In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain

Who is evaluating the patient's state of mind - Its the Physician
Who wants a informed consent prior to surgery - Again the Physician

B)the operating physician and the patient must spend a substantial amount of time together, thus ensuring full awareness of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure
In option B, it is not clear who wants whom to be fully awared of the consequences. But option D clearly makes this distinction. Thus it is correct

D)the operating physician must spend a substantial amount of time with the patient, thus ensuring that the patient is fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure

Hope this resolves your query
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I know A is wrong, but what is wrong in it, can somebody elaborate?
Also i believe that D alters the meaning, D says that the physician should spend time with the patient, whereas in the original sentence it is vice versa i.e. patient should spend time with physician ...

Some help needed.

In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery, a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure.

A)a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure

The first part "In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery" requires a subject capable of evaluate ...

In A the subject, which is the noun(s) after the comma, is "a substantial period of time". This is logically wrong.

Hope it's clear

In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery, a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure.
A)a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure - Option A introduces a classical misplace modifier error. Lets see how

Opening statement states that "In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery". You may ask yourself, who needs to evaluate a patient's state of mind. I hope the answer you will get will be "Physician". So Physician must come after the opening sentence. But in option A, it's not Physician but "Period of time" that comes after the opening sentence.

Hope this clears your doubt.

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That made sense ... time cannot gain consent ... thanks

To understand, break the sentence - "In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery" - Who needs to gain an informed consent - the physician "
"a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure" -- patient needs to become fully aware of pros and cons of undergoing the surgery.
And the operating physician to ensure the patient is fully informed. This is clearly stated in Option D

A. property taxes last year were raised by an eleven percent increase by the county government – property taxes --- misplaced modification

B. property taxes were raised by eleven percent last year by the county government --- same as A.

C. the county government raised property taxes by an eleven percent increase last year ---- raised and increase =redundancy

D. the county government last year raised by eleven percent property taxes --- the county government last year--- wrong word order

E. the county government raised property taxes by eleven percent last year--- correct choice

In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery, a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure.

Non Underline part says someone need to evaluate patient's state of mind prior to surgery.
Who can be that someone ? Physician - So, Physician is the star of the sentence.Not the patient


A. a substantial period of time must be spent with the operating physician by the patient to become fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure

- Its passive and star is patient.

B. the operating physician and the patient must spend a substantial amount of time together, thus ensuring full awareness of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure

- It does not focus on any of the parties AND therefore getting detached from the non underlined part

C. the patient must spend a substantial amount of time with his or her operating physician, thus ensuring that he or she has been made fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure

-It says patient is the Star and he needs to spend time. but No . Physician needs to spend time to gain the state of mind of the patient.
D. the operating physician must spend a substantial amount of time with the patient, thus ensuring that the patient is fully aware of the pros and cons of accepting the undergoing procedure

- CORRECT Choice. Does the right thing.

E. the operating physician must ensure that he or she is fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing a surgical procedure by spending a substantial amount of time with the patient

- he or she points to physician. and he does not need to spend time with patient to get aware of pros and cons.He already knows it. He needs to communicate the information to the patient

daagh, I am certain that your answer is incorrect. Please check the question again

The sentence starts with "In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent prior to surgery"
Who needs to spend the time? - The physician. Hence we need physician as the subject after the non underlined part.

This straight away removes options A, B and C.
Coming to D and E.

Option E implies that the physician should be aware of the pros and cons. Incorrect.

Correct Option: D

The sentence begins with the modifier “In order to properly evaluate a patient’s state of mind
and gain informed consent prior to surgery.” This modifier logically should apply to the
modified noun “the operating physician,” as it is the operating physician who must evaluate a
patient’s state of mind and gain informed consent. In other words, "in order to do X" most
properly expresses the intention of the subject of the sentence, and so the subject should be
"the operating physician." The original sentence is incorrect, as the modifier is incorrectly
followed by “a substantial period of time” as opposed to “the operating physician.”

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) In this sentence, the modifier is followed by the compound subject “the operating
physician and the patient.” This choice incorrectly suggests that it is both the operating
physician and the patient that must evaluate the patient’s state of mind and gain informed
consent, as opposed to the physician alone. Also, the final phrase in the sentence, "thus
ensuring full awareness..." does not clarify exactly “whose” full awareness is ensured (the
awareness must clearly be the “patient's”).

(C) This choice places “the patient” immediately after the initial modifier, illogically and
incorrectly suggesting that the patient him or herself will evaluate the patient’s state of
mind. In addition, the pronouns "he or she" are ambiguous; they could refer to the patient or
to the physician.

(D) CORRECT. This choice places the proper subject, “the operating physician,” adjacent to
the opening modifier. Additionally, it is 100% clear that the “patient” is to be made fully aware
of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure.

(E) This choice correctly uses “the operating physician” as the subject of the sentence,
resolving the modifier issue. However, the pronouns “he or she” incorrectly refer to “the
operating physician,” suggesting that it is the physician, rather than the patient, who must be
made fully aware of the pros and cons of undergoing the surgical procedure.

I solved this one almost purely of off meaning. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the physician should make sure that the patient understands the risks of the procedure.


It should be amount of time. Not period of time. The order of this answer choice is confusing as well.


Who's ensuring full awareness of the pros and cons? This answer choice slightly muddles the meaning.

The real meaning is that the physician should ensure that the patient understand the pros and cons.


Who is the "he or she" referring to? The patient or the physician? It's unclear. Ambiguous pronouns are wrong.


This answer choice clearly conveys the intended meaning.


Who is the "he or she" referring to? The patient or the physician? It's unclear. Ambiguous pronouns are wrong.

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