Thank you for your question.
The main difference between answers is where they place the modifying phrase "a large and increasingly influential sector of publishing." It is supposed to modify "university-press books," but in many of the answers, it's not. So let's figure out which answers place the modifier phrase next to what it's supposed to modify (aka the antecedent):
(A) A large and increasingly influential sector of publishing 20 percent of all the National and American Book awards since 1950 have gone to university-press books.Antecedent: 20 percent of all the National and American Book awards (WRONG)
This is also
INCORRECT because there should be a comma after "publishing."
(B) A large and increasingly influential sector of publishing, university-press books have won 20 percent of all the National and American Book award since 1950.Antecedent: university-press books (CORRECT)
This is the
CORRECT answer because the modifier is in the correct place and it uses the proper plural format "university-press books."
(C) Increasingly influential as a large sector of publishing, 20 percent of all the National and American Book award since 1950 have gone to university press book.Antecedent: 20 percent of all the National and American book award (WRONG)
This is also
INCORRECT because it says award instead of awards.
(D) Since 1950, a large and increasingly influential sector of publishing, 20 percent of all the National and American Book award have gone to university-press book.Antecedent: 1950 (WRONG)
This sentence is also
INCORRECT because it uses the singular "university-press book" instead of "university-press books."
(E) Since 1950, university-press book, a large and increasingly influential sector of publishing, won 20 percent of all the National and American Book award from then on.Antecedent: university-press book (CORRECT)
While this answer does place the modifier in the right place, it is
INCORRECT because it uses the singular phrases "university-press book" and "National and American book award" instead of their plural counterparts. The sentence is talking about many books and 2 awards, so they both need to be plural.
After looking at the placement of the modifying phrase and making sure it uses plural phrases properly,
B is clearly the correct answer. _________________
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