<p>I just got my October SAT answers back (I paid the extra $ for answer booklet) and I realized that one of the sentence correction questions I got wrong is indeed a gramatically incorrect sentence, which any English teacher would argue, but the answer was supposed to be E. I put B, and I would like to protest the question. Just to let you know, if I get this question right, my SAT score goes up 30-40 points, which might affect college decisions. I feel a serious problem has occurred, and the question should be omitted from the exam for all test-takers. What should I do?</p>
<p>bump .</p>
<p>wats the sentence?</p>
<p>Am I allowed to discuss the question?</p>
<p>don't fret!!!!!!</p>
<p>OK, here goes:</p>
<p>The valuable stringed A>instruments in<a this="" display,="" b="">all more than<b 300="" years="" old,="" were="" carefully="" crafted="" c="">by famous artisans<c in="" their="" day="" but="" d="">long since<d forgotten.="" e="">No error<E</d></c></b></a></p><a this="" display,="" b=""><b 300="" years="" old,="" were="" carefully="" crafted="" c="">
<p>The sentence is grammatically incorrect since the appositive's antecedent should be the word before the comma, i.e. "display," but it really refers to "instruments."</p>
</b></a>
<p>I'd say the answer is D and that it should say "were long since," but that's just me.</p>
<p>If you want to protest, then you must contact the college board and tell them. They do make mistakes. You could have them rescore it too, just in case. I had I friend whose math score said something like 670 and she didn't think that was right, had them rescore it, and found it that they had overlooked the grid-in questions and that she actually got a perfect score.</p>
<p>You're wrong. Appositives don't always have to be directly juxtaposed with their antecedents. "*n this display" modifies "instruments," and the fact that the appositive uses the plural further supports the clarity of the expression.</p>
<p>lol, I know it modifies instruments, but, to make the sentence gramatically correct, instruments should immediately precede the comma.</p>
<p>I definitely think you should take this to College Board...it won't hurt you, and can only possibly help. Good luck!</p>
<p>You need to justify that statement...and I think you'll have a hard time doing so. The fact that it's modified effectively creates one collective antecedent.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I'm definitely taking it to my English teachers before I go to college board, so relax ReJoyce.</p>
<p>Bah! This all seems like meaningless quibbling to me. One doesn't say, "His thoughts, though stilted and dry, on the issue were neverthless valuable." By directly juxtaposing the appositive phrase and the antecedent in this case, we end up mucking up the overall clarity--not to mention the style--of the sentence. It would be better to place the appositive after the modifier: "His thoughts on the issue, though stilted and dry, were nevertheless valuable."</p>
<p>I agree with ReJoyce - doesn't seem like an error to me. In any case, the entire appositive isn't underlined. The error was to be found in the part of the appositive, "all more than," not the appositive itself or its positioning within the sentence.</p>
<p>B is definitely not an error. You've got an appositive (or something like one) and a prepositional phrase both acting as modifiers for "instruments", and I don't see any reason why they should come in one order over another.</p>
<p>The thing underlined for D is technically correct, I think: "carefully crafted..." and "long since forgotten" are multiple things that can be tacked onto "were", and so it should be legit to just put them together with a conjunction ("but"). It's a little messy, but I'm not sure it could be made better.</p>
<p>Thus I'm pretty sure E should be the right answer. I'm curious to hear your teacher's take on it, though, if you talk to him/her.</p>
<p>C</p>
<p>famous artisans should be artisans famous</p>
<p>yea..i pretty sure it cant be B, and it is not an error</p>
<p>Honestly... my gut instinct upon reading that sentence tells me that there's no error, and I agree with the College Board's answer. You can't get too technical when answering sentence correction questions; you just have to go with your instinct and what sounds correct. If you're a good writer, more often than not you will recognize an error just because it sounds a little off.</p>
<p>Error or not, it is a HORRIBLE sentence!!! Let me remove the distracting letters/symbols:</p>
<p>The valuable stringed instruments in this display,
all more than 300 years old, were carefully crafted
by famous artisans in their day but long since
forgotten.</p>
<p>What was forgotten??? The artisans or the instruments? Were the artisans famous in their day but nobody has heard of them now? That's the meaning I get. Or is it the instruments that were forgotten but recently discovered and now on display for the world to see? My standard in judging a sentence is that you shouldn't have to read it 5 times to figure out exactly what the heck the author is trying to say!!!!</p>
<p>uh there's no error..</p>