Bunuel wrote:
Noted for its tenacity and courage, the English bulldog, having originally been bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but now is cherished as a loyal animal companion.
A. the English bulldog, having originally been bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but now is cherished
B. English bulldogs were originally bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but they are now cherished
C. English bulldogs were originally bred to bait bulls in a brutal sport, but it is now cherished
D. the English bulldog was originally bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but it is now cherished
E. the English bulldog, originally bred to bait bulls for a brutal sport, is now being cherished
Option E is the answer........ [Correct me if I am wrong.]
Concepts Used to elimination options:
- B and C eliminated because in the un-underlined portion "Noted for its tenacity and courage" "its" is a possessive term for singular.
Hypothetically, If it was "theirs" instead of "its", then that would have made me eliminated A D and E; and since B and C are the only options left and because "they are" is needed for plural noun "English bulldogs", my final answer would have been B.
- A eliminated because of "but".
If we remove the modifier "having originally been bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting", it will say the English bulldog but now is cherished, making no sense.
- D and E was a bit challenging for me but I eliminated D because the sentence is using the pronoun "it". The pronoun "it" makes me think whether "it" is pointing to the English bulldog or the brutal sport. Whereas in E, there is no ambiguity of such kind. Furthermore, if we remove the modifier " originally bred to bait bulls for a brutal sport", it says the English bulldog is now being cherished.....makes complete sense.
A. the English bulldog, having originally been bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but now is cherished
B. English bulldogs were originally bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but they are now cherished
C. English bulldogs were originally bred to bait bulls in a brutal sport, but it is now cherished
D. the English bulldog was originally bred for the brutal sport of bull-baiting, but it is now cherished
E. the English bulldog, originally bred to bait bulls for a brutal sport, is now being cherished[/quote]