<p>Only infrequently did James laugh at the jokes that the comedian has been telling; James simply did not find the comedian's punch lines, none of which seemed original, to be funny.</p>
<h2>The underlined words are wrong. What should it be replaced with?</h2>
<p> Whenever television is denounced by viewers for its violence, they call on the department of Standards and, Practices to take action.</p>
<p>(C) Whenever television is denounced for its violence, viewers call
(D) Whenever viewers denounce television for its violence, they call</p>
<p>Answer is D. Isn't "they" ambiguous? Like, it can refer to some people NOT mentioned in the sentence, and won't necessarily refer back to "viewers"?</p>
<p>First one: Should be “told” or “had been telling”
Generally, you match the present with the perfect tense: “run” goes with “has run”
You match simple past with pluperfect: “ran” goes with “had run”
Here “did laugh” requires past or pluperfect, so “has been telling” does not work.</p>
<p>In the second case, if there is only one possible “they” mentioned in the sentence before the use of “they,” then the word “they” is unambiguous, and refers to that “they.” You can use pronouns! The idea behind the sentence is that viewers call the Department of Standards and Practices to complain about television violence (thus denouncing it). It’s not that someone is denouncing television for its violence, and then after that viewers call someone. (Talk radio might convince you otherwise, but the denunciation and the call are parts of a single action.) Also, passive voice is ok (i.e., “is denounced”), but generally there has to be a very good reason for using it. Here, there isn’t.</p>
<p>First one: I would probably use “told” (or “had been telling”) to match the second part of the sentence (did not find…) which is in the past tense. “has been telling” indicates that he is still telling jokes, but that does not match the past tense of the second part of the sentence.</p>
<p>Second: Answer choice C says “Whenever television is denounced for its violence, viewers call”, which is ambiguous itself because it doesn’t say who is doing the denouncing. Answer choice D uses a pronoun (they) to refer back to the viewers, and it says that the viewers are the ones denouncing television without being too wordy. Therefore, the answer is D.</p>