In the fifteenth century, when coal first began to have

Question

In the fifteenth century, when coal first began to have commercial value, women and children did the hardest work in the  mines ; they were hauling baskets on their hands and knees out of poorly ventilated tunnels. 
(A)
(B) mines, and hauled baskets out of poorly ventilated tunnels on their hands and knees.
(C) mines, the hauling, on their hands and knees, of baskets out of poorly ventilated tunnels.
(D) mines : out of poorly ventilated tunnels, they hauled baskets on their hands and knees.
(E) mines : on their hands and knees, they hauled baskets out of poorly ventilated tunnels.

mba · Answer

(E) sounds good to me.

But would appreciate an explanation on correct usage of ":"

venksune · Answer

my answer is E. The sentence after semicolon should necessarily stand by itself. A fails to do that. B & C are ungrammatic. Out of D and E, I would choose E.

mba · Answer

Venksun: part of sentence after ";" is indeed an independent clause, the problem with (A) is the use of verb "hauling", it should be "hauled" rather than hauling to match the parallel structure in the first part of the sentence.

dj · Answer

E is the best.

they hauled baskets out of the tunnels(E), not hauled baskets on their hands (D).

becoolja · Answer

QA : "E" <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/1f603.png" class="forumSmileyItem" width="20" height="20" alt=":-)" title="Smile" /> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/1f603.png" class="forumSmileyItem" width="20" height="20" alt=":-)" title="Smile" />

In the fifteenth century, when coal first began to have

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