Using present participle as a modifier

[vnpatriot7]

Hi,

I suddenly read the following passage in WSJ. I hope the passage does not violate forum's rule.

"In an interview Tuesday, Peter Pang, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, told the Journal that Hong Kong officials were in discussions with their mainland Chinese counterparts to allow foreign direct investment into China using the yuan"

My question is what does "using" modify? Is it a noun modifier which modify "foreign direct investment"?

If so, it seems violated "touch rule"?

Thanks for your time

[tim]

this sentence does indeed violate the rule. you'll find that a lot of reputable publications do not adhere to GMAT grammar rules. for this reason, you should restrict your SC study to reputable sources that write questions specifically designed for the GMAT..

[vnpatriot7]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your answer.

Yesterday, I read chapter 12 in MGMAT SC book, edition 4th. This chapter mentions that we can "violate" touch rule in a case in which a "mission critical" modifier falls between.

Ex: He had a way of dodging opponents that impressed the scouts

My question is whether my example in the previous post falls in this exception?

[RonPurewal]

actually, annoyingly enough, "using" is an exception to the usual modifier rules.

see OG12 #11:
There are several ways to build solid walls using just mud or clay, ...
here it's pretty clear from context that "using" is meant to modify the action "to build solid walls", not just the walls themselves -- and that's the non-underlined part of the official problem.

here are two other examples -- not SC's, but evidence nonetheless:

Metal rings recently excavated from seventh-century settlements in the western part of Mexico were made using the same metallurgical techniques as...
-- from #21, Verbal Diagnostic Section of OG12 (p. 34)

Suppose, though, that a stomach were simulated using plastic tubes...
-- from reading passage on OG12 p29

--

the best way to understand these examples is to treat "using" as a preposition -- similar to "with" -- in examples such as these.

if you encounter a situation in which "using" makes sense as a modifier, then interpret it as a modifier -- but, if it doesn't make sense as a modifier, then consider it as a preposition (approximately equivalent to "with") before rejecting it.