OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)
THE PROMPTQuote:
Thomas Nast, whose cartoons called for an end to corruption and were published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, and these cartoons played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• Meaning?
Thomas Nast or his cartoons or even both played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
If intended meaning is not immediately apparent, do not panic.
We can glean intended meaning from the options.
In the end, the grammatical sentence left standing tells us the intended meaning.
Option A does not determine intended meaning. I address the issue in Notes, below, and link you to posts that contain analysis and evidence.
This urban legend dies hard.
• relative pronouns (
whose)
→ As I have mentioned, if you see a relative pronoun (usually
that, who, and
which, but also
whom or
whose), start looking for at least two working verbs in the sentence, because a relative pronoun is the subject of a
clause and requires its own verb.
Once that verb is "eaten up" by the relative pronoun, the verb cannot be used by the main subject.
I wrote about how to cope with relative pronouns and modifiers in a bit more depth
this post, below.
THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) Thomas Nast[DID WHAT?], whose cartoons called for an end to corruption and were published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, and these cartoons played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• missing verb
→ strip the sentence of its nonessential modifiers. Anything set off by commas is fair game.
Original:
Thomas Nast, whose cartoons called for an end to corruption and were published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, and these cartoons played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.[/i]
Stripped:
Thomas Nast . . . and these cartoons played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice. → No verb exists for Thomas Nast. We have a fragment.
Okay, his cartoons did X and Y.
But those cartoons are referenced in a nonessential clause that ends with
Newsweek, a clause that we can remove.
The main subject, Thomas Nast, still needs a verb.
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
Thomas Nast’s cartoons called for an end to corruption, [WERE] published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, and they played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• fatally placed modifier or incomplete verb
→ If the word
published is supposed to be an adjective that describes
cartoons (a participle phrase derived from a reduced relative clause),
then
published should be
much nearer to
cartoons, the noun it modifies, and certainly should not come after the first main verb.
→ In fact,
published looks as though it might modify
corruption, a setup that is nonsensical.
→ If the word
published is supposed to be a verb parallel to
called and
played, then we need the helping verb
were (as in,
were published) in order to maintain parallelism among
called, WERE published, and
helped.
Those three are the simple past tenses in parallel.
Cartoons do not publish themselves, so we must say
were published.
In the case of a verb for which it would make no sense to use the active tense with that subject, it is okay to mix a passive tense among active tenses because your hand is forced.
The word
published is a horribly misplaced modifier (an adjective) or a non-parallel verb. Either way, the sentence fails.
ELIMINATE B
Quote:
C) Thomas Nast [DID WHAT?], whose cartoons, published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, called for an end to corruption and played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• insensible modifier or missing verb
→ The verb
called cannot belong to Nast or the modifier becomes nonsensical.
True, nonessential modifiers can be "removed," but those modifiers still must make sense.
→ The verb
calledcan belong to only one subject.
If
called belongs to
Nast, then the modifier makes no sense.
The relative pronoun clause lacks a verb. Not okay.
If
called belongs to
Nast, we are left with:
. . . whose cartoons, published in leading newspapers and magazines . . .[DID WHAT?]That relative clause subject "whose cartoons" lacks a verb and makes no sense.
→
published is not a verb.
In this instance it is a past participle (a verbED)—an adjective that describes cartoons.
We know that
published is a past participle and not a past tense verb because
(1) commas do not come directly between subjects and verbs
(2) cartoons cannot publish themselves and would be required to take the verb
were published, which is not what we have.
→ Let's restate: If
called belongs to Nast, then
whose cartoons is the subject of a relative clause, needs a verb, and does not have one.
→ Alternatively, give
called to
whose cartoons, and "remove" the whole nonessential clause.
Now
Nast, the main subject, has no verb. Also not okay. Remove the whole nonessential clause starting with COMMA + whose.
→ We are left with:
Thomas Nast . . .→ No verb for the main subject. (No sentence at all.)
ELIMINATE C
Quote:
D) Thomas Nast’s cartoons called for an end to corruption and [WERE] published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, playing a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• Parallelism error
→ The verbs
called and
published are not parallel.
Cartoons cannot publish themselves.
We must use
were published.
Were published would be parallel to
called.
ELIMINATE D
Quote:
E) Thomas Nast, whose cartoons called for an end to corruption and were published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, played a key role in bringing several corrupt politicians and their associates to justice.
• I do not see any errors
• This option correctly provides the verb
played to
Nast and creates a sensible whose-clause
• The sentence is grammatical, coherent, and
easy to follow.
KEEP
The answer is E.NOTESdushyantkanal , you raise a good question about answers that depart from the meaning set out in option A.
The issue causes a lot of confusion.
I know that some test prep companies still teach that we cannot change option A or that option A determines the intended meaning.
All of you will read dozens of posts about the sanctity of option A.
They are all mistaken. No kidding.
Option A does not determine intended meaning.
I have written dozens of posts about this issue.
Other experts have written about this issue.
For a thorough analysis, take a look at
this recent post, here in which I cite to two other pertinent posts I wrote, including one that contains official question examples in which option A could not possibly be the intended meaning.
COMMENTSganeshadepu1801 ,
siddharthkapoor , and
dushyantkanal , welcome to SC Butler.
I am glad to see new faces these days and hope others will join in, too.
warrior1991 , as always, my friend, you are gracious. Thank you for the kind words.
sumitkrocks and
zhanbo, good dialogue.
sumitkrocks , your post
here nicely summarizes the accurate and strategic approach to meaning.
This thread is good.
If I were an aspirant, I would read it.
Analysis in posts ranges from very good to outstanding.
Today I will award kudos to all: some for bravery, some for correct answers and excellent analysis.