Section 1-12, 大全877

12. Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only with an Edison phonograph and insatiable curiosity.
(A) Traveling the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were armed only
(B) In 1905, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, traveling the back roads of Hungary, began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and they were only armed
(C) In 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary armed only
(D) Having traveled the back roads of Hungary, in 1905 Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology; they were only armed（C）
(E) Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, in 1905 began their pioneering work in ethnomusicology, traveling the back roads of Hungary, arming themselves only

Choices A and B are wordy and imprecise: the phrasing suggests that Bartok and Kodaly were already traveling the back roads of Hungary when they began their pioneering work, not that they traveled the back roads in order to conduct such work. Moreover, and suggests in both cases that they were armed with a phonograph in addition to being on the road, rather than while they were on the road, and only in B is misplaced before the verb armed. Choice C is correct. In choice D, Having traveled… suggests that the two had finished traveling before they began their work in ethnomusicology, and only is again misplaced. Choice E is wordy and awkwardly constructed. The question is a little easier than the average.

Why C is correct. without comma or and, armed only seems to modify  the back roads of Hungary?

I always make mistake on this one, but OG(1986 Version) says "The question is a little easier than the average." Qi4Sha1Wo3Ye3.

Ohoh, I found one: refer to the following post.

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=23&id=52207&star=1#450591

这题的OG解释也有点令人想不通。

Choices A and B are wordy and imprecise: the phrasing suggests that Bartok and Kodaly were already traveling the back roads of Hungary when they began their pioneering work, not that they traveled the back roads in order to conduct such work.

我觉得og说的这两个意思都是B and K 两个人先开始travel，在travel过程中began their work。

另外，看了这题的解释后我就糊涂了：动词ing 短语位于主句之前和位于主句之后所表示的含义不一样吗？难道不是都表示在主句动作发生时的伴随状况？

请牛牛指点迷津！

偶觉得是不一样的

现分在句首，表达的动作‘开始’先于主句动作，在主句动作发生时，现分动作仍在进行，所以，从主句动作开始，两个动作是同时在进行的。比如：Using the knife, sb cut ... 我们可以这样理解：sb拿起刀(但是还没有cut东西，不过use这个动作已经开始了)，然后cut(当cut时，use这个动作还在继续，并没有停止，所以use和cut在cut开始以后是同时在进行着的，只不过use的开始要早于cut的开始)；

现分在句尾，一般表达分词动作于主句动作同时发生，但是‘动作开始’先于或同时于主句‘动作开始’；