shawrochis wrote:
Why is 'D' wrong? Is it a diction error? Snowfall can't obscure trails but snow can?
Oh man. I didn't realize that I had used both "snow" and "snowfall". I might edit the question. Anyway, here is an explanation of why E is better than D.
(D) Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled by the heavy snow that obscured the trail and covered normally used landmarks for navigating.
Only having climbed halfway up the mountain, the hikers found their progress stalled.
In the opening modifier, "only" is misplaced. The point is not the the hikers only climbed. The point is that they had climbed only halfway up.
snow that obscured the trail and covered
normally used landmarks for navigating.
In this version "normally" is misplaced. In the OA version, the landmarks are "landmarks normally used for navigating." This version basically conveys that the snow covered normally used landmarks and that the snow did that for the purpose of navigating.
The snow covered normally used landmarks for the purpose of navigating. - illogical
The snow covered normally used landmarks for navigating. - illogical, or at least ambiguous and awkward - I could see how one could argue that this is ok.
The snow covered landmarks normally used for navigating. - clear and logical - This is better than D, and even if you were inclined to disagree with that assessment, I think you would agree that the combination of the placement of "only" and the placement of "normally" makes E the clear winner.
I was in doubt with 'Only'. E was the winner for me to. I just wanted to clear my confusion between 'snowfall' and 'snow'. And thanks for the clarification of 'normally'. It completely escaped my judgement.