According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster cam

The gist of the text is that the town became famous because of ‘The Godfather’ and not the mobster. We can drop B and C on this count.

Placing the phrase ‘near to those he most trusted’ next to the prosecutor in D misinterprets the meaning as if the prosecutor was close to those he trusted most rather than the mobster; drop it.

E shifts the primary focus to the town from the mobster, by pushing him into a subordinate clause and is too wordy.

A is crisp and fine.
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B and C hugely change the meaning. D places the subject far away, making the sentence confusing.

E seems a good contender, but A sounds better. I'll go with A.

E has modifier issue - the Godfather was not the town. Corleone = town
Hence A is the best.

A sounds the best.
"famous because of "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted" correctly modifies a town, which thereby modifies "Corleone".
Famous and Near are parallel as they both are adjectives that modify the same noun.
+1A

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.
A the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted - correct
B famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted modifier issue - "famous because of “The Godfather" incorrectly placed next to "According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor"
C the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted meaning issue - the ailing mobster was not famous because of “The Godfather...rather town was famous"
D near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” modifier issue
E Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted. passive construction

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.


The answer is A- the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted

The original sentence is the correct answer

My logic:
This sentence is testing noun modifiers which should TOUCH the noun they modify:
Now I get how "because of the godfather and near to those he most trusted" modifies a town
How a town modifies Corleone


What I dont get is why the ailing mobster isn't modifying the anti-Mafia prosecutor (clearly not the same person)

I would appreciate help on this one. Thanks!

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, [u]the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.

I will try to explain this..
According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor - this is a modifier modifiing "the aling mobster"
a town famous - this is a modifier modifiing "Corelone"

If u try to grasp meaning of sentence
According to X --> the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone (which is a famous town)

"the ailing mobster" is a noun phrase, "ailing" is acting as an adjective for "mobster" and the whole phrase "the ailing mobster" expressed the sense of a noun. So, it is acting as a noun in the sentence. anti-Mafia prosecutor is again a noun.

e.g.

According to the chef, the decaying food should be disposed. --> the noun phrase "the decaying food" is not modifying anything

In fact the whole phrase "a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted" modifies the noun "Corleone"

For example:

Tom, an honest person and a hard-working professional who never gives up, got promoted last week --> Here the whole phrase "an honest person and a hard-working professional who never gives up" modifies "Tom"


Hope that helps,

Vercules
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According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.

A. the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted - No issue in sentence. all modifier are in place. lets check other option.

B. famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted - Famous because of "the godfather " should modify Corleone. Eliminate.

C. the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted - the ailing mobster, famous because of -misplaced modifier Eliminate

D. near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” - According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, near to those he most trusted - Misplaced Modifier Eliminate

E. Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted -wordy, it ref to what?, Corleone is subject in this option. Eliminate

A is correct answer.

A. the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted
correct carolene is correctly modified as a town famous because of “The Godfather” and a town near to those he most trusted

B. famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
wrongly modifies ailing mobster rather than carolene

C. the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
changes the meaning that ailing mobster became famous because of the godfather

D. near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”
wrongly modifies ailing mobster rather than carolene

E. Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted
unnecessary wordy

ans A..
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'Those' has many uses.
1. It can be the plural form of that.
2. It can act as a demonstrative pronoun referring to people. For ex: Success awaits those who toil.

Here those refer to the people that this gangster dude trusts.
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Yes, option E can be eliminated based on the subtle change in meaning.

Option A - Mentions two characteristic of the town Corleone - 1. Famous because of "The Godfather" 2. The town is near to those he most trusted.

Option E has 2 problems :

1. It changes the focus from ailing mobster to town corleone.

2. It changes the meaning by stating cause and effect w.r.t taking refuge in the town.
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The introductory prepositional phrase --- According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor --- has no role to play in the actual sentence. One may ignore it for all practical purposes. So it does not modify the mobster or Corleone. Of course, we can’t expect either the town or the mobster to modify the prosecutor. In the light of that:

A. the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted --- seems ok with modification.

B. famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted – famous because of “The Godfather” wrongly modifies the mobster. The mobster was not famous because of ‘The Godfather”. Corleone was.

C. the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted -- same problem as in B

D. near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”------ near to those he most trusted wrongly modifies the mobster. It was Corleone that was near to those he trusted.

E. Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted --- grammatically ok but too wordy; it refers to the town because there is no other singular referent in the whole clause.

A is best
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Doesn't option A indicate that the town is famous because of The Godfather as well as because it is near to his relatives?
In which case the sentence would not make sense.

Hi rohitsatya, A cannot be interpreted that way since both of these are incorrect constructs:

i) because of near to those he most trusted
ii) because near to those he most trusted

On the other hand, this is a valid construct: a town near to those he most trusted
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I am also confused why E is wrong.. Which is the misplaced modifier? can you elaborate?

prosecutor is talking about the mobster, not the city.

Sentence Analysis: The sentence starts with the opening modifier "According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor", which coneys that some information is about to come.
the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone
The next two modifiers tell about the city Carleone
1. a town famous because of the “The Godfather”
and : parallelism marker, marks parallelism between 2 adjectival phrases
2. a town near to those he most trusted
The original sentence seems correct. "Famous because of 'The Godfather'"and "near to those he most trusted" correctly modify "a town," which modifies Corleone. Noun modifiers must be next to the nouns that they describe.
Let's keep A, and see if we find something better than A.
Was the Prosecutor famous because of the "The Godfather"
This choice contains a modification error; "famous because of 'The Godfather'” incorrectly describes the prosecutor. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.
Why is "The Godfather" making someone or the other famous. Here it modifies the ailing mobster. Was the ailing mobster famous because of the Godfather.??????
This choice contains a modification error; "famous because of 'The Godfather'" incorrectly describes the mobster. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.
Crazy noun modifier issues in this question. Was the prosecutor near to those, whom he trusted? Changes the intended meaning again.
This choice contains a modification error; "near to those he most trusted" incorrectly describes the prosecutor. Noun modifiers modify the closest available noun.

Answer option A does the same job in much lesser words. Conveys the meaning through parallelism between two attributes of the town Corleone.
The modification is correct in this choice. "Famous because of 'The Godfather'" correctly modifies "Corleone". However, this sentence is unnecessarily wordy, "was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in" is much less concise than "the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone" without making the meaning clearer.

Can someone tell me why option A is correct????

Usually when a part of sentence is between commas , it can be eliminated & the rest of sentence must still makes sense. But here in ‘...prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town...’ if ‘, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone,‘ is removed , then ‘a town‘ refers to ‘prosecutor ’ instead of ‘corleone’. So this new sentence doesn’t make sense. Then how can A be correct?

Doesn’t the ‘descriptive portion in between commas can be removed’ rule apply always. If so, when it can be applied & when it shouldn’t be?

Thanks in advance.

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