<p>(Despite receiving) praise (for) its special effects, the movie was criticized because its characters were so weak as (being) (scarcely) believable. (No error)</p>
<p>I originally picked "being" because it made the sentence sound awkwardly. Then i remembered to not use my ear as a guide to getting the correct answer. I tried to figure out the grammatical reasons for the incorrectness of "being" but failed. I picked No error. Why is it, in grammatical jargon, "being"?</p>
<p>In May, (construction began) on a second building that (will be attaching) to the (existing) (one). (No error)</p>
<p>I thought possible answers could be A or B depending on what the sentence wanted to convey. For example, if May already happened, then B is the answer as it should be simply "attached" but if May had yet to happen, then A is the answer, as it should be "construction will begin" Looking for clues of what the sentence is trying to say, I found nothing. So the sentence could have two possible answers A or B. But the answer is B. Why?</p>
<p>Btw this is from May sunday 2010</p>
<p>I’m not very good at explaining why but being should be “to be” and will be attaching should be “will attach”.
Maybe someone else can explain exactly why this is the case.</p>
<p>Being is grammatically incorrect because it should be “to be”—my guess as to why is that you need an infinitive, “being” there doesn’t really function as a participle or a gerund. I’m sure there’s a far more detailed and precise answer than that, but that’s really all you have to know provided you can tell that it sounds awkward…</p>
<p>For the second one, you have to evaluate the sentence based on what is written. There will never an Identifying Errors answer that depends on the other underlined phrases. Look at it this way: “construction began” is correct grammatically speaking as there is no other indication in the sentence that “began” should be in another tense.</p>
<p>Basically, my strategy to both of these questions is that if I can substitute in a phrase that works better for the sentence (“to be” for the first example, “was attached”,“will be attached”) then I choose that as the answer…</p>
<p>^your strategy is not always correct. If, for example, there is a better substitution, it doesn’t mean the original phrase was GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT. I have found that to be the case several times.
In any case, I am still in desire of a more grammar-based explanation. I realize that “to be” and “will be attached” are better substitutions. But why???</p>