<p>Although criticized by a few for her daredevil aviation escapades, most people viewed Amelia Earhart as a skillful pilot.</p>
<p>(A) most people viewed Amelia Earhart as a skillful pilot
(B) most people viewed Amelia Earhart to be a skillful pilot
(C) a skillful pilot was what most people viewed Amelia Earhart as
(D) Amelia Earhart was viewed by most people as a skillful pilot
(E) Amelia Earhart, a skillful pilot in the view of most people</p>
<p>Can anyone explain why the answer is D rather than A?</p>
<p>This one is wierd. I honestly dont have an explanation why, but (D) was my first choice. I guess its because it sounds better… 0___o I mean… parallel syntax?? idk, but she was “criticized BY a few” in the first part of the sentence so i guess it would make sense for her to be “viewed BY most”… it seems a combo of parallel structure and the contrast set up by the “Although”… i did my best! lolz. im not a SAT tutor.</p>
<p>I don’t know if there’s a definitive rule for this but I’m guessing that it is because both clauses should match each other in being passive; in other words, both are being done by the people, and Amelia Earhart isn’t doing any of the doing (I suck at these sorts of explanations).</p>
<p>joshma has it right. In ‘A’, it says basically, “Although criticized for her escapades, most people…” but it should be “Although criticized for her escapades, Amelia Earhart…”</p>
<p>To clarify just a little bit further, the phrase at the beginning of a sentence, if a modifier, modifies that which directly follows it. In the case of A, the sentence is claiming that “most people are criticized for escapades”, when in reality Earhart is the one that is criticized. The sentence, when reworded to put Earhart after the modifier, is correct. The answer is D.</p>
<p>The key is “criticized.” Who was criticized? It wasn’t “most people,” it was “Amelia Earhart,” and so that needs to be the first thing after the introductory phrase.</p>