Vercules wrote:
Even though surrounded by wild southern winds, local fishermen said that conditions on the sea at the time of the shrimp hunting was acceptable.
First part of the sentence "
Even though surrounded by wild southern winds," is participial modifier, which must modify the noun after the comma. Thus A, C and E are out.
A) local fishermen said that conditions on the sea at the time of the shrimp hunting was acceptable.Local fishermen were not surrounded by wild southern winds, but the sea was. Conditions
was accpetable.
B) the sea conditions during the shrimp hunting were acceptable according to local fishermen.Not really correct. The sea conditions weren't surrounded, but the sea was. "According" needs a preceding comma.
C) according to local fishermen, the sea was in acceptable condition during the time of the shrimp hunting."according" opens next modifier. The first modifier is past participial modifier, the second is present participial modifier => not parallel. Besides, it is commonly avoided to put two modifiers one after another, especially when they refer to different nouns as here: surrounded -> sea, according to sb -> sea conditions.
D) the sea was in acceptable condition during the shrimp hunting, according to local fishermen.This is correct, after all. The sea was in acceptable condition
s. I looked it up in Collocation Dictionary that states that the only correct possibility is "condition
s". The last comma correctly separates participial modifier, which thus refers to the entire preceding clause. Not perfect, but the best AC.
E) local fishermen said that condition on the sea at the time of the shrimp hunting were acceptable.Wrong for the same reasons as A.