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805+ Level|   Pronouns|      
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Bunuel
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in Updated on: 07 Sep 2022, 01:25
Originally posted by Bunuel on 13 Feb 2020, 06:05.
Last edited by Bunuel on 07 Sep 2022, 01:25, edited 1 time in total.
Edited the question.
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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95% (hard)

Question Stats:

32% (01:27) correct 68% (01:48) wrong based on 624 sessions

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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in recent years to misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow its importance as a positive socializing force.


(A) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow

(B) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency to overshadow

(C) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency of overshadowing

(D) guilt that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow

(E) guilt, that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency of overshadowing
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D
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AndrewN
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 19 Feb 2020, 18:13
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PTD1995
Thoughts on why D? I answered A
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As written, the correct answer has a typo, so I can see why more people would not choose it and opt for (A) instead. If we look at those two options side by side though, with a little modification of (D) to correct the transcription error, we can see why the parallel construct of (D) might make it a more favorable choice:

Bunuel
According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in recent years to misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow its importance as a positive socializing force.

(A) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow

(D) guilt that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow
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In (A), misplaced precedes the noun it modifies, whereas taken to neurotic extremes follows the same word the second time it appears. I am not advocating the use of taken-to-neurotic-extremes guilt, but you can appreciate the difference in placement easily enough. The conjunction and is being used to indicate two separate types of guilt. In (D), misplaced is perfectly parallel to taken. You could switch taken to neurotic extremes and misplaced without distorting the meaning of the embedded clause. The conjunction or is being used in a restrictive sense, without commas, to indicate an alternative to misplaced. I cannot say I would favor one choice over the other for the conjunction, since either meaning makes sense, but I would say (D) is a little cleaner in its placement of multiple adjectives.

- Andrew
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 07 Apr 2021, 00:04
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Can anyone please explain why not E? Is it because has tended>has a tendency?

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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 07 Apr 2021, 09:13
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RanonBanerjee
Can anyone please explain why not E? Is it because has tended>has a tendency?

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Hello, RanonBanerjee. How about we look at a corrected version of (D) alongside (E) to compare differences?

Bunuel
According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in recent years to misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow its importance as a positive socializing force.

(D) guilt that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has a tended to overshadow

(E) guilt, that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency of overshadowing
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The first split is vital—whether the comma should or should not appear before the embedded clause. The answer is no, it should not. That is rarely preceded by a comma, since it is typically used to denote essential information, as opposed to a non-essential which clause. By placing a comma in such a manner in this sentence, the main clause never resolves: the attention that... is as far as it gets, since the part after the comma in question is all subordinating information. By removing that comma, though, we get a complete sentence: the attention that... has tended to overshadow its importance. To be honest, we would already have enough reason to eliminate (E), but to further the discussion, I will continue.

In the second split, yes, the verb form has tended is preferable to the noun form has a tendency. I might not use this one feature as the decisive factor to get behind one answer or the other, but it would certainly help that (E) now has two flaws compared to none in (D).

Finally, tended to overshadow is idiomatic, while tendency of overshadowing is not. Even in its noun form, a tendency should be followed by an infinitive, to something.

For all these reasons, we can safely see off (E).

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 08 Apr 2021, 14:28
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In option D how do we know if the "its" refers to the "guilt" or the "attention" ?

daagh

Can you assist here please .
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 08 Apr 2021, 16:12
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Harshjha001
In option D how do we know if the "its" refers to the "guilt" or the "attention" ?

daagh

Can you assist here please .
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Hello, Harshjha001. I am sorry to inform you of this, but daagh cannot respond to your post. There was a tribute for him that bb posted toward the end of last year.

As for your question, however, its cannot logically refer to attention, since it would make no sense in the context of the latter part of the sentence:

the attention that has been paid in recent years to guilt... has tended to overshadow [attention's] importance as a positive socializing force.

As odd as it may seem, the sentence seems to be driving at guilt in general being an important positive socializing force (maybe it brings people together or helps an individual grow?), as opposed to the certain types of guilt that have been getting more attention—misplaced and neurotic extremes sound decidedly negative.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 07 Sep 2022, 01:26
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Bunuel
According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in recent years to misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow its importance as a positive socializing force.


(A) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow

(B) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency to overshadow

(C) misplaced guilt and guilt taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency of overshadowing

(D) guilt that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has tended to overshadow

(E) guilt, that is misplaced or taken to neurotic extremes has a tendency of overshadowing
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

(Pronoun error)

The underlined portion refers to two types of guilt - ‘misplaced guilt’ and ‘guilt taken to neurotic extremes’ - while the non-underlined portion uses the singular pronoun ‘its’. So, (A) is wrong.

(B) and (C) also have the same error.

By using the conjunction ‘or’ instead of ‘and’, (D) and (E) correct this error. Between the two phrases ‘has tended to overshadow’ and ‘has a tendency of overshadowing’, the former is more dynamic and shorter, and is the better choice.

So, (D) is the answer.
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According to some psychologists, the attention that has been paid in 03 Oct 2023, 10:09
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