<p>Mediators were standing by, prepared to intervene in the labor dispute even though both sides had refused earlier offers (D) FOR assistance.</p>
<p>I wrote E for this question, but the answer is D, for. It's from a Jan 2007 QAS so there are no explanations.</p>
<p>Could someone explain this to me? Is it idiomatically "OF" or something? I thought about that, but wasn't completely sure.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It should be “of”. That’s how CB explains it. You wouldn’t typically give someone an offer FOR assistance because it sounds like you’re not giving assistance yourself, but instead putting on the load on someone else’s shoulders. Lol, I don’t know if that’s a good explanation, but that’s how I thought about it :)</p>
<p>Idioms are a pain in the a ss on the SAT and I wouldn’t be surprised if all my wrong MC questions were idiom questions.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, that makes a ton of sense. Since they’re the ones giving assistance, it should be their offer OF assistance. Damn, it was the only Writing question I got wrong too.</p>
<p>I hate how idioms are not completely obvious. >____></p>