I find an important custom of English usage sadly missed by many.

What do you think of the following statements?

Franklin Rooswelt was a ‘giant’ of a President.
Mahatma Gandhi was a ‘lion’ of a statesman.
He is a ‘horse’ when he drinks
It is raining ‘cats and dogs’.

These are metaphors used to stress some point and are perfectly licit. We should not think of a country only in terms of geography or geology. A country is much more than that. So let us not mistake that this text suffers from weirdness. That said, let us delve into the choices now.


A) Japan is a culture of accommodation and constraint, a system of forms, etiquette, and images, making its ------
‘IMO, A is a perfect choice with proper participial modification that modifies the entire noun idea running before it and with proper punctuation.’


(B) Japan, a culture of accommodation and constraint, is a system of forms, etiquette, and images, which makes its ----- ‘Which makes’ flouts relative pronoun touch- rule.
(C) A culture of accommodation and constraint, Japan is a system of forms, etiquette, and images making its ……. The sentence alters the meaning that only images are making its ever-present congestion tolerable.
D) Japan's is a culture of accommodation and constraint, a system of forms, etiquette, and images’ that makes ….. ‘That’ modifies images and flouts touch rule.

(E) Japan's is a culture of accommodation and constraint, of a system of forms, etiquette, and images which makes the
‘and images which makes the ‘Which’ is not preceded by a comma and hence the sentence is ungrammatical,

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A, B and C tells us that Japan is a culture which is incorrect. (Japan is a country).
D and E states- Japan's is a culture which means, Japan has a culture which is characterized by (accomodation and contraint- use proper form).
Between (D) and (E), (D) is parallel.
In (E), "of a system of forms, etiquette" breaks teh parallelism.
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Answer ...D

E is convoluted...
Japan's is a culture of X , of a system of Y which makes...
Also "which" has no clear logical referent

C ,B and A.... Japan ""has"" a culture/system....and Japan "is" a country!

Would you mind telling me the source of this SC..

It is difficult to see why E is better than D

can you check the answer again please?

thanks
praetorian

In D, The clause starting with "that" is a RESTRICTIVE clause...how do i know that?

Remove the "that" clause..we are left with a run on sentence.

With Restrictive Clauses, ALWAYS use THAT.

NOTE:
Its true that both "that" and "which" can be used to start restrictive clauses...but "that" is always preferred.

So we zoom in to D..[/b]

Another reason for rejecting E...

Japan's is a culture of X, of a system of forms...this structure is not quite correct...

Culture and System are two different things.. isnt it?

Culture of a System of.......isnt that messed up?

correct version can be:

Japan's is a culture of X and a system of Y that makes its Z


ok, now to answer in general about that and which

That starts a restrictive clause providing essential information.. no commas ever for "that"

The book, which is on the table, is mine...wrong

If we remove the red part, you will ask...which book....isnt it?

We need more information...

The book that is on the table is mine...correct

The sentence in blue is thus integral to the sentence.

Here we have complete information about the book...so this is fine
So if you get rid of a "which" clause ...it "should not" change the meaning of the sentence..if it does, then your sentence construction is wrong.....the Which clause is usually set of from the sentence by commas...

Be advised..there may be cases where ETS will introduce the same error in ALL the choices...in that case, dont lose sight of the fact that you got to pick the BEST answer....for example , you may have five choices...all of these have no comma before which...in that case..you can be sure that the rule " no comma before which" is not tested here.

Is that good enough?

Thanks
Praetorian

Thanks a lot Praetorian

Now I see it

a system, which "makes" not "making" so this eliminates A and C

possessive Japan's followed by "to be" is wrong, so left out with B

B is parallel and uses "which makes," so it is my OA

B is the least harmful but also has a flaw.

what refers to "which"? seems which means "culture". normally "which" refers to the noun that precedes "which".

Will go with A.
B/E have problem with which.
C - Japan is not a culture. A looks better than D

Hey what's the OA .. it seems too confusing ... How cud Japan be a culture ... and what's japan's is ?? ... in that case A looks better than all but not without doubts..
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