By the year 2000, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' gripping book

Between C and D, I would go with D. It focuses on the cause and effect relation (, making.. ).

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Will go with C. In D, the antecedent of "it" pronoun is unclear and the logical antecedent of "it"is very far.

IMO C.

The crux of the statement is "Tale of Two Cities had 200 million copies ...more than that (copies) of any other English book.

The "it" should then be unnecessary, this helps us eliminate A and D.
Both B and E have commas misplaced, changing the intended meaning of the sentence.
This leaves us with C.

Will wait for the OA.

Answer should be C. In choice D, the comparison between book and number of copies of other books is wrong.

By the year 2000, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' gripping book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than that of almost any other English book ever written.


A. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than (making is modifying the entire clause,in this construction, subject is book,which is not correct.the subject of the sentence should be 'A tale of two cities'.)

B. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than(again the subject is book and relative pronoun 'which' incorrectly refers to copies in print)

C. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, more than( Charles dickens gripping book modifies A tale of two cities, more than refers to print)

D. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than(making modifies the verb , reference of it is at distance. )

E. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print and is more than(same error as in B along with change in meaning)

Will go with choice C

Thanks
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A. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
--Incorrect
The modifier "portraying the....aristocracy" needs to be separated from "had around" with a comma, otherwise it sounds awkward- "French aristocracy had around..."

B. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than
--Incorrect
Same awkwardness as A because of no ",". Incorrect usage of "Which".

C. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, more than
--Correct Changes the meaning slightly though. Doesn't show the cause-and-effect relationship. So won't mark it correct straightaway.

D. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
Plugging in "A Tale of two cities" in place of "it" comes to- making "A tale of two cities" more than that of any other English book ever written.
Non-sensical --Incorrect

E. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print and is more than
Same Awkwardness as A also meaning change

Hi expert

In the phrase "more than that of ..... " , what does "that" refer to ?

Thank you

Official Explanation:

There are three main issues being tested in this question.

(1) The phrase Charles Dickens'...aristocracy is a modifying phrase and must be set off in a pair of commas as it should stand between the subject and verb in order to clearly modify the subject. Modifiers that break the flow of the sentence must be set off in a pair of commas. Without a comma after aristocracy, the modifying phrase is not properly separated from the subject (A Tale of Two Cities) and verb (had).

(2) The pronoun it in the phrase making it more than does not have a clear antecedent (although it probably refers to A Tale of Two Cities).

(3) The phrase making it more than illogically compares a book to a number of copies of a book in print. The sentence should compare a number of copies in print to a number of copies in print.

A. there is no comma between aristocracy and had to set off the modifying phrase; the sentence improperly compares unlike parts; the pronoun it toward the end of the sentence has no clear antecedent
B. there is no comma between aristocracy and had to set off the modifying phrase
C. the modifying phrase between the subject and verb is set off by a comma; the unclear and unnecessary pronoun it has been removed; like parts are being compared (i.e., number of copies in print)
D. the sentence improperly compares unlike parts; the pronoun it toward the end of the sentence has no clear antecedent
E. this is a long run-on sentence; there is no comma between aristocracy and had to set off the modifying phrase; the phrase and is more than is awkward as there is no clear subject to which the verb is refers

ballest127 - Hope this will cover the question you are asking. Let me know if you have any more doubts.

This question reminds me why meaning is the king in SC

The Author wants to tell you that --- By the year 2000, A Tale of Two Cities had around 200 million copies in print, more than that (copies) of almost any other English book ever written.
"Had" because of--- By the year 2000

aragonn - Thank you for your reply

but I'm still not sure what does "that" refer to?

I guess "that" should refer to "copies" but "copies" are plural, so we need "those" instead of "that" ?

Please correct me if I'm wrong

hi

THAT OF ---refers to PRINT.
Print of charles dickens book is compared to print of any other book

understand the sentence and comparison, you will be able to decipher what comparison is made

Here the 'number of copies' are compared. Hence that is correct.

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The ‘it’ in A and D is redundant so we can eliminate these two. Sentences with redundancies are practically never the correct options. B and E get the tenses wrong, this is something that happened in the past. C is the right answer.

Hi,

I did not understand "," in C.

By the year 2000, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' gripping book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than that of almost any other English book ever written.


A. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than - (A) effectively introduces the following structure: "... A tale of two cities, [modifier clause], making it..." - as you can see here, this structure is incomplete.

B. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than - (B) introduces the following structure: ''... A tale of two cities, [modifier clause], which is more than that of...'' - what exactly is the ''tale of two cities'' greater than? the demonstrative pronoun ''that'' does not have a clear antecedent.

C. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, more than - has no error. Hence, (C) is the right answer choice.

D. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than - the -ing clause ''making it....'' illogically modifies the word ''print''.

E. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print and is more than - (E) introduces the following structure: ... A tale of two cities, [modifier clause]. This is not a complete clause.

It seems to me that the answer choices A and D are completely the same

A. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
addition of comma is necessary after the French aristrocracy in order to better convey the meaning in addition it in the end might refer back to print or book therefore out

B. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than
Similar reasoning as A

C. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, more than
The meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

D. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
it addition isn't having the right reference therefore out

E. book portraying the suffering of the proletariat under the brutal subjugation of the French aristocracy had around 200 million copies in print and is more than
Absence of comma after French aristocracy is creating difficulty in understanding the meainig therefore out

Therefore IMO C

I like this Qn so will go ahead and add my take on it.

Here I dont think the 'Which' is as much an error as the other points I have mentioned below. Remember: the touch rule is not absolute (in fact in quite a few hard Qns we see this rule isnt verbatim)



Note : Always remember that one part of SC is concision so if we can avoid unnecessary pronouns, forced parallelism, and tense usage, we should.

Hope this is helpful