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I was confused between C and E. I noticed the meaning difference between the two, figured the difference in meaning between the two but felt that both the meanings though different could work. selected C because of the more conventional construction but still wasn't confident about my answer. can someone explain what is wrong with E.
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I was confused between C and E. I noticed the meaning difference between the two, figured the difference in meaning between the two but felt that both the meanings though different could work. selected C because of the more conventional construction but still wasn't confident about my answer. can someone explain what is wrong with E.

The comma placement is problematic. A comma does not belong between the subject and verb of a simple sentence ("Architects and stonemasons were...")



Also, "Architects and stonemasons were the Maya" is the wrong way to write that sentence. That phrasing implies that architects and stonemasons, in general, belonged to the Maya tribes.

More generally, "X is/are/was/were Y" is NOT the same statement as "Y is/as/was/were X". This type of statement is a generalization about its subject.
E.g., Snakes are reptiles (a generalization about snakes) is a true statement. Reptiles are snakes (a generalization about reptiles), on the other hand, is false.
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Jayantalawadhi
I was confused between C and E. I noticed the meaning difference between the two, figured the difference in meaning between the two but felt that both the meanings though different could work. selected C because of the more conventional construction but still wasn't confident about my answer. can someone explain what is wrong with E.

The comma placement is problematic. A comma does not belong between the subject and verb of a simple sentence ("Architects and stonemasons were...")



Also, "Architects and stonemasons were the Maya" is the wrong way to write that sentence. That phrasing implies that architects and stonemasons, in general, belonged to the Maya tribes.

More generally, "X is/are/was/were Y" is NOT the same statement as "Y is/as/was/were X". This type of statement is a generalization about its subject.
E.g., Snakes are reptiles (a generalization about snakes) is a true statement. Reptiles are snakes (a generalization about reptiles), on the other hand, is false.


Now it makes sense. The snake example cleared it up for me. Thank you so much sir.
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I was confused between C and E. I noticed the meaning difference between the two, figured the difference in meaning between the two but felt that both the meanings though different could work. selected C because of the more conventional construction but still wasn't confident about my answer. can someone explain what is wrong with E.

The comma placement is problematic. A comma does not belong between the subject and verb of a simple sentence ("Architects and stonemasons were...")



Also, "Architects and stonemasons were the Maya" is the wrong way to write that sentence. That phrasing implies that architects and stonemasons, in general, belonged to the Maya tribes.

More generally, "X is/are/was/were Y" is NOT the same statement as "Y is/as/was/were X". This type of statement is a generalization about its subject.
E.g., Snakes are reptiles (a generalization about snakes) is a true statement. Reptiles are snakes (a generalization about reptiles), on the other hand, is false.

Hello sir I thought about X is Y example. We often say that ' The architects are American.', which implies that we are talking about a group of architects who are American. So is it an oversight that we make in spoken english?
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Hello sir I thought about X is Y example. We often say that ' The architects are American.', which implies that we are talking about a group of architects who are American. So is it an oversight that we make in spoken english?
Hi Jayantalawadhi,

Adding a the changes the meaning of the sentence. The question doesn't do anything to make architects and stonemasons more specific, so your example should be "Architects were Americans". Another, somewhat similar, example: "Indians were mathematicians" vs. "mathematicians were Indians". The first is idiomatically acceptable, but the second one gives us the wrong meaning.
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Jayantalawadhi
Hello sir I thought about X is Y example. We often say that ' The architects are American.', which implies that we are talking about a group of architects who are American. So is it an oversight that we make in spoken english?
Hi Jayantalawadhi,

Adding a the changes the meaning of the sentence. The question doesn't do anything to make architects and stonemasons more specific, so your example should be "Architects were Americans". Another, somewhat similar, example: "Indians were mathematicians" vs. "mathematicians were Indians". The first is idiomatically acceptable, but the second one gives us the wrong meaning.

Oh okay makes sense. Thank you so much.
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Why, if we dropp off what is in between commas , as a positive, not say that, " Architects ans macons, ...built huge palace and temple clusters"? Why is that Incorrect?
Is it because tha we droped out the essential modifier of " Without weel ..." ?
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Why, if we dropp off what is in between commas , as a positive, not say that, " Architects ans macons, ...built huge palace and temple clusters"? Why is that Incorrect?
Is it because tha we droped out the essential modifier of " Without weel ..." ?

Hello Fido10,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; Option E incorrectly places information important to the core meaning of the sentence - that the Maya built the clusters without the benefit of animal transport or the wheel - between two commas; remember, information that is important to the core meaning of the sentence must never be placed between commas.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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what kind of sentence C is?
1. An obidient guy, Ram has gone to wild.
2. An obidient guy, Ram, has gone to wild.
Which one is correct sentence? Please notice comma after and before Ram on second sentence. I thougt second one is coorect...

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what kind of sentence C is?
1. An obidient guy, Ram has gone to wild.
2. An obidient guy, Ram, has gone to wild.
Which one is correct sentence? Please notice comma after and before Ram on second sentence. I thougt second one is coorect...

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Hello AbhishekDhanraJ72,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, both sentences are correct.

In the first, "Ram" is the subject of the sentence, and "An obedient guy" is a modifier linked to the subject with one comma.
In the second, "An obedient guy" is the subject, and "Ram" is the modifier offset by two commas; here, the fact that the guy is called Ram is extra information, since even without it, we get a complete and logical sentence, so "Ram" can be placed between commas.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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I'll add that while both of those are valid sentences, there's no answer in the original question that corresponds to #2, so we have to interpret it in line with #1. To have #2, we'd need a modifier after "architects and stonemasons." That could be something like this: "Indigenous North American architects and stonemasons, the Maya among them, managed to build complex structures for centuries without the benefit of animal transport or the wheel."
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