In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found tha

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at time, so we can find the correct answer quickly! First, here is the original question with the major differences between each option highlighted in orange:

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the

After a quick glance over the options, a couple differences become clear:

1. with none of vs. without
2. or vs. nor

Let's tackle #2 on our list because this will be the easiest to figure out: or vs. nor. Whenever you see the conjunction "nor" in a sentence, it MUST be preceded with the word "neither." Here are some examples to show how this idiom works:

X nor Y = WRONG
Neither X and Y = WRONG
Neither X or Y = WRONG
Neither X nor Y = CORRECT

Let's see if we can eliminate any options that use this idiom incorrectly:

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the

We can eliminate options B & C because they don't use the proper format of the idiom "neither X nor Y."

Now that we're left with only 3 options, let's tackle #1 on our list: with none vs. without. There are two things we need to focus on here:

1. Parallelism (both items must be listed using similar wording, verb tense, structure, etc.)
2. Proper Logic (both items must make logical sense; no distorting the intended meaning)

Let's take a closer look at the remaining options with the entire sentence added back in:

A. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This option is INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure. Both phrases must be introduced with the phrase "with none of" for this to be parallel. Otherwise, it suggests that driving automobiles did not have the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables, but it did have the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels, which doesn't make logical sense.

D. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This option is also INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure by starting both phrases with "without." It also creates a logic problem by stating that driving automobiles comes without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timelines, but it comes with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels, which isn't true.

E. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This is CORRECT! It's clear that ALL of the negatives of using trains or hotels go together, and that driving a car has NONE of these problems! It uses the correct "without X or Y" construction to show this clearly!

There you have it - option E is the correct choice!


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