Register    Login    Search    Rss Feeds

Forums Home » Ask An Instructor » GMAT Verbal » General Verbal Questions


 Page 1 of 1 [ 7 posts ] 



  Print view Print view Previous topic Previous topic | Next topic Next topic
 

Modifier help!

Author Message
RP
 Post subject: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:54 pm 
Offline
Course Students


Posts: 13
In the simple plays, such as You Are Good, and the lyrical meditation of John Smith, Robert achieves an interplay between nature and the imagination that explores both the external world of sensory experience and the internal workings of the mind in contemplation.

What does the underlined portion modifies? I am confused on whether it modifies "imagination" or "interplay."

Discrimination in wages that blah blah.....

Can the modifier "that blah blah..." modify "Discrimination" or it has to modify wages?

In another words if you have "Noun1 + preposition + Noun2 + that modifier," can the modifier modify the first noun? Or is it that it always modifies the second noun?

Thank you for your help.
Top 
jp.jprasanna
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:47 am 
Offline
Students


Posts: 203
RP wrote:
In the simple plays, such as You Are Good, and the lyrical meditation of John Smith, Robert achieves an interplay between nature and the imagination that explores both the external world of sensory experience and the internal workings of the mind in contemplation.

What does the underlined portion modifies? I am confused on whether it modifies "imagination" or "interplay."

Discrimination in wages that blah blah.....

Can the modifier "that blah blah..." modify "Discrimination" or it has to modify wages?

In another words if you have "Noun1 + preposition + Noun2 + that modifier," can the modifier modify the first noun? Or is it that it always modifies the second noun?

Thank you for your help.


Dude I just read abt this 2 mins back.

gmatprep-rice-t2208.html

The above post will answer your question.

In shot -

Jake and Teena, who ARE

here WHO refers to both Jake and Teena because of the word "ARE"

Jake and Tenna, who is

here Who refers to TENNA because of the verb IS

So in your example.

In the simple plays, such as You Are Good, and the lyrical meditation of John Smith, Robert achieves an interplay between nature and the imagination that explores both the external world of sensory experience and the internal workings of the mind in contemplation.

"THAT exploreS" is singular hence "that" here refers to imagination ONLY.

HTH

Open to suggestions and corrections.

Cheers
Top 
RP
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 3:47 pm 
Offline
Course Students


Posts: 13
Why not "an interplay"? "an interplay" is singular also. Q is not defining subject because the verb is singluar or plural, it is about defining what subject the "that" should refer to. If that + verb is not in underlined portion, than you know where to go. But what if both subject (s) and the verb both are in underlined portion, then you can not say because the verb is "is" so it points to such and such. In those questions, I am sure there will choices with both singular and plural verb choices.

Thanks,
Raj
Top 
krishnan.anju1987
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:08 am 
Offline
Forum Guests


Posts: 125
In the simple plays, such as You Are Good, and the lyrical meditation of John Smith, Robert achieves an interplay between nature and the imagination that explores both the external world of sensory experience and the internal workings of the mind in contemplation.

Here, the imagination is the word being modified. Otherwise, the sentence would have read, nature and imagination. The "the" here is to focus on 'that' that modifies imagination. If I remember right, GMAT tries to maintain parallelism in sentence construction.

Please comment if you find something wrong with my line of thought.
Top 
RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 11:14 am 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 8087
krishnan.anju1987 wrote:
In the simple plays, such as You Are Good, and the lyrical meditation of John Smith, Robert achieves an interplay between nature and the imagination that explores both the external world of sensory experience and the internal workings of the mind in contemplation.

Here, the imagination is the word being modified. Otherwise, the sentence would have read, nature and imagination. The "the" here is to focus on 'that' that modifies imagination. If I remember right, GMAT tries to maintain parallelism in sentence construction.

Please comment if you find something wrong with my line of thought.


the use of "articles" (a, an, the) is highly idiomatic and nuanced -- and, more importantly, not tested at all on the gmat. (it's not tested because it simply wouldn't be fair to test it; it's almost impossible for non-native speakers to fully grasp the nuances of articles.)
what's important to know, though, is that the use of a/an/the is not a parallelism issue.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes
Top 
RP
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 11:03 am 
Offline
Course Students


Posts: 13
Ron,

I am still not clear on what "that clause" that I mentioned refers to. Would you please shed some lights on it?
Top 
tim
 Post subject: Re: Modifier help!
 Post Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:01 am 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 4404
Location: Southwest Airlines, seat 21C
we'll need you to post the source for this one and, if it's a legal source, the entire question as well before we can discuss this one further..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor
Top 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
 
 Page 1 of 1 [ 7 posts ] 





Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

 
 

 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron