Question
Remembered almost as an epic among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels in the early 1900s, one of the proudest of family legends.
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
- Remembered (The given sentence is an inverted sentence structure. “Is remembered” is the main verb)
- almost as an epic (Prepositional Phrase – modifies “remembered”)
- among America’s 12,000 Bosnian Muslims (Prepositional Phrase – modifies “remembered”)
- is the digging of Chicago’s subway tunnels (Main Subject – “The digging”)
- in the early 1900s, (Prepositional Phrase – modifies “digging”)
- one of the proudest of family legends. (A noun acting as a modifier – modifies ‘the digging’)
The sentence says that the digging of some tunnels is remembered as an epic among members of a community. The digging is also considered one of the proudest of family legends.
The problem with the given sentence is that it presents two separate information about the digging i.e. it is remembered as an epic and it is one of the proudest of family legends. It makes much more sense to say that the digging is a family legend that is remembered almost as an epic.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the reason mentioned above.
(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- This option repeats the error of option A.
- “the digging is remembered as an epic” makes much more sense than “the digging is an epic”.
- The modifier “of Chicago’s subway tunnels” is misplaced; as is, it seems we are talking about 1900s of tunnels.
(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- “Digging” is a verb-ing modifier for the subject “Bosnian Muslims”. Per the sentence, the Muslims are “digging” at the same time as “remembering” it.
- The pronoun “it” cannot refer to a modifier “digging”.
- The two independent clauses are not joined properly. We need a comma+and to connect two independent clauses; the option doesn’t have the comma.
(D) Incorrect. This option has the same error as option A has.
(E) Correct. This option connects the two pieces of information about “digging” in the most logical manner. The main sentence is that one of the proudest of family legends is the digging. The modifier “remembered” modifies “one of the proudest of family legends”. It makes more sense to say that one of the legends is remembered as an epic.
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.
