S94-05

Official Solution:

In the last few decades, physicists have identified the existence of different "flavors" of subatomic particles called quarks, most of them as small or smaller than the electron, which display a property known as color charge.

A. most of them as small or smaller than the electron, which display
B. most of them as small or smaller than the electron and displaying
C. mostly as small or smaller than the electron, displaying
D. mostly at least as small as the electron, which display
E. most of them at least as small as the electron, displaying

The ERRORs in original are-
1) There is an idiomatic error in this sentence. As small or smaller than is an improper idiom; as X as Y, and more X than Y is correct. However, as small.... than is not correct.

2) Additionally, the adjective clause beginning with- which display- does not logically or grammatically describe the singular electron, the noun before the clause.

ChoiceE is correct. The idiomatic error is fixed, and the participle phrase beginning with displaying refers to the noun quarks. The correct answer is E.

Choices A, B and C all retain as small or smaller than error and can be eliminated.

Choice C improperly uses the adverb mostly, which seems to describe how small the quarks are and not the number of quarks that are as small as the electron.

Choice D contains both modification errors.


Answer: E