENERS are fine ('According to...' and '...indicate that...'), so that split is a red herring. The problem with C, though, is the last part of the answer choice: 'that they used to dress.' All this means FOR SURE is that the robe was just a tool that the women used in the process of dressing the statue (maybe they used it to zip up the back of the statue's dress...??). Choice D, on the other hand, correctly conveys the idea that the women actually put the dress ON the statue.

How's that?
Guest83
 
 

by Guest83 Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:29 am

Thanks Ron. I appreciate your help.
Guest
 
 

by Guest Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:44 am

Ron,

Don't you think C has a grammatical issue. "That" cannot be used here


Collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

the SECOND THAT--Referes to Robe so the sentence will read new woolen robe this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

I generally don't get the meaning explanation easily as it's very tough to analyze and predict the meaning ..I think it's easier to apporach with a st of Rules.

Saurabh Malpani
StaceyKoprince
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 9363
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
Location: Montreal
 

by StaceyKoprince Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:41 pm

Agree that it's better when we have actual rules and don't have to resort to meaning, which can get tricky! (We're not always that lucky, though - sometimes you will have to deal with meaning.)

I agree that you can argue with the second "that" for the reason you describe - so go ahead and use it to eliminate. You can also use Ron's method - whichever works best for you!
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
varunrajwade
 
 

Based on vs Because of

by varunrajwade Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:17 pm

can anyone please explain the difference between based on and because of? When should we used based on and when because of.

Varun
tryingFor750p
 
 

by tryingFor750p Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:05 pm

I have fundamental question related to this old thread:

According to records from ancient Athens, each year young Athenian women... (option C)

Assuming this kind of sentence is correct

What is the role of "According to records from ancient Athens"?

It's not a modifier.

Does comma after this sentence just for short pause?
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: Based on vs Because of

by RonPurewal Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:16 am

varunrajwade Wrote:can anyone please explain the difference between based on and because of? When should we used based on and when because of.

Varun


"based on" means that something is being used as evidence to make some sort of claim or inference.
"because of" indicates a causal relationship (i.e., the latter event actually caused the former event).
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

by RonPurewal Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:19 am

tryingFor750p Wrote:What is the role of "According to records from ancient Athens"?

It's not a modifier.


sure it is. it's an adverbial modifier that modifies the whole clause/action, in much the same manner as would, say, "in olden days, ..."
tryingFor750p
 
 

by tryingFor750p Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:27 pm

(deleted)

you can't post OG questions on this forum. those have been banned since last december.

please read the forum rules.
thank you.
shobuj40
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:42 pm
 

Re: Based on records from ancient Athens, each year yount

by shobuj40 Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:39 pm

Ron,

Don't you think C has a grammatical issue. "That" cannot be used here


Collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

the SECOND THAT--Referes to Robe so the sentence will read new woolen robe this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

I generally don't get the meaning explanation easily as it's very tough to analyze and predict the meaning ..I think it's easier to apporach with a st of Rules.

Saurabh Malpani


Collaborated to weave a new woolen robe that they used to dress a statue of the goddess Athena and that this robe depicted scenes of a battle between Zeus, Athena's father, and giants.

1st that is referring robe second that is also referiing that so - i think second that is equal--- "robe this robe" - REDUNDANT

pls clarify my point please. also give some example of that---and that.

pls clarify if i am wrong
JonathanSchneider
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 477
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:40 am
Location: Durham, NC
 

Re: Based on records from ancient Athens, each year yount

by JonathanSchneider Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:29 pm

The word "that" can do many things. In the first case, from the fragment you quoted, "that" is a relative pronoun (introducing a noun modifier). In the second case, it is a "completmentizer," introducing a subordinate clause. See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That