<p>1.) George Thornton Emmons was one of a handful of ethnographers who committed their life to studying the Tlingit culture of the Northwest Coast. No error</p>
<p>Answer: C Collegeboard explanation: The error in this sentence occurs at (C), where there is noun-noun disagreement. The singular noun "life" does not agree with the plural noun "ethnographers." My Question: According to college board, their life is supposed to modify ethnographers, but I thought in these kinds of sentences that their life is supposed to modify the one.</p>
<p>2.) Something of a phenomenon in the entertainment world, political satirists are admired by conservatives and radicals alike. No error</p>
<p>Answer: No error Collegeboard explanation: There is no error at (A). The pronoun "something" refers correctly to the status of political satirists, and the preposition "of" is an appropriate idiom to connect that pronoun with the noun "phenomenon." My Question: Something is singular and political satirists are plural. Where is the indication that something is meant to modify the status of the satirists?</p>
<p>3.) If you have read the assigned chapters, you will be prepared as to the material if tested.</p>
<p>(A) as to the material if tested
(B) if someone tests you on the material
(C) if tested regarding material read by you
(D) if there are tests with the material
(E) about the material where someone tests you</p>
<p>Answer: B My Question: Can you use if twice in one sentence. This sounds awkward to me. And could you further explain how B is grammatically correct? If anything, isnt it stylistically awkward?</p>
<p>For 2, political satirists being admired by conservatives and radicals alike IS the phenomenon. </p>
<p>For 3, I don’t think there’s a rule where you can’t use “if” twice in one sentence. (someone correct me if I’m wrong) Though looking at the other choices, none of them makes any sense except for B.</p>
<p>If their life were modifying one, the sentence should read his life. The correction should be his life or their lives.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Arrange the sentence as this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Political satirists, [who are] something of a phenomenon in the entertainment world, are admired by conservatives and radicals alike.</li>
</ol>
<p>“A phenomenon” here implies “a significant phenomenon”, “a phenomenon that attracts people’s attention”.</p>
<p>The phrase “X is something of a Y” draws attention to a noteworthy characteristic of X.</p>
<p>For the first one, I do not understand collegeboard’s reasoning. I see how C is incorrect either way, but collegeboard claims that “their life” is incorrect because it is supposed to modify “ethnographers”, but I think it is incorrect because it is supposed to modify “one”.</p>
<p>But lets say that on a test, it was written like this:</p>
<p>George Thornton Emmons was one of a handful of ethnographers who committed their lives to studying the Tlingit culture of the Northwest Coast.</p>
<p>Would this be incorrect or correct? “their lives” correctly refers back to ethnographers, but shouldn’t it be corrected by modifying singularly back to “one”? In these kind of examples where, “one of (plural noun)…” would the next verb modify the “one” or the plural noun?</p>
<p>I think “who committed their(his) lives(life)” can apply to either one or ethnographers depending on the situation. So the phrase can be “his life” or “their lives” but not “their life”.</p>
<p>PS: “His life” would be INCORRECT. If it was only about the guy, then enthographers wouldn’t have to be mentioned at all. He’s one of those people and he does this? He’s one of those people WHO did this - is what makes sense.</p>