USADream wrote:
As the cost of wireless service has steadily dropped over the last year and as mobile phones have become increasingly common, many people are finding that they can avoid toll charges on their home phones, using their mobile phones for making long-distance calls at night or on weekends, at a time which many wireless companies provide unlimited airtime for a small monthly fee
a) phones, using their mobile phones for making long-distance calls at night or on weekends, at a time which
b) phones, instead using mobile phones to make long-distance calls during the night of weekends, during which
c) phones by using their mobile phones to make long-distance calls at night or on weekends, when
d) phones using mobile phones for making long-distance calls during the night or weekends, when
e) phones when using their mobile phones to make long-distance calls at night or on weekends, a time which.
My reasoning is as follows, please chime in if you have any questions/comments:
present participles, after commas, modify the WHOLE preceding clause.. Thus, "using" in A/B/D modify the whole preceding clause, which distorts the intended meaning. You don't want to modify the preceding clause, you want to explain HOW people avoid toll charges.. Therefore, A/B/D are gone.
E distorts meaning by giving us a conditional "when", as if to imply that the only times they find how to avoid toll charges is WHEN using mobile phones...
C, on the other hand, clearly tells us WHAT ACTION leads to people finding how to avoid charges.. "they avoid X... by doing Y.." makes sense..
So this question is partly a modifier question, and partly a logical predication question..