This picture of Beethoven was sketched by a close friend of his by memory a few weeks after his death . A. was sketched by a close friend of his by memory a few weeks after his death B. was sketched by his close friend from memory a few weeks after his death C. on his death bed, was sketched by a close friend of his from memory a few weeks later D. was sketched by a close friend a few weeks after his death by memory E. was sketched from memory a few weeks after his death by a close friend of his

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This picture of Beethoven was sketched by a close friend of

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ExpertsGlobal5

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26 Jun 2022, 05:28

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f0restreal

OA is given as E .
However ,I went with B after I had to choose between B and E.

My approach :

1) idiom : the correct usage is "sketching from memory" || Eliminate A & D
2) option B seems okay for now except for the pronoun ambiguity in which "his" could refer to "Beethoven" or his "friend" || Keep B
3) option C seems to tell us that the picture was of Beethoven on his deathbed. || Eliminate C
4) option E also seems okay , pronoun ambiguity seems to be resolved here . However , "..death by a close friend of his" sounds similar to "..death by drowning" . This seems like the friend had caused the death. ( maybe I am wrong here .. the correct usage is perhaps "..death from [causant] .

Can someone please help me with the rationale for picking between B and E ?

Hello f0restreal,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "death by cause" is a correct idiomatic construction, but in this construction, the "cause" must refer to the literal cause of the death, not a person who caused the death; we can say "death by murder" or "death by stabbing", but we cannot say "death by a stranger" or "death by his sister".

Thus, there is no meaning error in Option E.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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