F75 wrote:
George Sand (Aurore Lucile Dupin) was one of the first European writers to
consider the rural poor
to be legitimate subjects for literature and portray these with sympathy and respect in her novels.
(A)
to be legitimate subjects for literature and portray
these(B)
should be legitimate subjects for literature and portray
these(C)
as being legitimate subjects for literature and
portraying them(D)
as if they were legitimate subjects for literature and portray
them(E) legitimate subjects for literature and to portray
them First GlanceNotice that the first word of the underline changes significantly in the answer choice; there maybe Structure, Meaning, or Idiom issues.
Issues(A) Idiom: consider XYThe answer choices present you with a wide range of choices for words that follow
consider. Which ones are idiomatically legal?
If you want to say that someone believes a certain thing to be true, the proper structure is
consider X Y, as in: She considers Anya funny.
The Y portion of this structure should not be introduced with to be or as or any other expression. Answers (A), (B), (C), and (D) all insert unnecessary words between the X (
the rural poor) and Y (
legitimate subjects). Eliminate all four.
(2) Pronoun: theseThe pronoun
these is a
demonstrative pronoun. A simple example of usage might be: She like these apples. In that example, the pronoun refers to the noun apple. What does
these refer to in this sentence?
In the original sentence,
these refers to
legitimate subjects, a noun within the same clause. When
these is used as a subject, though, it is not allowed to refer to another noun within the same clause. Answer (B) repeats the error; answers (C), (D), and (E) all replace
these with the object
them, an acceptable usage. Eliminate answers (A) and (B).
(3) Parallelism: X and YThe word and indicates parallelism:
to consider and portray.
Consider is not underlined, so
portray must match that form. Either
portray or
to portray would be acceptable.
Answer (C) changes
portray to
portraying. This isn't parallel to the non-underlined construction to consider; eliminate answer (C).
Note: It is actually acceptable not to repeat the word
to before
portray, but when the two parts of the parallel structure are far apart, it's preferable to repeat the full infinitive structure for both.
The Correct AnswerCorrect answer (E) fixes the initial idiom error by removing the extraneous words included in the other choices; it also corrects the initial pronoun error by replacing
these with
them.