Lesson: Modifiers - Part II

Comment on Modifiers - Part II

gmat-admin's picture

Even though Clovis points, spear points with longitudinal grooves chipped onto their faces, have been found all over North America, they are named for the New Mexico site where they were first discovered in 1932.

If we eliminate the appositive phrase near the beginning, we can see we have a grammatically acceptable sentence:

Even though Clovis points have been found all over North America, they are named for the New Mexico site where they were first discovered in 1932.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi,

So is 'Even though Clovis points have been found all over North America' an independent Clause or a dependent clause.
gmat-admin's picture

"Clovis points have been found all over North America" is an independent clause, because it expresses a complete thought.

"EVEN THOUGH Clovis points have been found all over North America" no longer expresses a complete thought. By adding EVEN THOUGH, we're now waiting to hear what happens after "North America..."

For more about independent and dependent clauses, watch: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1154

Thank you that makes a lot of sense.

And apologies for sending in so many questions. I am really trying to improve on my SC and I have a lot of doubts.
gmat-admin's picture

No apologies necessary, Erik. I'm happy to help.

I am a bit confused by the example - "The stranded motorist who/whom Luke helped was very grateful"

Can this not be interpreted as the stranded motorist (subject), was (linking verb), very grateful (adjective)

Therefore, "who Luke helped" is part of the subject & hence it should take who & not whom
gmat-admin's picture

Good question.
The sentence has two verbs, so let's first determine who is performing each verb.
First we have HELPED. Who performed the helping? Luke did.
So, when it comes to the verb HELPED, Luke is the subject.

The other verb is the linking verb WAS.
In this case, the subject performing that verb is the motorist.

The who/whom portion of the sentence involves the verb HELPED, so we must focus on the subject (and object) of that verb.
Since Luke is the one who performed the helping, Luke is the subject of that verb, and the motorist is the object of that verb.
Finally, since who/whom is modifying the motorist, and since the motorists is the object of that verb, we use WHOM.

Does that help?

Very helpful - thank you!

Should I watch all of the videos BEFORE practice reinforcement or IMMEDIATELY after each video(but I don't really know what types of questions should I answer..)?
gmat-admin's picture

The Sentence Correction (SC) module is different from other modules in that each SC question can feature a wide variety of errors (e.g., subject-verb disagreement, ambiguous modifiers, lack of parallelism, etc.). So, it's very difficult to answer any practice questions until you've completed the entire module. So, for the SC, you must wait until you've completed all the lessons before you start answering practice questions.
I mention all of this in the following video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1149

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