Having seen first-hand this recipe for disaster, Roberta Henson wished

Having seen first-hand this recipe for disaster, Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, promoted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

The sentence means to convey that Roberta Henson has first-hand experience the one-size-fits-all trade practice by herself. She would like to state that the model promoted by leading multilateral organizations is unfair to poor nations.

Present perfect tense is rightly used for ‘first-hand experience’ because it happened before Roberta ‘wished’. Roberta intention is properly conveyed by ‘to make’ verb. Modifier phrases starting with ‘that’ are parallel and relates properly.

A. Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, - CORRECT. As discussed above.
B. Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should being liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, - WRONG. Using ‘being’ for future reference makes no sense.
C. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to make clear that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, - WRONG. Instead of using ‘Roberta Henson’ after starting ‘phrase + comma’ makes no sense. Using ‘who’ also adds to the problem of absence of main verb.
D. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to make clear that poor nations should being liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, - WRONG. Same reasoning as option C.
E. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to clarify that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, - WRONG. Same reasoning as option C

Answer (A).

Roberta Henson saw first-hand free trade as a recipe for disaster. Roberta Henson "wished" ... either implies she did something and it is being reported or interpreted or she wishes to do something, in which case "wish" would be more appropriate than "wishes". Looking through the answer choices, "wished" runs through so, one can assume that the action has already taken place and it is being reported. Since I am not completely sure, there is another filter in the sentence "to make clear" vs "to clarify". "to clarify" sure is more precise than "to make clear". Hence, I eliminate A.

B and D are eliminated because of the awkward usage of "should being liberated".

C also uses "to make clear" and that is the only difference between C and E.

I opted for E as the answer because it makes sense to say that free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson in a form of reported speech, in which case the use of "who wished" makes sense that "she wished to state a point at an earlier point in time". Also "to clarify" is more concise and appropriate in the context compared with "to make clear". That is why C was eliminated and E is my best choice.

A. Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model,
modifier is correctly modifying--Robert Hension
should be --is correct (correct)

B. Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should being liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model,
---use of being is incorrect here (incorrect)


C. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to make clear that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model,
---modifier is incorrectly modifying free trade ( how can the free trade see the disaster)--(incorrect)

D. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to make clear that poor nations should being liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model,
same as (C) (incorrect)


E. free trade was called unfair by Roberta Henson, who wished to clarify that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model,
same as (C) (incorrect)

Having seen first-hand this recipe for disaster, Roberta Henson wished to make clear that free trade is unfair and that poor nations should be liberated from the one-size-fits-all trading model, promoted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

A sounds correct. It correctly modifies who saw this recipe for disaster, Roberta Henson. In Choices C, D and E , it suggests free trade has seen first hand recipe for disaster. hence those are incorrect. Choice B misses verb , that poor nations being liberated or being from one-size trading model, then what? there is no verb. that is corrected in choice A , that poor nations should be liberated...

Official Explanation

Correct Answer: A

The best answer is A. Choices C, D and E present dangling modifiers. Choice B incorrectly places the gerund being after the model, should.

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