<p>I know this question has been posted numerous times on the section, but I did some reading and still had some ambivalent feelings toward it. </p>
<p>[Along] the curve of islands known as the Florida keys [lies] a reef of living coral, [the only one] of [a kind] in the continental United States. [No Error]</p>
<p>C [the only one]
D [of a kind]</p>
<p>The answer is D, the reason being that it should have been "the only one of ITS kind." I totally understand this change. However, I put C. I was thinking of the revision</p>
<p>...living coral, one of a kind in the continental United States. </p>
<p>Doesn't "one of a kind" mean unique? so "unique in the United States" Why wouldn't C work?</p>
<p>Blue book 1st edition pg. 479 #16 (Practice Test 2 Section 7)</p>
<p>If you were to change it to</p>
<p>Along the curve of islands known as the Florida Keys lies a reef of living coral, one of a kind in the continental united states. ,</p>
<p>it would completely lose its meaning. All it is saying in this form is that it is “of a kind.” Wow. Big woop. Everything is “of a kind.” Also, everything is “one.” Who cares. What makes it special is that it’s the ONLY one. Then you have to change “a” to “its” because, again, the statement doesn’t make sense if you say it’s “the only one of a kind.” It’s obviously not the only thing that’s “of a kind” like I already said. The statement only makes sense when you say:</p>
<p>Along the curve of islands known as the Florida Keys lies a reef of living coral, the only of its kind in the continental united states.</p>
<p>This kind of mistake is weird. What categore does it belong to, I wonder? Normally I would assume that “one of a kind” is some kind of idiom.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use “the” one of a kind.
Examples:
Kobe Bryant is a one of a kind player
or
The coral reef is a one of a kind, featuring the widest variety of fish species</p>
<p>Edit: Nevermind</p>
<p>@DumbandLethal
I kind of see what you’re going at, but “one of a kind” is a common idiom which means “unique.” I can’t be sure what you’re saying, but it seems like you’re trying too literally to break down an idiom.</p>
<p>@wdfhaxors</p>
<p>In your above post, “I kind of see” is ungrammatical though it is a very common colloquial idiom. I have seen errors with this variety of idiom in the improving sentences portion. Catch ma’drift?</p>
<p>No I’m sorry, but can you still try to improve my understanding of the correct answer? Much appreciated.</p>
<p>We say lots of things in everyday speech that are technically ungrammatical. This is one of them.</p>
<p>Catch ma’drift?</p>