The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built

[rschunti]

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been


The OA is B. What is wrong with all the other answers?
In the correct answer "B", whether the modifier "connected by....." is modifying "room" or "Structures" and why?Pls can you explain this with some rules and examples. Thanks

[RonPurewal]

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been


The OA is B. What is wrong with all the other answers?
In the correct answer "B", whether the modifier "connected by....." is modifying "room" or "Structures" and why?Pls can you explain this with some rules and examples. Thanks

choice a is a run-on - it tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. if you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. that's bad.

choice b is correct: it uses a nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which, if eliminated, yields the intact and legitimate sentence ...carefully engineered structures, connected by... (with another nonessential modifier).

choice c:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- you can't say 'each that had...' (can't follow 'each' with a relative pronoun - if you're going to use a relative pronoun, it has to come directly after the thing it's trying to modify)
- no justification for using the past perfect ('had been') - that verb, if there's a verb there at all, should be in the simple past (the same tense as everything else in the sentence, because everything described in the sentence is contemporaneous)
- it doesn't make sense to use 'each' AFTER the comma, because it's not true that each structure was connected with a road system. instead, the road system connected all of the structures with each other, which is nowhere close to the same thing. (having 'each' BEFORE the comma makes sense, because it's actually true that each of the structures comprised up to 600 rooms.)
analogy:
the USA comprises 50 states, each of which is united by a federal government --> wrong (the implication is that each state has its own federal government)
the USA comprises 50 states, all of which are united by a federal government --> correct
the USA comprises 50 states, (all) united by a federal government --> correct, whether you have 'all' or not

choice d:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- the use of AND sets up ostensible parallelism, but the two structures given aren't parallel (one starts with of and the other with with)

choice e is also a run-on sentence (you'll see this if you reduce it to its 'skeleton', a la choice a)

[pmal04]

Hi Ron,
In choice B, two modifiers are not connected by and. is that ok?
I was expecting something like '..of up to 600 rooms each and conneted...'
Can you please comment?
Thanks in advance,

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,
In choice B, two modifiers are not connected by and. is that ok?
I was expecting something like '..of up to 600 rooms each and conneted...'
Can you please comment?
Thanks in advance,

nope, that would be incorrect.

the current form is the correct modifier, because it's modifying the 75 structures (of up to 600 rooms each).

if you added "and", then that would lock the following word, connected, into a parallel structure.
the problem is that "connected" is a past participle, and the only other word in the sentence that could be parallel to it is the past participle "built".

so, by adding "and", you'd be unwittingly creating the following parallel structure:

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were
built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, and
connected by a complex regional system of roads.

this is wrong, since it implies that the settlements themselves were connected by a system of roads. it's the structures that were thus connected.

[running2k]

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been


The OA is B. What is wrong with all the other answers?
In the correct answer "B", whether the modifier "connected by....." is modifying "room" or "Structures" and why?Pls can you explain this with some rules and examples. Thanks

choice a is a run-on - it tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. if you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. that's bad.

choice b is correct: it uses a nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which, if eliminated, yields the intact and legitimate sentence ...carefully engineered structures, connected by... (with another nonessential modifier).

choice c:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- you can't say 'each that had...' (can't follow 'each' with a relative pronoun - if you're going to use a relative pronoun, it has to come directly after the thing it's trying to modify)
- no justification for using the past perfect ('had been') - that verb, if there's a verb there at all, should be in the simple past (the same tense as everything else in the sentence, because everything described in the sentence is contemporaneous)
- it doesn't make sense to use 'each' AFTER the comma, because it's not true that each structure was connected with a road system. instead, the road system connected all of the structures with each other, which is nowhere close to the same thing. (having 'each' BEFORE the comma makes sense, because it's actually true that each of the structures comprised up to 600 rooms.)
analogy:
the USA comprises 50 states, each of which is united by a federal government --> wrong (the implication is that each state has its own federal government)
the USA comprises 50 states, all of which are united by a federal government --> correct
the USA comprises 50 states, (all) united by a federal government --> correct, whether you have 'all' or not

choice d:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- the use of AND sets up ostensible parallelism, but the two structures given aren't parallel (one starts with of and the other with with)

choice e is also a run-on sentence (you'll see this if you reduce it to its 'skeleton', a la choice a)

Hi Ron,

I don't quite understand the modifier "of up to 600 rooms each" in A, could you please help explain how it modify the structures, and what does it mean? Does it mean each structure consist of up to 600 rooms, and if so how could rephase it to the current form in A? Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

I don't quite understand the modifier "of up to 600 rooms each" in A, could you please help explain how it modify the structures, and what does it mean? Does it mean each structure consist of up to 600 rooms?

yes, that's what it means.

as for "how" it modifies the structures -- there's really no "how" here.
it's binary: either a modifier modifies a certain word, or it doesn't. yes or no.
in this case, it does ("yes").

and if so how could rephase it to the current form in A? Thank you.

i don't understand what this means.

note that (a) is one of the incorrect answers, but the modifier has the same form as in the correct answer.

[its4christian]

Old tread but checking if somebody can answer my doubt.

Doesn't "with more than 75 carefully engineered structures" refers to scale and not to the settlements? Comma + preposition should refer to the noun right before the comma, correct?

