Which of the following would most improve sentence 7(reproduced below) ?
“Mexico City’s murals were painted fifty years ago exclusively by renowned artists inthe city’s grandest buildings.”
(A) Insert “amazing” before “murals”.
(B) Change “were painted” to “have been painted".
© Change “the city’s” to “their”.
(D) Change “grandest” to “the most grand”.
(E) Move “in the city’s grandest buildings” after “painted”.
Why can’t the correct answer be A ?
Because is that really the most important thing this sentence is missing?
I’d go with E. A is a trivial change. B is not grammatically correct. C makes the sentence less clear. D is not grammatically correct.
Because the directions say “most improve” not “slightly improve, but there is still a better answer available.”
E is best because the current statement has a dangling modifier. Were the murals painted in the city’s grandest buildings, or were the artists in the city’s grandest buildings?
I also have to comment that, with VERY few exceptions, the addition of the word “amazing” can’t help but make a sentence worse, not better. It’s simply the current generation’s version of awesome, excellent, wicked, cool, groovy, and hip. None of them really means anything, and there is almost always a more precise way to convey whatever the writer intends by that word.
It’s one of the first things I teach my freshman writing students.