During the latter stages of the insurrection, the revolution's leaders

Question

During the latter stages of the insurrection, the revolution's leaders resorted to ever more violent means, including public execution of members of the upper class,  to establish their authority, and they suppressed  dissent ruthlessly.

A. to establish their authority, and they suppressed

B. that established their authority, and it suppressed

C. of establishing their authority and to suppress

D. to establish their authority, and they were suppressing

E. so that their authority was established, and it suppressed

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Guru3794 · Answer

..........Leaders resorted to violent means
,........,to establish their authority,
and they suppressed dissent ruthlessly.

No visible defects.

Look at the answer choices : (B) & (E) have the pronoun IT.

However, There is no clear referrent which IT is referrening to.

Between (C) and (D)
(C)....the trailing portion  to suppress dissent ruthlessly   is a grammatically misplaced phrase which confuses the overall meaning.
(D) the trailing portion  and they were suppressing   is in past continuous tense is incorrect since the other verbs are in simple past tense.

So (A) is the correct answer.

Wulfang · Answer

Option A seems to have a parallelism issue. 'they suppressed' after and doesn't seem to be parallel to anything else. Can anyone clarify

Posted from my mobile device

hloonker · Answer

While 'to establish....' makes sense. the final sentence "and they...supressed' who is the 'they referring to?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  hloonker ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here "they" refers to the noun "leaders".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

RICHA1189 · Answer

During the latter stages of the insurrection,  the revolution's leaders resorted  to ever more violent means, including public execution of members of the upper class, to establish their authority, and they suppressed dissent ruthlessly.

A. to establish their authority, and  they suppressed   parallel the revolution's leaders resorted and suppressed

B. that established their authority, and it suppressed  revolution's leaders is plural , use of it is wrong

C. of establishing their authority and to suppress  not parallel

D. to establish their authority, and they were suppressing  wrong tense

E. so that their authority was established, and it suppressed  revolution's leaders is plural , use of it is wrong

A is the answer

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(A)

Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors

The revolution’s leaders committed violent acts for the purpose of establishing their authority—“to establish their authority”—and they also suppressed dissent. The infinitive form “to establish” is idiomatically correct, the plural pronouns “their” and “they” correctly refer to “leaders,” and “suppressed” is in the correct past tense to be parallel with “resorted” in the first clause. The various elements of the sentence are logically connected to convey the intended meaning, and there do not appear to be any errors. Suspect that (A) is correct as you evaluate the choices.

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices

(A), (B), and (E) all end with the past tense “suppressed,” while (C) and (D) use different tenses.

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains

Eliminate (C) and (D) for using the wrong verb at the end. By changing “of establishing” to “to establish” and “suppressed” to “to suppress,” (C) changes the structure of the sentence; this incorrectly transforms the suppression of dissent from an independent action to another effect of the executions. (D) uses the past progressive “were suppressing,” which would only be correct to describe an action that was ongoing when another action happened; the leaders “resorted” to violence and “suppressed” dissent in the same time frame, and both take the simple past tense.

(B) and (E) both use the incorrect singular pronoun “it” to refer to the plural “leaders.” As written, these sentences seem to say that the leaders’ “authority” suppressed dissent, but it was the leaders themselves who did so. In addition, (E)’s “so that their authority was established” is unnecessarily in passive voice. (A) is correct.

blablabla1997 · Answer

hi expert, why can't we refer "it" to "authority" in the option B?

VerbalBot · Answer

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During the latter stages of the insurrection, the revolution's leaders

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During the latter stages of the insurrection, the revolution's leaders

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