The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a presiden

The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907.

A)The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling

B)The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled

C)A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled

D)A president, a senator, and a governor who were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars to travel

E)A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling






A)The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling

In the non underline part of the sentence the specific time period ------in 1907 ------is given therefore use simple past tense ---traveled
concept -----if in the sentence specific time period is given use simple past tense


B)The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled

who traveled to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907-------correctly modify ------The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor



C)A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled

who --modify----- cars---- wrong

who needs to modify people .

D)A president, a senator, and a governor who were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars to travel

In the non underline part of the sentence the specific time period ------in 1907 ------is given therefore use simple past tense ---traveled
concept -----if in the sentence specific time period is given use simple past tense


E)A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling

In the non underline part of the sentence the specific time period ------in 1907 ------is given therefore use simple past tense ---traveled
concept -----if in the sentence specific time period is given use simple past tense

correct Answer B

WE can solve this question on simple grammar.
A. pronoun that cannot refer to people
B. error-free
C. cars who traveled is absurd.
D. A flagrant fragment
E. Cars traveling is absurd.
No need to break the head on meaning or any other

I am extremely doubtful of the OA. Here is why:
The "who traveled" is placed after the comma, which means it is used as a non-restrictive modifier.
According to the rule, whatever is contained in the non-restrictive modifier has no bearing on the overall content of the sentence. In other words, we can completely ignore it. When this rule is applied, I get an impression that the fact those personnel traveled is completely indepdent of the fact that they were the first passengers.

Going over to C, I can't seem to figure out why "who traveled" classes cannot modify passengers. Note that the railroad cars are the object of the preposition "on". To illustrate, it would look like this passengers (on railroad cars) who traveled.

What are your thoughts on this guys?

In option B the modifier who traveled...... is indeed a non-essential (non-restrictive) modifier. This modifier states something extra about the travelers. We are not identifying the political travelers among other political travelers using this modifier. Removing the modifier does not change the meaning of the sentence. Hence usage of this modifier as a non-restrictive modifier is correct. (The fact stated in the non-restrictive modifier may or may not have bearing to the main clause; stating something related to the main clause does not make the modifier an essential one)

A relative pronoun may refer to a noun which is an object of preposition. Hence in option C, the relative pronoun who may as well refer to cars which is closest to it (although who is not the correct relative pronoun for inanimate objects).

Let us realize that if there were no comma before who, then the pronoun 'who' would directly refer to only the governor and not to the others. That means that only the governor traveled to Washington D. C, while the president and the senator were headed to someplace other than Washington D.C. Hence, in order to refer to all the three political heavyweights who traveled together to the ultimate destination, the comma before 'who' becomes necessary.
A relative pronoun can refer to an object of a preposition and it absurdly indicates that the cars traveled to Washington D.C.
E has the same problem as ice where the verb+ing modifier naturally is modifying the cars.


(A) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling

(B) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled

(C) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled

(D) A president, a senator, and a governor who were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars to travel

(E) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling

Some posters have wrongly transcribed choice A as with a 'who traveled" rather than as 'that traveled' as found in the prompt and have claimed A is the choice. It has to be 'that traveled' and hence A can never be the correct answer.
A) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled
The answer is, therefore, B with 'who traveled' modifying the three political heavyweights.

The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907.

1. Verb issues and meaning
(A) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling
That cannot refer to people, also past perfect progressive "had been traveling" makes no sense. They were not traveling before they became the first political passengers, it was a simultaneous occurrence that happened in 1907 so we need simple past.

(D) A president, a senator, and a governor who were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars to travel
We have a subject and then a relative pronoun, but only one action verb "were" which is linked to "who" so this becomes a fragment. "To travel" is part of the very long string of prepositions.

(E) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling
Changes the meaning, since "traveling" is now a gerund modifying railroad cars.

2. More meaning issues
(C) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled
Fixes the verb issue but changes the meaning again. Even if we initially miss that "who" is referring to "modern cars," it doesn't make any sense the other way, i.e. referring to the politicians because they were NOT the first passengers ONLY on the Washington D.C. line, but they were the first political passengers OVERALL.

