A Site Once Used as an Observatory by the Anasazi, Ancient Pueblo Dwellers of New Mexico

Question: A site once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, has been recently discovered where patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.

(A) A site once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, has been recently discovered where patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.
(B) A recently discovered site was once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, where patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.
(C) At a recently discovered site once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.
(D) Patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle at a site that was recently discovered and was once used by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico.
(E) Patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle at a recently discovered place that the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, once used the site as an observatory.

“A site once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, has been recently discovered where patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.” - is a GMAT sentence correction question. These types of questions contain grammatical errors in the underlined sentence and we have to choose the correct statement from the options. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

Answer: C
Explanation:

The given-below rules test the given sentence correction question:

• Parallelism
• Comparison of two elements
• Modifiers

A site once used as an observatory by the Anasazi, ancient pueblo dwellers of New Mexico, has been recently discovered where patterns of light and shadow were employed to establish the precise limits of the positions of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.

The most reasonable interpretation of this sentence is that there's a recently discovered site that was used as an observatory by the Anasazi, who were ancient pueblo dwellers of the latest Mexico. At this observatory, patterns of sunshine and shadow were employed to determine the precise limits of the Sun and Moon over a nineteen-year cycle.

The correct answer choice will clearly convey this idea. However, the sentence as worded doesn't do so. there's no clear indication of when the patterns of sunshine and shadow were employed for the indicated purpose.

1. This choice is inaccurate for the reason indicated above.
2. This choice suggests that the whole clause where patterns of sunshine and shadow were employed to determine the precise limits of the positions . . . actually modifies Land of Enchantment instead of the observatory.
3. Correct. This choice eliminates the above flaws; it clearly and cleanly conveys the intended idea.
4. This choice doesn't clearly convey the thought that the Anasazi used the location as an observatory, nor that they employed patterns of light and shadow for the aim indicated.
5. This choice doesn't clearly convey the thought that the Anasazi employed patterns of light and shadow for the aim indicated. Furthermore, at a recently discovered place that the Anasazi . . . once used the location as an observatory unnecessarily inserts the location, which is redundant (with the place) and renders the sentence grammatically incorrect.

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