abhishekmayank wrote:
supratim7 wrote:
The fragile markets were caught off-guard Friday by an unexpected drop in retail sales for May,
which renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
A. which renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
B. an event that renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
C. and renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
D. renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
E. renewing concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
I couldn't eliminate (B). Can anyone explain why (B) is incorrect?
Many thanks.
Here, B and E are the contenders for the correct answer choice and the winner is E.
As per the explanations and analysis in the replies, we are ruling out the option B because it is being treated as appositive modifier and hence it is not following the touch rule appropriately.
But, I think that it is an absolute phrase, and it is modifying the entire clause.
Moreover, I have see that comma + ing-modifier doesn't go well to modify the passive clause as the subject is not direct in the passive clause
Could the expert let me know as to why option E is better that option B ? Thanks for your help
Hi
VeritasKarishma, could you clarify on it, given
egmat is very elaborate on the subject of comma + ing-modifier
We need to look for the best option.
(B) has ambiguous meaning at best.
A was caught off guard by (an event) B, an event that did C.
an event that did C - is an appositive modifier. It renames the event B and tells us more about it. It is not an absolute phrase.
comma + present participle modifier tells us something more about the previous clause or is the result of the previous clause.
What renewed concerns about the pace of recovery? The point that fragile markets were caught off guard (so perhaps they tanked). This renewed concerns about the pace of recovery. The result of getting caught off guard was renewed concerns.
Hence, comma+present participle makes perfect sense.
Option (E) is correct.