noun + Ving modifier

[aflaamM589]

Dear instructors,

Is studying used correctly in the following sentence?
Is it properly refers to Roy?

Accompanied by fellow researchers and a translator, Roy spent four years in Latin America studying the behavior of kinkajous, an arboreal mammal that is sometimes called the honey bear.

Many thanks

[tim]

Ideally I'd like to see a comma before "studying" so as to eliminate any confusion about Latin America possibly doing the studying, but more importantly I'd try to find something else to base my decision on before eliminating this option.

[RonPurewal]

this sentence has only one issue: the word 'the' should appear before kinkajou.
this exam does not test the presence/absence of 'a'/'an'/'the', though, so this is a non-issue for our current purposes.

more importantly, where did you get the sentence?

[aflaamM589]

Dear instructors thank you very much for your replies.

I came across this sentence in SAT prep book called Maximize your writing score on the SAT. But seems that it is not a good source to study for GMAT SC.

My major concern was that as there is no comma before studying , so taken literally it refers to Latin america(as mentioned by tim) but logically should refer to Roy. But ,for studying to refer to roy ,there need to be a comma before it. but if comma is placed before studying it makes the phrase studying the behavior of kinkajous non essential( or looks at least nonessential). All kind of issues...

Is my thinking process right?

[aflaamM589]

this sentence has only one issue: the word 'the' should appear before kinkajou.
this exam does not test the presence/absence of 'a'/'an'/'the', though, so this is a non-issue for our current purposes.

more importantly, where did you get the sentence?

yeah it was kinkajous. Fixed in original post

[RonPurewal]

the sentence is fine as written, but this is a non-issue. the presence/absence of commas (= what you're describing as 'essential' vs. 'not essential') is not tested on this exam.