<p>(("Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he")) failed to keep either of them after the election.</p>
<p>(A) Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he
(C) Although the candidate made promises both to cut taxes and improve services, he
(D) Having promised, first, to cut taxes and, second, to improve services, the candidate</p>
<p>My choice is [D], while the correct answer is [C]. It doesn't make sense.</p>
<p>I write for a living and know what’s grammatical, but I never know how to explain why something is or isn’t. But I picked C because D seemed awkwardly phrased, had extra unecessary words (first, second) and is passively phrased. D is actively phrased, but I think the biggest reason is the last half of the sentence refers to “them”, so you need a noun earlier in the sentence for “them” to refer to. C is the only one that has that noun (promises) instead a verb (promised).</p>
<p>All i can say is looking at choice it’s too wordy. Simple is the key. Also,comma splices are the biggest issue for choicr D. Hope that helps :)</p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using CC</p>
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<p>(D) does not contain a comma splice. </p>
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<p>Yep. On the SAT pronouns must explicitly contain their antecedents within the sentence. In choice (D) “them” has no antecedent because “promises” was replaced with a verb. </p>
<p>Additionally, choice (D)'s use of a participial phrase does not establish as clearly as choice (C) the contradiction between the politician’s making the promises and his failure to keep them. The conjunction “although” does, though.</p>
<p>I noticed D is not an answer at a glance, but I still don’t understand why C is better than B. Why using a noun (promises) makes the sentence better than the original with the verb “promised”?</p>
<p>^ It’s not so much that “promises” makes the sentence subjectively better as it is that the sentence is grammatically incorrect unless the plural pronoun in the main clause has something to refer to. “them” from “either of them after the election” must have a referent in the sentence that is also plural. If “promises” didn’t appear in the sentence, what else could “them” refer to? “taxes”? “services”? Neither of these fits in logical context. </p>
<p>Other than that note, (D) is grammatically correct.</p>
<p>I think C is wrong. I was told that the "both … and … " requires a parallel structure, and in C, “to cut” and “improve services” are not in parallel…</p>
<p>^ Yes, none of the choices you provided are grammatically perfect.</p>
<p>why A is wrong?</p>
<p>^ (A) has two problems. Like choice (D), it does not include a noun for the pronoun “them” from the main clause to refer to. And as r0gerdark pointed out about choice (C), it lacks parallelism because “both to cut taxes and improve services” ought to be either “both to cut taxes and to improve services” or “to both cut taxes and improve services.”</p>
<p>@silverturtle! who doesn’tlove this guy! CC legend! Thank you for clarifying what is wrong with that answer choice.</p>