The Anasazi Settlements at Chaco Canyon were Built on a Spectacular Scale with More than 75 Carefully Engineered Structures

Question: The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were connected by a complex regional system of roads.

1. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each, were
2. with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each,
3. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms, each that had been
4. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms and with each
5. of more than 75 carefully engineered structures of up to 600 rooms each had been

“The Anasazi settlements at Chaco Canyon were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures, of up to 600 rooms each.”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘GMAT Official Guide Verbal Review 2019’. This question checks Meaning, Tenses, and Grammatical Construction. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: B
Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Meaning
2. Tenses
3. Grammatical Construction

Option A: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it wrongly uses a comma to join the two elements present in a list, “were built…” and “were connected….”. Always remember that whenever the list contains only two elements, they should be joined by a conjunction. So, the comma used in the option is incorrect. Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Correct

This option is correct because this choice has correctly used the phrase “ "were built on a spectacular scale with more than 75 carefully engineered structures", which conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Also, this option accurately modifies "75 carefully engineered structures" with "connected by a complex regional system of roads". So, Option B is correct.

Option C: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase "were built on a spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures". Also, this option incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had been connected" to refer to an event that concluded in the past. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it twists the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase "were built on a spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures". Also, it uses another wrong phrase “600 rooms and with each”, which implies that each of the 600 rooms of the 75 structures was connected by a regional system of roads. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it also changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase "were built on a spectacular scale of more than 75 carefully engineered structures". Also, this option inaccurately uses the past perfect tense verb "had been connected" to refer to an event that concluded in the past. So, Option E is incorrect.

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