Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his frie

Question

Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes of Apollo's command, Pylades, the companion of Orestes, remains curiously mute in all tragedies dealing with the Orestes-Electra myth.

A. Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes

B. Except for the single line delivered as a reminder to Orestes in Choephori

C. Besides his single line delivery in Choephori to remind Orestes

D. Excepting the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes

E. With the exception of the single line delivered in Choephori as a reminder to Orestes

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what does "Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend ....command" modify? who is "he" and "his"? what type is the modifier?
Thanks in advance

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Official Answer

A

aditya8062 · Answer

A says :  Except for the single line  he  delivers in Choephori to remind  his  friend Orestes of Apollo's command,  Pylades , the companion of Orestes, remains curiously mute in all tragedies dealing with the Orestes-Electra myth. ---------------> "he"  and  "his friend"  refers to  "Pylades" . the initial modifiers in this SC is a noun modifier (although naming modifiers should not really concern us; their functioning should !)

iambillgate2 · Answer

And what is your answe choice? I confuse between A and D, if you choose A, can you explain to me why we eliminate D? Thanks

aditya8062 · Answer

the answer has to be A  :  Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes

D is wrong because we need this sentence in the  same tense . also the connect is missing in D . it does not appear as who delivers that line?

iambillgate2 · Answer

Sorry, i miscomposed an answer in my question. Would you review it? And explain again? Thx a lot

akv260791 · Answer

Why would it not be D ?  aditya8062  I didnt understand what you meant by D requiring them to be in the same tense. As far as i can see, A as well as D are in the same tense.

Carcass · Answer

D is wrong mainly because

Excepting the single line..........does not have any sense

Except FOR X Pylades remains mute. i.e. he talks during the lines in Choephori and for ALL the other lines or situation he remained mute. We need a balance

D does not communicate this

Hope this helps

anilisanil · Answer

C changes the meaning.

Besides- in addition to.

This does not make sense in context of sentence. We need a word that highlights a contrast.

Hope that helps!

pate13 · Answer

The form and tense of "to deliver" needs to match "remains", which is in the last part of the sentence. To be parallel and the correct tense, "to deliver" should be "delivers". This eliminates B, C, and E. In D, "excepting" is very awkward. "Except for" in A is clearer and less wordy / more concise. A is the answer.

dransa · Answer

I think D is unidiomatic. Except for X, Y ... is preferred to the use Excepting for x, y .

skyfarer · Answer

Except for the single line he delivers in Aeschylus' Choephori to remind his friend Orestes  of Apollo's command, Pylades, the companion of Orestes, remains curiously mute in all tragedies dealing with the Orestes-Electra myth.

Except for the single line he delivers in Aeschylus' Choephori to remind his friend Orestes
 Except for the single line delivered as a reminder to Orestes in Aeschylus' Choephori
 Besides his single line delivery in Aeschylus' Choephori reminding Orestes
 Excepting the single line he delivers in Aeschylus' Choephori to remind Orestes
 With the exception of the single line delivered in Aeschylus' Choephori as a reminder to Orestes

This is from one of the Kaplan Tests. Correct answer is A. But I didn't get why C and D are wrong, the explanation wasn't good enough

chetan2u · Answer

The Q tests us on these points...  
1) Besides MEANS in addition to - the sentence talks of a CONTRAST and means there was nothing other than that single line so C is out
2) With is wrongly used again to show contrast.. E is out..
3) B requires a MODIFIER correctly placed 
4) A and D have one difference -usage of Except for VS excepting... Except for is the correct Idiom 
The role of first clause is to show contrast, but by converting the first clause as Verb + ING modifier, the meaning and structure is changed

A

Senthil7 · Answer

I see this as testing parallelism and verb tense issue. Correct answer is A.

ruchi857 · Answer

chetan2u   sayantanc2k   carcass

I selected D and I fail to understand why 'excepting' sentence changes meaning?

Thanks for your help!

chetan2u · Answer

Hi  ruchi857 ,

There is no change in MEANING of sentence if EXCEPTING is used...

The reason except for is better than excepting-
1) Except for is more idiomiatic and is much more widely used and accepted
2) Excepting is used mainly in negative statement ... Not excepting, and its usage is very rare..

Divyadisha · Answer

A. Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes.  'He' and 'Him' correctly modifies Pylades 
B. Except for the single line delivered as a reminder to Orestes in Choephori.  'to remind' does not have same meaning as 'reminder'  
C. Besides his single line delivery in Choephori to remind Orestes.  'his friend' is missing. 'single line delivery' does'nt seem idiomatic to me in this context 
D. Excepting the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his friend Orestes.  Excepting is not idiomatically right 
E. With the exception of the single line delivered in Choephori as a reminder to Orestes.  'to remind' does not have same meaning as 'reminder'

iamdivs · Answer

Except for the single line he delivers in Aeschylus's Choephori to remind his friend Orestes of Apollo's command, Pylades, the companion of Orestes, remains curiously mute in all tragedies dealing with the Orestes-Electra myth.

Except for the single line he delivers in Aeschylus's Choephori to remind his friend Orestes
 Except for the single line delivered as a reminder to Orestes in Aeschylus's Choephori
 Besides his single line delivery in Aeschylus's Choephori reminding Orestes
 Excepting the single line he delivers in Aeschylus's Choephori to remind Orestes
 With the exception of the single line delivered in Aeschylus's Choephori as a reminder to Orestes

The following is the OE for this question:

My question is as follows:

1) Why is delivered (which is a past participle adjectival modifer here considered to be in past tense?) I believe participal modifers in general do not have any tenses of their own and are only modifying the noun. Please weigh in with your expert advice.

Thank you!

Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his frie

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Except for the single line he delivers in Choephori to remind his frie

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