The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close

[Crisc419]

Hi Ron,

I chose E, and I have read your explanations about it, but I am still confused about the usages of ", now with....", can we break them down as follows,

1. about "comma+ with.......", what dose it modify?
the preceding noun? eg: a close brush of extinction;
or the subject of the preceding sentence?, for example: "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, connected by a complex regional system of roads." here " comma+with" modifies the settlements;
or the verb of the preceding sentence, in this sentence "has survived", i think if in this case ", with numbers five times greater than" modifies "survived", it make sense.

2. about "subject verb object with B", there is no comma before with, dose "with B" definitely modify the closest noun? for example: "In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings", in this sentence, this original sentence is wrong because "with her discovery" modified "archaelogy", right? but the meaning doesn't make sense. If "with her discovery" could modify "contributed", then it will be correct.

3. about " comma+ now verb-ing/verb-ed/with/other prepositions....", are they the same with the sentences without "now"?, here are these "now" structures correct forms or incorrect ones that GMAT intents to confuse us?

Thanks for your help!

I think in the sentence:
"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, connected by a complex regional system of roads."

"with more than....." should be a adverbial modifier, modifying the preceding clause.
Even though interpreted as NOUN modifier, "with more than....." should not modify "the settlements"because “with more than” is much closer to "scale" than " the settlements"

am i right? please clarify.
thanks a million.

Cris

[RonPurewal]

if that modifier were describing "scale", it wouldn't have a comma in front of it.

(you'll NEVER be tested on "modifier with comma vs. modifier without comma", by the way)

[Crisc419]

if that modifier were describing "scale", it wouldn't have a comma in front of it.

(you'll NEVER be tested on "modifier with comma vs. modifier without comma", by the way)

I thought i got it after reading many posts of you.

Modifiers can do many different things. It just depends on the context, so the most important thing is to figure out the intended meaning of the sentence.

all of your posts are so helpful. Thanks veeeeeeeeery much.

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[LianL976]

Hi Ron, sorry to keep asking questions on this one, really helpful if you can tell if following sentences are correct:

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than its numbers were when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970s.

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than they were when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970s.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

what you're trying to do there ^^ is irrelevant to this exam.
• you don't have to know how to WRITE these sentences.
• you don't have to judge whether INDIVIDUAL choices are correct or incorrect.

all you need to do is make RELATIVE decisions between/among answer choices.
this is even more important for comparisons than for most other types of sentences, because learning to WRITE comparison sentences is VERY hard (even most educated native speakers of English can't consistently write them correctly).
judging answer choices against other answer choices, on the other hand, is MUCH less difficult.

[sahilmalhotra01]

Hi MGMAT expert,

I have gone through all the posts on this question.

Kindly clarify whether my line of reasoning for eliminating option choice E is correct.

Option choice A: its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's

Meaning : Option choice A compares the numbers in two different time frames

numbers now

numbers when the use of DDT....

So the comparison is correct.

Option choice E : now with the numbers five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's.

Meaning : Option Choice E compares numbers to a time frame. The comparison is illogical.

Please clarify whether i am eliminating option choice E on the right grounds.

Thanks

Sahil Malhotra

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Your point about A is good: I encourage you to look at correct answer choices on GMAT Prep problems to see the kind of sentences that are acceptable.

However, the comparison issue in E is difficult to judge because the phrase 'now with numbers' doesn't make sense. It's not clear who or what is with numbers. I'd recommend checking this before dealing with the more complicated comparison issue.

[tingc440]

what you're trying to do there ^^ is irrelevant to this exam.
• you don't have to know how to WRITE these sentences.
• you don't have to judge whether INDIVIDUAL choices are correct or incorrect.

all you need to do is make RELATIVE decisions between/among answer choices.
this is even more important for comparisons than for most other types of sentences, because learning to WRITE comparison sentences is VERY hard (even most educated native speakers of English can't consistently write them correctly).
judging answer choices against other answer choices, on the other hand, is MUCH less difficult.

dear tutors, i have a question, if the full sentence is 'its numbers are now five times greater than its numbers were when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970s.', why can we omit 'its numbers were' since its tense is different from 'are'? I am really confused now...

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

It's okay to leave out the verb because the meaning of the sentence is clear. Take a look at this post for a similar discussion: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t1901.html