The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock

[sg2010]

Hello, I have a question regarding a Sentence Correction question on a practice CAT:

"The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock; a feature that not only allows residents to lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent them from entering the house during a power outage."

a) a feature that not only allows residents who lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent
b)a feature allowing residents without a physical key to lock or unlock the door, but also possibly preventing
c) a feature allows residents locking or unlocking the door without physical keys, but also possibly preventing
d)this feature allows residents to lock and unlock the door without a physical key, but may also prevent
e)this feature not only allows residents without physical keys to lock or unlock the door, but also prevents

In the explanation for the answer (which is D), the instructor wrote that the sentence after the semicolon is a fragment. I was wondering if this was because the sentence starts with "a feature" instead of "This feature" - does using "a" instead of "this" make the sentence a fragment?

Thanks for your help.

[sg2010]

Can a MGMAT instructor please reply to this?

[tim]

First, be careful bumping questions. Every time you do that it puts the question at the absolute end of the queue for us to answer. Bumping a question is the most effective way to cause a delay in getting your question answered.

As to your question: No. The reason some of the choices are fragments is because they have no verb after the semicolon.

[hanqingwu.m]

Hi there,

I have a question about the correct answer choice (D).
(D) "this feature allows residents to lock and unlock the door without a physical key, but may also prevent."

Shouldn't it be "this feature allows, but may also prevents"?

Does this have something to do with the word "May"? If so, would it be possible to explain the rule behind it?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

"may" is like other helping verbs:
may prevent
might prevent
could prevent
can prevent
will prevent
cannot prevent
etc.

[RonPurewal]

... more generally, for any verb, there's only one form that can go with helping verbs. it's always the same as the form that appears in the "to ___" version.
e.g.,
to be
may be
might be
could be
can be
will be
cannot be
etc.

[AnupamaW260]

Hello Sir

I selected E

Why "without physical keys to lock or unlock the door" is misplaced modifier? Also, why we cant use NOT ONLY....BUT ALSO construct here?

Thanks

[tim]

What is "to lock or unlock the door" modifying? Answer that, and you'll see the problem (hopefully).

And who said that "not only ... but also" is not acceptable here??

[Maxmerkovitz]

Hi,

Just so I'm clear, the reason answer A creates a sentence fragment is because "that" is serving as a noun modifier and modifiers cannot contain the core verb of the sentence, right?

I get that B tries to use "allowing" as the verb, but "allowing" is actually a noun modifier in this case.

Thanks for your help!
Max

[sahilmalhotra01]

Hi Expert,

I understood why option choice A is incorrect. The part of the sentence after semicolon must be a independent clause.

In the present construction of choice A the Noun after the semicolon "a feature" doesn't have a verb.

choice A : The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock; a feature that not only allows residents to lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent them from entering the house during a power outage.

The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock - Independent Clause
a feature - Noun
that not only allows residents to lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent them from entering the house during a power outage. - Noun Modifier

If I change the Semicolon to a comma, will the sentence be correct? I understand it will be correct.
Noun+ Noun Modifier will explain about the electronic lock.

Kindly clarify if my understanding is correct.
Thanks

[cgentry]

Hi Expert,

I understood why option choice A is incorrect. The part of the sentence after semicolon must be a independent clause.

In the present construction of choice A the Noun after the semicolon "a feature" doesn't have a verb.

choice A : The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock; a feature that not only allows residents to lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent them from entering the house during a power outage.

The new house's front door is secured by an electronic lock - Independent Clause
a feature - Noun
that not only allows residents to lock and unlock the door without physical keys, but also may prevent them from entering the house during a power outage. - Noun Modifier

If I change the Semicolon to a comma, will the sentence be correct? I understand it will be correct.
Noun+ Noun Modifier will explain about the electronic lock.

Kindly clarify if my understanding is correct.
Thanks

I think you've got it!

[JimmyW751]

What is "to lock or unlock the door" modifying? Answer that, and you'll see the problem (hopefully).

And who said that "not only ... but also" is not acceptable here??

Dear Tim,

I have several thoughts on this question. It would be appreciated if you can give some advises.

My queries are between option D and E. There are three major splits between them.

First, E uses "not only allows, but also prevents" while D uses " allows, but also may prevent"

Second, the modifier "without physical keys / a physical key" location is different. Though I know the claimed intended meaning is that to lock or unlock without the key (adverbial modifier) , but in E the usage seems not wrong to me - " the residents without keys" (noun modifier)

Lastly, the keys / a key split I think both are designed for the specific usage of modifier, i.e. both look good.

Till now I cannot be convinced that the option E is wrong merely by the splits above. Further, I search the OA usage of "but also " of OG. I found that there is only two types of OA usage of "but also"

the "not only but also" usage

"A had the greatest admiration for B as a person and as a politician, but A was also skeptical of B‘ form of nationalism and his conservative opinions."
I revise the sentence to accompany the forum rule

To sum up, my point is according to the OG, "but also" need to show a contrast meaning with the preceding sentence, the meaning I think is a must for the usage of "but". "But" in option D, I fail to find one such contract.

Here I fully aware of that the official answer should not be questioned. But I still want to hear from the instructor regarding my thoughts.

Many Thanks.

Jimmy

[JimmyW751]

What is "to lock or unlock the door" modifying? Answer that, and you'll see the problem (hopefully).

And who said that "not only ... but also" is not acceptable here??

Dear Tim,

I have some thoughts on this question and hope you could help.

My question is between the choice D and E. There are three splits between them.

First, the choice D uses "allows, but also may prevent" while E uses " not only allows, but also prevents.

Second, the modifier "without physical keys / a key" location is different. In D, it modify verb (adverbial modifier) and modify residents in E (noun modifier)

Lastly, the keys / a key split which I think adapt to the context specifically.

Till now, I am not convinced that the choice E is wrong merely due to the splits mentioned above. Further more, I search the OA usage of "but also" in OG. And there are two types of usage.

One is the "not only, but also" usage.
The other is the contrast meaning with the preceding sentence, the meaning qualified by "but".

"But" I cannot find contrast meaning in choice D. Which simply present the two benefits of the feature.

Though I am fully aware of that the official answer should not be questioned. I still want to hear from you regarding my thoughts.

Many thanks

Jimmy

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

What are the two results of this lock? 1) It allows residents to open the door without a key. 2) It won't open if there's a power shortage. It seems to me that one of them is a positive thing, and the other is rather dangerous, in which case "but" gives a good contrast.

[sg2010]

@Manhattan: the below explanation makes sense to me. Can you confirm that this is why the sentence is a fragment? i.e. Tim's explanation saying that the sentence had no verb, although the word "allows" is in the sentence was confusing.

Hi there,

I have a question about the correct answer choice (D).
(D) "this feature allows residents to lock and unlock the door without a physical key, but may also prevent."

Shouldn't it be "this feature allows, but may also prevents"?

Does this have something to do with the word "May"? If so, would it be possible to explain the rule behind it?

Thanks!