The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels, will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the environment in ways harmful to their habitats.

(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,-----"human beings in burning..."does not properly presents the action of human beings. it's an awkward construction

(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,--------this is a passive construction and the use of "burned" signifies that the action happend in the past and is not continuing but that is not correct. the action of burning is continuing, hence it will create problems in future

(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,------Correct. the action of human being's is correctly presented

(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,-----this changes the meaning of the sentence. now instead of a generic effect, the blame is only on human beings who burn fossil fules

(E) which most scientists agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,-----same error as B

The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels, will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the environment in ways harmful to their habitats.

(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,
(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,
(E) which most scientists agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,

The correct sentence is c. This is a case of Noun + Noun modifier. A phenomenon is modifying global warning and that clause which immediately follows a phenomenon talks more about the phenomenon.

A is wordy and has a meaning error.
B again has a meaning error, it incorrectly implies that global warming is caused by fossil fuels.
D has the same meaning error. Yes, it is caused by human beings but how it is done by them is not clearly stated.
E is wordy and awkward.

Please comment if my explanation has any error.

Thank you

Hello KB04,

You have done a good job at solving this official sentence.

You have stated correct reasons to reject incorrect answer choices.

I would just like to say that Choice E has the same error as Choice B as this choice also says that that fossil fuels cause global warming.

Rest all is good.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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I have to admit that this made me pause for a moment. I just put more thought into the word "of" than I ever have in my life -- and I've been teaching grammar in some form or another for... ick, too many years.

Here's the issue: you're right that the word "of" can indicate possession, as in your first two examples. But the word "of" can do a ton of other things as well:

• Indicate membership in a broader category: "the state of Colorado" or "the business of education".
• Indicate a directional relationship: "Golden is west of Denver."
• Indicate the material being used for something: "a hat made of meat", "a building of stone", or "the burning of fuel."

And we could go on. Prepositions are a mess in English, and plenty of them have multiple meanings -- and "of" definitely has quite a few.

I hope this helps!
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Ha, sorry for the confusion! Let me give it another shot.

Here are your examples again:


In all three of these examples, the word "of" indicates possession. Here, have another example: "the delicious crust of my pizza" = "my pizza's delicious crust." (Mmm... pizza.)

Here's the problem: in your examples, you're assuming that the word "of" ALWAYS indicates possession. And that certainly isn't always the case. "Of" can do far more than indicate possession. There are more uses of "of" than I could possibly list here, but here are a few examples again of alternate meanings for the word "of":

• Indicate membership in a broader category: "the state of Colorado" or "the business of education". These do not indicate possession -- Colorado doesn't possess the state, and education doesn't possess the business. But Colorado is an example of a state, and education is a category of business.
• Indicate a directional relationship: "Golden is west of Denver." This doesn't indicate possession, either: Denver does not possess "west" or Golden. The word "of" just helps us understand where two places are in relation to each other.
• Indicate the material being used for something: "a hat made of meat", "a building of stone", or "the burning of fuel." Again, the meat doesn't possess the hat, stone doesn't possess the building, and fuel does not possess the burning. The word "of" just tells us something about the materials being used for a task.

Notice that the last use of the word "of" is consistent with the version in answer choice (C): in the phrase "human beings' burning of fossil fuel", "of fossil fuel" just indicates the materials used for the human beings' act of burning things.

Does that help at all?
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