Question
Many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, the mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
- Many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago, (Noun+Noun modifier, or absolute phrase – modifies the main subject)
- the mountainous regions (Main Subject)
- of northern Ethiopia (Prepositional phrase – modifies the subject)
- are dotted (Main Verb)
- with hundreds of monasteries. (Prepositional phrase – modifies the main verb)
There is no grammatical issue with the given statement. However, there is a meaning issue: the sentence means that the mountainous regions were chiseled from solid rock. Logically, the monasteries, not the mountains, should be chiseled from solid rock.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the reason mentioned above.
(B) Incorrect. For the same reason as in option A. The placement of “many” has been changed in this option, leading to a change in meaning. However, the meaning conveyed in this option w.r.t. “many” is fine and thus not a problem.
(C) Incorrect. The only difference between this option and option E is that while this option uses present continuous tense, option E uses simple present tense. The given context is logically a present fact rather than an ongoing activity. Thus, the use of simple present tenses is preferred.
(D) Incorrect. This option is incorrect for the use of wrong verb tense ‘are chiseled’ (simple present) with the past indicator “centuries ago”. If the option had used “were chiseled”, it’d be correct.
(E) Correct. The mountainous regions of northern Ethiopia are dotted with hundreds of monasteries, many of them chiseled from solid rock centuries ago.
If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.
This solution was created by Chiranjeev Singh and Anish Passi.
It’s a very good approach Chiranjeev! Explains why I struggle with the harder SC questions..
Can D be eliminated because of comma splice if the option used “were chiseled”. We can call it an independent clause as the sentence has both the subject and the verb. Can you please explain how ‘many of which are chiseled from solid rock centuries ago’ acts as a modifier?
“many of which” and “many of whom” will always be dependent clauses – even their variations “some of which”, “all of which” since the “which” must be modifying some noun in the sentence. “Some of them” will form an independent clause.
Hi Sir,
I eliminated option E because of presence of them. Them can refer to mountain ranges or monasteries. Thus, i chose option C. Please clarify.
‘them’ logically cannot refer to mountain ranges. If the reference of a pronoun is logically clear, there is no issue. Please refer to this article.
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