[RonPurewal]

Old tread but checking if somebody can answer my doubt.

Doesn't "with more than 75 carefully engineered structures" refers to scale and not to the settlements? Comma + preposition should refer to the noun right before the comma, correct?

no. in fact, prepositional phrases that follow commas generally DO NOT refer to the preceding noun. these are almost always adverbial modifiers, which modify the entire preceding clause.

the way this problem has been transcribed, though, the prepositional phrase in question does not actually follow a comma. has the question been transcribed incorrectly?

[zhaoyu0319]

The problem was transcribed correctly.

If I understand it correctly, "of up to 600 rooms each" is an adjectival phrase that modifies the noun "structures", answering the question: how many rooms. The reason it is separated by comma is that it is an non-essential modifier.

[douglas.alysia]

The sentences are really confusing. Can anybody explain it to me?
-Mizuno Wave

[tim]

The sentences are really confusing. Can anybody explain it to me?
-Mizuno Wave

Ron already did. Please read the entire thread before posting..

[ranjeet1975]

Ron replies:

- 'scale of' doesn't make sense

Whether 'scale of' is not a correct idiom or anything else.

Please Ron

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

Ron replies:

- 'scale of' doesn't make sense

Whether 'scale of' is not a correct idiom or anything else.

Please Ron

Thanks

as far as i know, the only acceptable usage of "a scale of" is in describing the mathematical particulars of the scale itself.
e.g., during the tryouts, coaches rate players' athletic and cognitive abilities on a scale of 1 to 10.

[jp.jprasanna]

The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.
A. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
B. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
C. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
E. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been


The OA is B. What is wrong with all the other answers?
In the correct answer "B", whether the modifier "connected by....." is modifying "room" or "Structures" and why?Pls can you explain this with some rules and examples. Thanks

choice a is a run-on - it tries to have two main verbs without using any sort of subordinating element. if you take out modifiers, adjectives, etc., you're left with the following: the settlements were built with structures were connected. that's bad.

choice b is correct: it uses a nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which, if eliminated, yields the intact and legitimate sentence ...carefully engineered structures, connected by... (with another nonessential modifier).

choice c:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- you can't say 'each that had...' (can't follow 'each' with a relative pronoun - if you're going to use a relative pronoun, it has to come directly after the thing it's trying to modify)
- no justification for using the past perfect ('had been') - that verb, if there's a verb there at all, should be in the simple past (the same tense as everything else in the sentence, because everything described in the sentence is contemporaneous)
- it doesn't make sense to use 'each' AFTER the comma, because it's not true that each structure was connected with a road system. instead, the road system connected all of the structures with each other, which is nowhere close to the same thing. (having 'each' BEFORE the comma makes sense, because it's actually true that each of the structures comprised up to 600 rooms.)
analogy:
the USA comprises 50 states, each of which is united by a federal government --> wrong (the implication is that each state has its own federal government)
the USA comprises 50 states, all of which are united by a federal government --> correct
the USA comprises 50 states, (all) united by a federal government --> correct, whether you have 'all' or not

choice d:
- 'scale of' doesn't make sense
- the use of AND sets up ostensible parallelism, but the two structures given aren't parallel (one starts with of and the other with with)

choice e is also a run-on sentence (you'll see this if you reduce it to its 'skeleton', a la choice a)

Hi Ron - In option B i thought "connected by a complex regional system of roads" modifies "rooms" just as any COMMA + VERBED would.
But looking at your explanation since "of up to 600 rooms each" is enclosed within comma, "connected" is allowed to modify "structures"

So by the same logic the last part wasn't enclosed in COMMA then then COMMA + VERBed would modify the words that come just before the comma for instance

75 carefully engineered structures (without comma here) of up to 600 rooms, connected by a complex regional system of roads.

So can i take it as a rule that any nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which can be eliminated to check what modifiers are attached to the main clause??


In option D

D. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each

With and of are both preposition right so to make something parallel with "with" i need something that belongs to the same class i.e preposition - Is this correct?

If so I rephrased option D as below

of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms
of more than 75 carefully engineered structures with each connected by a complex regional system of roads.

here there is a issue of meaning [each structure had its own system of roads which is not the intended meaning ]
but from grammar point of view the parallelism of OK right? [prepositional phrase || with prepositional phrase ]

[RonPurewal]

So can i take it as a rule that any nonessential modifier set off by commas ('of up to 600 rooms each'), which can be eliminated to check what modifiers are attached to the main clause??

nope. you have to think about which things are describing which other things.

* it's possible that both modifiers are describing the same noun, as in the example above. in that case, well, you have to put one of them before the other one (since you can't draw a sentence that looks like a probability tree), so you get the kind of structure that exists in (b).

* it's also possible that the second modifier describes something in the first modifier.
e.g.,
In the fourth lane is Tony Cardinale, the son of Vinny and Alessandra Cardinale, two former Olympic swimmers from Italy.
in this case, two former... is describing vinny and alessandra, not tony.

here there is a issue of meaning [each structure had its own system of roads which is not the intended meaning ]
but from grammar point of view the parallelism of OK right? [prepositional phrase || with prepositional phrase ]

yes.