AR15J wrote:
Why Choice A is incorrect? Please note that I have already read all the posts but did not find a reason to reject choice A.
(A) Along with fighting fires and providing emergency services such as medical treatment, firefighters’ responsibilities are inspecting buildings and providing fire safety advice, preventing crises rather than merely responding to them.
First, a modifier beginning with "Along with" requires something to be along with the things listed after "Along with". Here is an example.
Along with monkeys and other mammals, birds live in the trees of the rain forest.Choice A, says "Along with fighting fires and providing emergency services ..., firefighters' responsibilities are ..." So choice A conveys that the responsibilities are along with fighting fires and providing emergency services, whereas the truth is that fighting fires and providing emergency services ARE responsibilities.
Then the sentence goes on to say "firefighters’ responsibilities are inspecting buildings and providing fire safety advice, preventing crises rather than merely responding to them."
That section conveys an unclear meaning, which is possibly that the responsibilities themselves are inspecting buildings and providing fire safety advice, preventing crises.
In fact, one possible reading of the sentence is that the responsibilities themselves are inspecting buildings and providing advice, along with fighting fires and providing emergency services.
At best the sentence could be read as saying basically that firefighters' responsibilities are to inspect buildings and provide fire safety advice, but then "Along with fighting fires and providing emergency services" does not really fit, as the sentence is conveying that the responsibilities are inspecting and providing fire safety advice.
Here's an analogous example.
Along with John and Jim, the passengers in the car are Sue and Sarah.So are John and Jim in the car? The sentence seems to convey that the passengers are only Sue and Sarah.
Even if we were to solve the "Along with" issue by changing "are" to "include", we would have the following, in which there is no logical agent of "preventing ... rather than responding".
Along with fighting fires and providing emergency services such as medical treatment, firefighters’ responsibilities include inspecting buildings and providing fire safety advice, preventing crises rather than merely responding to them.So A is awkward and does not effectively convey the intended meaning of the sentence.
Hi Marty, Thanks for the detailed analysis of the answer choice A.
fighting fires and providing emergency services ARE the responsibilities.
Where as the intended meaning of the sentence is - Fighting Fires and providing emergency service themselves are separate responsibilities and thus A is incorrect.
Please correct me if I am wrong.