The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing

Question

The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings which often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

A. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings which often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

B. For their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, the artisans of Mastonia were famous and often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

C. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on their creations.

D. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on them.

E. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings and often carving leaves and flowers on them.

shrutij1122 · Answer

B can be eliminated because them can be for artisans or the creations, it is not clear here. 
In A, due to modifier which, it sounds like the flowers are carved only on cornices. 
D, E change the meaning of the sentence.
Hence, C should be the answer.

thakurarun85 · Answer

C Changed the meaning. It says that leaves are carved on artists creation. However, the leaves were carved on cornice and mouldings, as per original sentence.

aranjali16 · Answer

please answer this question in detail

KarishmaB · Answer

The first thing to do always is to understand what the sentence tells us. This is what option (A) tells us. 
It tells us that artisans were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for ceilings. These ceilings ('which' without the comma refers to 'ceilings') had leaves and flowers carved on them. 
Now this is awkward, right? the 'decorative mouldings' are likely to have leaves and flowers, not the ceiling. The ceiling has the moulding. The moulding has the flowers. The artisans would be creating the decorations. The ceilings wouldn't come with decorations. 
So what the likely meaning here is that the artisans were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings for ceilings and that they carved flowers etc on these mouldings.

A. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings which often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

As we discussed, this meaning is not correct.

B. For their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, the artisans of Mastonia were famous and often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

We don't know what 'them' refers to. In fact, it seems to refer to 'artisans' here. ... the artisans were famous and often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

C. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on their creations.

This makes sense. It tells us that the artisans were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for ceilings. It also tells us that they often carved leaves and flowers on their creations (so they carved leaves and flowers on deco mouldings or cornices).

D. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on them.

'them' has no clear referent.

E. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings and often carving leaves and flowers on them.

'them' has no clear referent. Also, use of 'carving' is incorrect. We need a verb phrase after 'and' so we need to say 
The artisans were famous for .... and often carved leaves ...

Answer (C)

Raman109 · Answer

The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings which often had leaves and flowers carved on them.

Option Elimination -

A. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings which often had leaves and flowers carved on them. - "the ceilings" is not ok as we are not referring to some specific ceilings. Moreover, "which" refers to ceilings, meaning "ceilings often had leaves and flowers carved on them." But why whom? Not clear.

B. For their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, the artisans of Mastonia were famous and often had leaves and flowers carved on them. - "leaves and flowers carved" on Artisans. Wrong.

C. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on their creations. - The only deception here is "famous" next to "Mastonia," but look at "their." The only antecedent of "their" is The artisans and not Mastonia. If we can unpack this, then option C looks ok; otherwise, we'll fall for option A trap as all other options don't make sense.

D. The artisans of Mastonia, famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings, often carved leaves and flowers on them. - same issue as B.

E. The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing decorative mouldings or cornices for the ceilings and often carving leaves and flowers on them. - the antecedent of "them" is not clear. Moreover, "carved" would have been better than "carving."

The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing

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The artisans of Mastonia were famous for their mastery over designing

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