(B) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled
Fixes the remaining issue in C) by using the pronoun "who" to introduce a dependent clause of additional information.

Whats the difference between B & C.

Who- logically used for human antecedent- in C is referring to Political passengers (nearest one & logical antecedent)...
Whereas in B- who is referring to governor.. Meaning - Governor traveled together ...not look complete..

There's a meaning difference between (B) and (C):

Choice (B) indicates that the three politicians mentioned (the prez, senator, and governor)--and no other politicians--were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars. And when did those three become the first political passengers on modern railroad cars? When they traveled to DC together on the Liberty Express in 1907.

Choice (C), on the other hand, seems to indicate that there were MANY political passengers on modern railroad cars at that time. Of those many political passengers on modern railroad cards, the three mentioned were the first to travel to DC together on the Liberty Express in 1907. That's certainly a plausible scenario, but it doesn't make as much sense.[/list]

More importantly, does (C) convey the same meaning as (B)? Or does (C) convey the (not so logical) meaning described above? It's open to interpretation.

In choice (B), however, the meaning is perfectly logical and not open to interpretation. That makes (B) a better option than (C).

I hope that helps!

There are multiple comments saying choice (C) the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled to Washington is wrong because who is modifying cars. This is not true.

We can have a construction like
[noun] [restrictive modifier (like prepositional phrase)] [Relative Clause]

E.g. Let's say we have
Passengers who traveled to Washington, D.C. together.
[Noun] [ Relative Clause ]

Noun - Passengers
Relative Clause - who traveled to Washington, D.C. together. Relative Clause is modifying the Noun.

We can add a restrictive modifier such as prepositional phrase to the noun i.e. Passengers can be more specific - Passengers on railroad cars

Thus
[Passengers on railroad cars][who traveled to Washington, D.C. together] is correct.
[Noun - with prepositional phrase] [ Relative Clause]

Grammatically answer choice C is correct
C) A president, a senator, and a governor were
[the first political passengers] (noun) [on modern railroad cars]. (prepositional phrase / restrictive modifier)
[who traveled to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907](Relative Clause).

in choice b, c, and d, "the first passengers on the modern car who travel together in the past " is not logical. the first passengers in the modern car did not travel together in the past. instead, a president , a senate and a governor travel together in the past.

the dog is an smart animal
a smart animal is the dog. this is wrong. inverted sentence sometimes is wrong.

meaning error is hard.

The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907.

(B) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled

(C) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled

(E) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling

I have a confusion with noun modifier that can refer to slightly far away noun.
If in option B 'who...' can correctly modify slightly far away noun 'The first political passengers' then:

1. Why can't 'who...' in option C jump over 'on modern railroad cars' to modify slightly far away noun.
2.And same for travelling in option E.

Thanks

Hello BansalT,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in Option B, "who" does not jump over any nouns; it actually refers to the noun phrase "a president, a senator, and a governor".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

It can. The problem is that the modifier isn't comma-blocked, meaning that it's an essential modifier—i.e., one that actually narrows the possibilities of the thing it's modifying (= makes that thing more specific).

The resulting sentence therefore (mistakenly) just says that these three people were the first politicians to travel on modern railroad cars to Washington.
That's plainly not the intended meaning of the sentence; the sentence 'wants' to say that they were the first politicians to travel on modern rail cars (at all). The part about Washington is just an extra detail.




Same as above.

The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling to Washington, D.C. together on the Liberty Express in 1907.

Option elimination -

(A) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor that had been traveling - "that" for a living thing, i.e., a governor in this case, is wrong.

(B) The first political passengers on modern railroad cars were a president, a senator, and a governor, who traveled - correct. Comma + who refers to all - a president, a senator, and a governor

(C) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars who traveled - "who" to refer to inanimate, i.e., cars is wrong

(D) A president, a senator, and a governor who were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars to travel - "who" without comma only refers to the governer. Wrong.

(E) A president, a senator, and a governor were the first political passengers on modern railroad cars traveling - "traveling" without a comma modifies the noun before it, i.e., cars. cars traveling - cars traveling on their own? wrong