OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONHi all, I have to post early tonight.
I will hide the
answer under the spoiler, which I will remove tomorrow (my tomorrow).
Project SC Butler: Day 141 Sentence Correction (SC1)
Quote:
Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries, one of whom was known to be a rival of the author, was revered for describing the sense of aimlessness felt by members of the Lost Generation.
A) whom was known to be a rival of the author, was revered for describing
B) who was known to be a rival of the author, was revered to describe
C) whom was known to be a rival of the author, had been revered for his ability to describe
D) who was known for being a rival of the author, was revered for describing
E) whom was known to be a rival of the author, were revered for describing
HIGHLIGHTS• Meaning?
Ernest Hemingway and his writer friends were revered (admired by others) because they wrote about the sense of aimlessness felt by members of the Lost Generation. One of Hemingway's contemporaries was his rival (probably Faulkner or Fitzgerald).
• Structure?
This sentence is slightly deceptive because the compound subject
Hemingway and his contemporaries is followed by "one of whom."
A dependent clause such as
one of whom... that comes between a subject and verb does not affect the subject's singularity or plurality.
--
one of whom is a dependent clause (it cannot stand on its own as a sentence)
--
one of whom is not an essential modifier (one way to tell? the whole clause is set off by commas).
-- strip the sentence
Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries, one of
whom was known to be a rival of the author, was revered for describing the sense of aimlessness felt by members of the Lost Generation.
Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries,
one of whom was known to be a rival of the author, was [?] revered for describing the sense of aimlessness felt by members of the Lost Generation.The sentence, stripped:
Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries [was?] revered for describing the Lost Generation.• Split #1: Subject verb agreementThe compound subject
Ernest Hemingway and his contemporaries is not altered in number by the clause "one of whom."
The plural subject requires the plural verb
were [revered].
Eliminate A, B, and D, all of which use the singular verb WAS.
• Split #2: pronoun / antecedent disagreementOption C uses
his ability. That pronoun should be THEIR in order to agree with the compound subject.
Eliminate C
By POE, Answer E is correctOTHER ISSUES• WHO/WHOMPrepositions take
objects.
In "one of," the word OF is a preposition. It needs an object. So we use the
object pronoun,
whom.
A mnemonic to remember WHO v WHOM.
If you see a preposition, use an easy preposition and a singular male person.
Give the present TO ____ HE/HIM?
Give the present TO
hiM.Him ends in M. So does whoM. Use whoM.
Object pronouns: me, you, her, him, it, us, them, whom
Subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who
Options B and D incorrectly use one
of WHO
• TO DESCRIBE / FOR DESCRIBINGThis issue is idiomatic.
A person is appreciated (revered) by others FOR describing something well.
A person is not revered by others TO describe something well.
A person might herself be excited TO describe something well . . but she would not herself be revered by others TO describe something. (That sentence is so incoherent that I can barely write it.

)
Options B and C are incorrect.
• had been in option C?HAD + past participle = past perfect, aka the past of the past
To use past perfect (to express the past of the PAST), we first need a past.
We must have at least one event rendered in simole past tense or a time marker that does the same thing as a past tense verb -- namely, that marks of a discrete (non-continuous) point in time in the past.
Option C has neither a simple past tense verb not a time marker. No reason exists to use past perfect.
COMMENTSArvind42 ,
Annet1524 ,
Xylan (pistachios, and the quote is indeed beautiful

) ,
J2S2019 ,
exc4libur , and
amitanshumaity , I thought I'd name you all so that you would peek under the spoiler and see: I appreciate your consistent and consistently good replies.
I know. This one was fairly simple. Basics are important.
Happy kudos!