OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Day 201: Sentence Correction (SC1)
HIGHLIGHTSSplitsThree major splits exist:
(1) THEM/IT
-- who or what is eavesdropping? Not the Congressmen [plural]. The National Security Administration [singular] is eavesdropping.
(2) eavesdrop and pass / eavesdrop and be passing
and
(3) the description of the source of the evidence that the NSA is allowed to pass on
--
the calls; the calls on which it eavesdropped; and those calls-- decide this issue
second. Clear grammar errors always come first. This second split is more about style than grammar.
Meaning?Elected representatives gave the National Security Agency power both to tap into phone calls without judicial permission and to share any gathered data.
The two things that the NSA can now do should be parallel because they are joined with the word "AND."
THE PROMPT Quote:
Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling them to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and pass along evidence from the calls to other government agencies.
THE OPTIONS Quote:
A) Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling them to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and pass along evidence from the calls to other government agencies.
• The National Security Agency is singular and takes the pronoun "it."
Them is incorrect. The error in option A is fatal.
• The infinitives
eavesdrop and
pass are correct.
Eliminate A
Quote:
B) Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling it to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and pass along evidence from the calls on which it eavesdropped to other government agencies.
• the singular "it" correctly refers to the NSA
• HOLD
--
the calls on which it eavesdropped should
not be assessed in isolation
Quote:
C) Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling it to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and pass along evidence from those calls to other government agencies.
• as in (B), the pronoun "it" is correct
•
those calls is much more concise than the phrasing in (B).
-- But we will decide style issues
last.
HOLD
Quote:
D) Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling them to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and [to] be passing along evidence from those calls to other government agencies.
•
them cannot refer to the National Security Administration (in English, agencies and government bodies are singular)
•
and is a parallelism marker. The two verbs joined by
and (
eavesdrop, be passing) are not parallel. It doesn't matter that the the word "to" is not repeated before "be passing."
-- Verbs made up of more than one word (to walk, had walked, will walk) are often split up.
-- The first part of the verb, in this case, to, "distributes" to the second parts of both verbs.
-- The problem is that
to eavesdrop is a simple infinitive.
To be passing is not.
-- If you have doubt, look at other sentences. Three say, simply,
pass. Pass and
eavesdrop are parallel.
Eliminate D
Quote:
E) Many United States Congressmen recently voted to give the National Security Agency new powers enabling it to eavesdrop on telephone calls without a court warrant and to be passing along evidence from those calls to other government agencies.
[/quote]
• as in (D),
to eavesdrop and
to be passing are not parallel
Eliminate E
• Option B or C? Which is better?
B:.. . pass along evidence from the calls
on which it eavesdroppedC:. . .pass along evidence from
those calls
-- we know which calls the NSA gets its evidence from
-- the word "those" [calls] is concise and clear.
-- "Those" is called a demonstrative adjective. The word
those points to the noun
callsOption C says the same thing that B does in fewer words.
Eliminate B
The best answer is CCOMMENTSphilipssonicare and
arorasomya , welcome to SC Butler.
Almost all of these answers are excellent.
Aspirants who follow: I would read the whole thread. Each person adds something from which we can learn.
If you explained your answer, you get kudos. Nicely done.