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
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)
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.
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").
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.
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
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 wrote:
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,
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 wrote:
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").
Quote:
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.
