Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restr

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach




(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching

1. Read the sentence in this way --Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at

The correct idiom is Efforts---- to -----------not efforts at .

2. Read the sentence in this way----------- the United States dollar,continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

The united states dollar is subject that require verb ---but " Reaching " is not active verb . it is Gerund ----hence verb is not in the sentence . to make it active verb one needs is / am / are was were before gerund -- " reaching "


(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach

The correct idiom is Efforts----- to -----------not efforts at .

The united states dollar is subject -----not " the rise "

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark----- is modify the -----the united state dollar ------not " the rise "


How can " the rise " can reach its highest level


(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached


The correct idiom is Efforts ------to -----------not efforts at .


no need to use of " it " after ---and----- in the above sentence . " it " is a pronoun refers to preceding noun , which is united state dollar that is already mention . use of " it " is redundant , therefore no need of " it "




(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching

Correct idiom -----efforts --to ,


reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark---- correctly modifying ----- the United States dollar continued its rise

(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

correct idiom ----- efforts ----to


but is continuing -----------, and --------- to reach ------not ||

is continuing --( active verb ) --------- while ---- to reach ---( infinity verb )



correct answer is D

Yes , in option B the sentence formation is incorrect. There is an unnecessary comma after continued. In some sense the sentence tries to say that those countries tried to restrain dollar from rising but option b says that they tried to stop the rise from reaching its zenith.
There is also a modifier error. The opening modifier is intended to modify dollar and not rise.
However, i took more than 115 seconds to realize why option B is wrong

D.."efforts to" is correct. "and to reach" in E is wrong.

First of all remove the fluff:
Defying efforts at restraining it or Defying efforts to restrain it. Obviously the later option is better, so A, B, and C is out.
Two parallel activities "defying" and "reaching" is correctly parallel in D but E break this parallelism.

IMO D is the answer here

ya i agree that 'It' is awkward here and as a pronoun it just might have the antecedent of "policymakers" and "Atlantic"

D for me.

I believe the correct idiom is "efforts to" so that takes out A,B, and C.

"Defying" sets a progressive present tense, so "reaching" its matches up just fine. In E, "and to reach" is awkward. If E had "and reached" then perhaps that would be OK. But I like the ll with defying/reaching.

A. efforts to not efforts at; no main verb, continuing, reaching
B. like A, the rise of US dollar can't compared with the German mank
C. like A, reaching cant compared with the mark
E. is continuing is wrong
D is my choice. Please correct if there is anything I mentioned wrong. Thanks!

Hi sondenso, when a pronoun (in this case it) appears as part of the introductory modifier (as is the case here, where the sentence starts with a participial phrase), the rule is that this pronoun refers to the noun immediately after (in this case the United States dollar) the introductory modifier. So, here, it refers to the United States dollar.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses cases where pronoun appears before the antecedent, their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

How can dollar continue its rise?

Hi ykaiim, A, B and C are out because the idiom is "efforts to restrain"

Only D and E remain of which E is very bad option.

only D remains.

Answer D. Efforts --- to is correct usage. E is wordy.

+1 D

"efforts....to"

"reaching..." must be a modifier.

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
>> missing verb
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
>>IS there any grammatical error here, apart from idiom issue?
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

1: Defying efforts at Vs Defying efforts to achieve something.
2: The USA dollar continued to rise, reaching its blah blah [participle modifier presenting the result of the action in main clause.]

Thanks WaterFlowsUp.
Any quick way to identify what "Defying" is modifying? To me even the "The rise" sounds correct.
I ruled out B based upon the idiom error and the way sentence structure was formed.

Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching
(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach
(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached
(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching
(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach




(A) at restraining it, the United States dollar, continuing its rise, reaching

1. Read the sentence in this way --Defying efforts by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic at

The correct idiom is Efforts---- to -----------not efforts at .

2. Read the sentence in this way----------- the United States dollar,continuing its rise, reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark.

The united states dollar is subject that require verb ---but " Reaching " is not active verb . it is Gerund ----hence verb is not in the sentence . to make it active verb one needs is / am / are was were before gerund -- " reaching "


(B) at restraining it, the rise of the United States dollar continued, to reach

The correct idiom is Efforts----- to -----------not efforts at .

The united states dollar is subject -----not " the rise "

reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark----- is modify the -----the united state dollar ------not " the rise "


How can " the rise " can reach its highest level


(C) at restraining it, the United States dollar continued rising, and it reached


The correct idiom is Efforts ------to -----------not efforts at .


no need to use of " it " after ---and----- in the above sentence . " it " is a pronoun refers to preceding noun , which is united state dollar that is already mention . use of " it " is redundant , therefore no need of " it "




(D) to restrain it, the United States dollar continued its rise, reaching

Correct idiom -----efforts --to ,


reaching its highest level in six years against the German mark---- correctly modifying ----- the United States dollar continued its rise

(E) to restrain it, the United States dollar is continuing its rise, and to reach

correct idiom ----- efforts ----to


but is continuing -----------, and --------- to reach ------not ||

is continuing --( active verb ) --------- while ---- to reach ---( infinity verb )



correct answer is D

A, B, and C out - idiom of effort...to.

E is out because the last part following the conjunction, and, is not a complete thought.

D is correct, with a complete thought sandwiched between two absolute phrases.

Is Defying a participle acting like an adjective or a verb.

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