In the past several years, astronomers have detected more than 80 massive planets, most of them as large or larger than Jupiter, which circle other stars.

most of them as large or larger than Jupiter, which circle

most of them as large or larger than Jupiter and circling

most of them at least as large as Jupiter, circling

mostly at least as large as Jupiter, which circle

mostly as large or larger than Jupiter, circling


POE'd to ABC. I'm completely lost after that point.

Hi,

in A, B,C, just considering brevity will get you to C. I think "at least as large as" conveys the meaning succinctly. In A, "which" wrongly describes Jupiter.

Hope that helps.
-Raj.

you can eliminate (a) and (b) on the grounds of STRICT parallelism.

specifically:
when you have an "or" construction (or, for that matter, an "and" construction), each part of the construction must work in isolation from the other one.

this eliminates (a) and (b), both for the same reason: "as large" requires "as". you can't be "as large than" something -- but that's the only preposition available.
the correct parallel construction would be ...as large as or larger than, a construction that allows both parts to have their own proper prepositions.

choice (c), the correct answer, circumvents the issue entirely by replacing the parallel construction with '...at least as large'. not only does this construction obviate the need to consider parallelism in the first place, but it's also more concise than the alternative.

Hi ron

"most of them at least as large as Jupiter, circling "

I understand yr answer. Any how, why this sentence use "most of them" rather than "most of which are at leasta s large as Jupiter, circling "

Thanks

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In the past several years, astronomers have detected more than 80 massive planets, most of them as large or larger than Jupiter, which circle other stars.

most of them at least as large as Jupiter, circling


My question: in C

whether "circling" modify the close wording " Jupiter" ?


Thanks a lot for your help.[/size][/size]

if you use that version, then you're introducing a certain amount of ambiguity into the attribution of the modifier "...circling...".
namely, because you've introduced a modifier that's a CLAUSE, you have now opened up the possibility that the modifier modifies that clause, rather than the original phrase it's intended to modify.
this would be bad, because, in this second interpretation, "circling..." would actually be taken to modify just the majority of planets that are at least as large as Jupiter, rather than all the planets in question as intended.

in other words, if you introduce that sort of construction, there are now 2 ways to interpret the sentence:
(1) the intended interpretation: the modifier, which is set off by commas, is to be neglected in the interpretation of the sentence, and "circling" is to be taken as if it followed "planets" immediately, without a comma (because that's the way it would be if the modifier were removed - neither of the commas would be there anymore).
(2) the modifier is to be taken as "comma + -ing", a construction that modifies the preceding clause. this is the source of the aforementioned ambiguity.

--

the original version of (c) is better, because it doesn't possess this ambiguity: (2) is no longer possible, because we can't interpret the modifier as "comma + -ing". if we tried, we'd be stuck in a quandary, because the preceding words are a phrase, not a clause.
interpretation (1), however, still stands: it's a modifier that, in essence, directly follows "planets" and therefore modifies that particular noun.

isnt "them" in C confusing as it could refer to part of the word or astronomers? what is wrong with mostly on E? As is an adverb and why mostly cannot modify as?

"Them" is clear enough, partly because it is an object pronoun referring to a noun that was the object of the earlier clause.

"Mostly" could mean "for the most part." Does this mean most of the moons, or does it mean each moon for the most part? Probably the first, but a bit unclear. More importantly, "as large or larger than" is incorrect. It would have to be "as large AS or larger than." In its current form it is sort of saying "as large ... than," which is unidiomatic.

how about "which circle" In D, can it modify 80 planets?
a example:"which" seems modify canoe.
From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoe about twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds ...[*from a non-unlined part of sentence in OG.]

_________________
stephen

The relative pronoun "which" requires a noun before it according to mgmat sc , 4th ed.The relative pronoun "which" modifies that noun .So This statement that Tankobe has mentioned should be incorrect

"ING FOLLOWED BY A COMMA modifies the entire action of the preceding clause."

would like to know what the circling modifies. does it modify detected?


Can I eliminate A and D , as which seems to modify jupiter based on SVA?

Thanks,
Raj

please ignore, in this circling is the verb for 80 planets and detected seems to modify the entire clause.

This is a rare exception to the rule - the relative pronoun "which" modifies the noun or main noun right before it. You can have a main noun separated from the which by modifiers that name or describe that main noun.

The main noun before the "which" in the above sentence is "canoe." After that, we have two prepositional phrase modifiers ("about..." and "with...") - that's very unusual. Usually, when we do have the exception, there's only one modifier between the main noun and the "which."

Notice something important though: tankobe said this came from a nonunderlined portion of the sentence. In other words, they're not expecting you to know how to deal with this very rare exception. They're not actually making you choose based on that issue.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

see this one:
The Parthenon was a church from 1204 until 1456, when Athens was taken by General Mohammed the Conqueror, the Turkish sultan, who established a mosque in the building and used the Acropolis as a fortress [but one of wrong option:establishing a mosque in the building and using the Acropolis as].

on the basis of the answer of the former question, it seems that the wrong option is also OK; namely,estalishing can modify the conqueror. CAN some one explain?

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stephen

I have gone through all above posts. Still I have one doubt.
I understood that C looks good.

If I put C into original sentence

In the past several years, astronomers have detected more than 80 massive planets, most of them at least as large as Jupiter, circling other stars.

I feel that
"most" used correctly
"circling ..." used correctly

But I believe that "most of them" creates run on sentence. Please explain?
Is "most of them at least as large as Jupiter" a non-essential clause, which refers to planets?