Help with writing problem

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>(Opposite to) the opinion of several respected literary critics, Jane Austen (does not make) good taste or manners in themselves sure (signs of) virtue (in her characters). (No error)</p>

<p>I don't think you can underline things on this message board, so I put the options to the question in parenthesis instead. If it is difficult to read with the parenthesis, I posted it without them below, and you can just reference the top one to see what the options are.</p>

<p>Opposite to the opinion of several respected literary critics, Jane Austen does not make good taste or manners in themselves sure signs of virtue in her characters. No error.</p>

<p>Now, first off, is it just me or is this sentence incomprehensible?</p>

<p>The correct answer is A. I'm guessing because it should be "Opposite of" instead of "Opposite to"?</p>

2

<p>it should be "opposed to". try placing that first clause in the end and it will make sense.</p>

<p>Jane Austen does not make good taste or manners in themselves sure signs of virtue in her characters, opposed to the opinion of several respected literary critics</p>

3

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Here is another one...</p>

<p>When looking at modern photographs of that area of Indonesia, the effects of the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatau are still evident. No error</p>

<p>(When looking) at modern photographs of that area of Indonesia, the effects of the 1883 (eruption of) the volcano Krakatau (are) (still evident). (No error)</p>

<p>The answer is A, but could someone provide an explanation?</p>

4

<p>Actually, it shouldn't be "opposed to," because the structure of the sentence would make Jane Austen opposed to opinions, but the parellelism requirement on the SAT would require opinions to be opposed to opinions, not to a person. The correct phrase for (A) would be something like "despite" or "in spite of"--whatever it is, it can't be a verb phrase like "opposed to."</p>

<p>Remember, though, that you don't need to correct these types of questions. So you shouldn't be looking for what would be right--you should be looking for things that violate the SAT's idea of grammar, and not necessarily worrying about how to correct them.</p>

<p>The second question you provided actually has the same problem that the "opposed to" suggestion had.</p>

<p>In English, when you have a sentence with a structure like this:</p>

<p>[verb phrase ending in -ing or -ed], [noun phrase] [verb phrase]</p>

<p>Then the noun phrase is AUTOMATICALLY performing the first verb phrase.</p>

<p>So when the sentence is this:</p>

<p>"When looking at modern photographs of that area of Indonesia, the effects of the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatau are still evident."</p>

<p>then:</p>

<ol>
<li>"When looking . . . " is the verb phrase with a verb ending in -ing</li>
<li>"the effects . . ." is the noun phrase</li>
<li>"are still evident" is the second verb phrase</li>
</ol>

<p>and the sentence says that the effects are doing the looking. Which isn't possible. Which is why (A) has something wrong with it.</p>

<p>Rather than learn the grammar here, the easiest way to handle this is just to learn that when you see a sentence that starts with a phrase using a verb ending in -ing or -ed, look at the first noun phrase after the comma to make sure that this noun phrase should be doing the action in the verb phrase. This error is on the SAT all the time.</p>

5

<p>Alright, thank you :)</p>