The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.

admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent

admit as members only women who can prove lineal descent

admits as members women who can prove lineal descent

only admit as members women who can prove lineal descent

admits as members women who can prove lineal descent only

Plz. explain........

I was just about to post this question, but since you already did, I'll give my two cents. I hope an MGMAT instructor will weigh in, too.

The CAT says the correct answer is A, however, I think A is confusing:

The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.

A) admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent

The word, 'only,' is a squinty misplaced modifier.

Because of the placement of 'only,' the sentence can be interpreted in two ways:

1) The Daughters of the American Revolution admits women as members only (rather than as, say, visitors, associate members, etc)

2) The Daughters of the American Revolution only allow women who can prove lineal descent to become members.

Since this answer can be interpreted in multiple ways, I believe it is ambiguous. Can an instructor weigh in?

I totally agree with you. Also I find c more appropriate than A. Why do we need "only" here.

You can always say "admits as members women who can prove lineal descent "

Yes, I picked "C," also. It slightly changes the meaning of the sentence by omitting only, but at least it's not confusing, like "A."

On the GMAT, "only" is taken to modify the word(s) that follow it. To reassure yourself this is a reliable statement, you may want to check out OG #3, OG Verbal Review #78, and OG (10th ed.) #137. OG Verbal Review #110 uses "only," but it modifies the same thing (the following noun) in all choices.

(1) Does the DAR admit only women who can prove lineal descent (i.e. only admit certain women) YES
(2) Does the DAR only admit them? (i.e. not do anything else with/to them) NO
(3) Does the DAR admit women who can prove lineal descent only from a patriot of the American Revolution? (i.e. descended not from anyone other than a single patriot) NO

Not only do you need to place "only" in a clear way, but you actually need the limitation it provides. Answer (C) omits "only," which significantly changes the meaning, leaving open the possibility that the DAR admits other people, too. (C) is true but not as limiting, and therefore not as accurate.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

I found this question confusing due to a lack of commas.

Isn't this better: "The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits, as members, only women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. "

Having "as members" delineated makes the sentence much more clearer and easier to understand the importance of only. The idiom is "Admit [NOUN] AS [Y]" I thought.

I believe the question is poorly worded. Aren't commas necessary due to the idiom and clarity suggested above?

I will take A as my answer.

Can someone please talk about the SVA in this question.

Thanks in advance.

My logic is as follows:
The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits

Note that the subject is a Proper Noun and is described as a SINGULAR service organization with the word "a". So the subject is a singular noun.

Singular noun requires the use of a singular verb. So 'admits' is required to agree with the singular noun.

Oh thanks, I missed the fact its the the name of the organisation.
Thanks for the explanation.

Whats is the OA ?

Hi Ganesh,

The commas wouldn't be wrong, but they aren't necessary.

Consider this similar sentence:
The top business school hires as professors only people with PhDs.
The top business school hires, as professors, only people with PhDs.

"As professors" modifies "hires" whether the commas are there or not.
"Only" modifies "people" whether the commas are there or not.

One might even argue that the commas do create a slight meaning difference:
Without commas = The school may hire lots of people (janitors, administrators, interns, professors), but those hired as professors must have a PhD.
With commas = The school hires only people with PhDs, and the author is clarifying as an aside that those people are hired to be professors.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi everybody,

could anyone tell me why the daughters of the american revolution is singular?

thanks a lot,
Claudio

Notice the description of the DAR that follows it: The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization,

Thus, the DAR is an "organization" which is singular.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

To help me understand the question better, if the modifier, "a volunteer service organization" was removed, can I still assume DAR is singular because it is a "collective noun"?

Yes, I believe so.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hey guys,

So what threw me off here, with regards to plurality, was the fact that I assumed that the modifier " a volunteer service organization" was only modifying "American Revolution"

Here is an analogous statement

"The kids of North Valley High School, California's top ranked school, are very smart

Looking back I guess, I can sort of bring in the "meaning" aspect to the original question. "American Revolution" by itself cant be a volunteer service organization

Besides the meaning aspect though, was I wrong grammatically with my assumption in any ways?

Thanks