Hello I have couple of questions about modifiers:
Source OG 10th edition

11. Based on accounts of various ancient writers, scholars have painted a sketchy picture of the activities of an all-female cult that, perhaps as early as the sixth century B.C., worshipped a goddess known in Latin as Bona Dea, "the good goddess."

A) Based on accounts of various ancient writers
B )Basing it on various ancient writers' accounts
C )With accounts of various ancient writers used for a basis
D )By the accounts of various ancient writers they used
E) Using accounts of various ancient writers

Source Paper Test 14

According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the association of american medical colleges, minority graduates are nearly 4 times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice in socieconomically deprived areas

a. minority graduates are nearly 4 times more likely than are other graduates in planning to practice
b. minority graduates are nearly 4 times moe likley than other grads who plan on practicing
c. minority graduates are nearly four times as likely as other graduates to plan on practicing
d. it is nearly four times more likely that minority graduates rather than other graduates will plan to practice
e. it is nearly four times as likely for minority graduates than other graduates to plan to practice

In both the above questions: what's the function of

Based on accounts of various ancient writers ,-------As per OG this is wrong because it's modifying Scholars
According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the association of american medical colleges----Isn't this Modifying Minority Graduates doesn't it mean that Minority Students are according to the Survey.

Please suggest on how tackle such questions.

The answer for questions are E and A respectively. How do I

Thanks
Saurabh Malpani[/u]

You are somewhat correct in your assessment of the two modifying phrases. In the first example, Based on accounts of various ancient writers is an introductory adjective modifying phrase. In essense, the entire phrase is describing scholars, the noun that follows the phrase. Unfortunately, this description of scholars is nonsensical: scholars are people; thus, they cannot be based on accounts (or based on anything, for that matter). Instead, scholars, as researchers, must use accounts to do their research.

In the second example, According to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the association of american medical colleges is also an introductory adjective modifying phrase describing minority graduates. However, according to has a different meaning from based on. In this case the survey is simply providing information about minority graduates. This is a logical function of a survey.

Often, to test whether an introductory modifying phrase makes logical (and grammatical) sense, it can be valuable to restate the sentence with the subject before the phrase.

Example 1: Scholars, based on accounts of various ancient writers, have painted a sketchy picture.....
-This example is nonsensical since scholars cannot be based on anything.

Example 2: Minority graduates, according to a survey of graduating medical students conducted by the association of american medical colleges, are nearly four times....
-This example makes logical and grammatical sense.

Hope that helps!
-dan

Hi,

Are you sure that the answer for the second choice is A and not C. I looked it up on google and found some thread claiming that the answer is C. Can someone please clarify.

Thanks,

This post attributes the problem you've posted to 1000SC - I wonder if there's any plagiarism going on.

C is the correct answer to the second sentence. A is wrong, because of the bad idiomatic usage of 'in' (I can't be more likely than you IN doing something). Are you sure that you looked at the answer key for the right problem?