ardiax wrote:
According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.
(A) the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted
(B) famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
(C) the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
(D) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”
(E) Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted
Quote:
According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.
Sentence Analysis: The sentence starts with the opening modifier "
According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor", which coneys that some information is about to come.
the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone
The next two modifiers tell about the city Carleone
1. a town famous because of the “The Godfather”
and : parallelism marker, marks parallelism between 2 adjectival phrases
2. a town near to those he most trusted
The original sentence seems correct. "Famous because of 'The Godfather'"and "near to those he most trusted" correctly modify "a town," which modifies Corleone. Noun modifiers must be next to the nouns that they describe.
Let's keep A, and see if we find something better than A.
Quote:
(B) famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
Was the Prosecutor famous because of the "The Godfather"
This choice contains a modification error; "famous because of 'The Godfather'” incorrectly describes the prosecutor. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.
Quote:
(C) the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
Why is "The Godfather" making someone or the other famous. Here it modifies the ailing mobster. Was the ailing mobster famous because of the Godfather.??????
This choice contains a modification error; "famous because of 'The Godfather'" incorrectly describes the mobster. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.
Quote:
(D) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”
Crazy noun modifier issues in this question. Was the prosecutor near to those, whom he trusted? Changes the intended meaning again.
This choice contains a modification error; "near to those he most trusted" incorrectly describes the prosecutor. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.
Quote:
(E) Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted
Answer option A does the same job in much lesser words. Conveys the meaning through parallelism between two attributes of the town Corleone.
The modification is correct in this choice. "Famous because of 'The Godfather'" correctly modifies "Corleone". However, this sentence is unnecessarily wordy, "was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in" is much less concise than "the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone" without making the meaning clearer.