For many revisionist historians, Christopher Columbus has come to pers

Hi,

For many revisionist historians, Christopher Columbus has come to personify devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that has decimated native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.



It is very important to understand the intended meaning of the sentence here to get to the correct answer. The sentence says that for many historians, Columbus personifies devastation and enslavement in the name of progress because devastation and enslavement have destroyed native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.



Per the meaning, we know that “devastation and enslavement in the name of progress” have led to destruction of native peoples. However, “that” in this sentence refers to the immediate preceding noun “progress” because it is followed by singular verb. This modification now says that “progress” has destroyed native peoples. This certainly is not the logical meaning. Hence, we need plural verb “have” that will agree in number with “devastation and enslavement in the name of progress” and thus will convey the logical intended meaning.

POE:

A) devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that has decimated native peoples of the Western Hemisphere: Incorrect for the reason stated above.

B) devastation and enslavement in the name of progress by which native peoples of the Western Hemisphere decimated: Incorrect.
1. This option now says that native peoples used devastation and enslavement to destroy. This is certainly not the intended meaning.
2. Also this choice is awkwardly written.

C) devastating and enslaving in the name of progress those native peoples of the Western Hemisphere that have been decimated: Incorrect.
1. Use of “devastating” and “enslaving” is not appropriate. When a sentence requires the usage of a noun form, then we must use the real noun form of that word and not the verb-ing gerund form. Here “devastation and enslavement” are any day better than “devastating and enslaving”.
2. Since “that” is referring to people, it should be “who”.

D) devastating and enslaving those native peoples of the western Hemisphere which in the name of progress are decimated: Incorrect.
1. Same noun expression error as in choice C.
2. “which” cannot refer to “people”.
3. The choice says that native peoples of the Western Hemisphere are still decimated. This is not the intended meaning. This choice has verb-tense error.

E) the devastation and enslavement in the name of progress that have decimated the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere: Correct. Singular “has” has been converted to plural “have” to rectify the error of the original sentence. Also notice that “the” is understood before “enslavement”. We have ellipsis at paly here.

PS: Choice C has been wrongly worded in the original post.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha