russ9 wrote:
Hi All,
I know that this was touched in many of the previous post's but I still have a question:
Ignoring other idiom issues, I ended up with "e" because i made the error of making "liberating" parallel to "persuading". I did this because I read backwards from "and" and made both ends of "and" parallel (Liberating and persuading).
How would I have known to go and make "turned" parallel to the second half?
Hi russ9,
Let’s try to figure out the difference in the original sentence and options D & E.
•
Joan of Arc, a young Frenchwoman
•
who claimed to be divinely inspired,
o
turned the tide of English victories in her country by liberating the city of Orleans
• and
she persuaded Charles VII of France to claim his throne.
MEANING• The sentence tells us that a young Frenchwoman Joan of Arc turned the tide of English victories in her country. How did she do so? By liberating the city of Orleans.
o By the way, she claimed to be divinely inspired.
• Also, she persuaded Charles VII to claim his throne.
So, Joan of Arc did two things:
1. Turned the tide of English victories.
2. Persuaded Charles VII to claim his throne.
Now, let’s consider option E.
•
Joan of Arc, a young Frenchwoman
who claimed to be divinely inspired,
turned the tide of English victories in her country
• by
o
liberating the city of Orleans
o and
persuading that
Charles VII of France should claim his throne.
MEANING• Joan of Arc turned the tide of English victories. How did she do so?
o By liberating the city of Orleans.
o And by persuading that Charles VII of France should claim his throne.
ERRORS1. Now, it’s not clear from the sentence whom did Joan of Arc persuade?
2. Also, the action of persuading did not turn the tide of English victories. It was the action of liberating the city of Orleans that turned the tide.
3. ‘persuade’ is a verb that requires a use of infinitive (to + verb).
I persuaded him that he should go abroad for higher studies. (Incorrect)
I persuaded him to go abroad for higher studies. (Correct)
Option D corrects all these errors. (Note the use of ‘persuaded …. to claim’)
•
Joan of Arc, a young Frenchwoman
who claimed to be divinely inspired,
o
turned the tide of English victories in her country by liberating the city of Orleans
o and
persuaded Charles VII of France to claim his throne.
TAKE AWAYSOur main focus should be on the intended meaning of the sentence. Specially in case of verb-ing modifiers, it becomes more important to focus on the meaning.
Hope this helps!
Manyu