Writing Question..more

<ol>
<li>(Having command of pathos, tragedy, as well as humor,) George Eliot is considered to be a great English novelist.</li>
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<p>I chose A. Correct answer is E. Because of her command of pathos,tragedy and humor</p>

<p>Why is it? is it because it uses "because"? I thought both were acceptable.</p>

<ol>
<li>In (those cities) (in which) public transportation is adequate, fewer traffic problems occur and pedestrians (are rarely) (involved in) accidents.</li>
</ol>

<p>Correct answer is E.... Shouldn't the error be at B? In which should be where?</p>

<ol>
<li>The quality of multivitamin tablets (is determined) by (how long) (its) potency (can be protected) by the manufacturer's coating material.</li>
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<p>Answer is C... WHY? and how would you fix it?</p>

<p>

When you have a participial phrase (“Having command…humor”) like that, the act expressed in the participial phrase roughly occurs at the same time as the act expressed in the following, independent clause. The sentence Walking down the street, he got hit by a truck expresses two acts, walking down the street, and getting hit by a bus. These two acts occur roughly at the same time.</p>

<p>

Now in this sentence, the implication is that George Eliot is considered to be a great English novelist while having command of pathos, tragedy, and humor. This makes no sense because the sentence is in the present tense (we consider him to be a great English novelist now), and George Eliot is dead, so he can’t have command while being considered to be a great English novelist. </p>

<p>The “because…” clause expresses that his current legacy of praise is due to his great command of literary techniques (pathos, tragedy and humor) within his work.

In this context, “in which” and “where” mean the same exact thing and are interchangeable.

“potency” is the measure of how active (efficient) a drug is when it enters your body. So “its potency” means “the drugs’ potency” or, more specifically, “the multivitamin tablets’ potency.” “multivitamin tablets” is plural, so “its” should be changed to “their.” Even if you did not know what “potency” means you could deduce that “its potency” means “the quality’s potency,” which doesn’t make sense.</p>

<p>Choice E, “Because of her command…” expresses causation, which is missing from choice A. It’s not merely that Eliot is considered a great novelist and she has command of these literary elements, but that she is considered great because of her mastery of them.</p>

<p>Thanks guys! @both, how do you recognize when to use “in which” vs “where” or if you see “in which”, you can automatically assume it is the same as “where”?</p>

<p>Also, i just realized that CB has these online but their reason was that you can’t use “as well” for the third reason, it has to be the conjunction “and” instead.</p>

<p>Interesting points. I’ll add another. ‘As well as’ does not mean the same thing as ‘and’. It is closer to ‘in addition to’ or even ‘not only, but also’. When it is used in a series, it tends to subtly separate the items. That difference is reflected in the structure and punctuation of the items in the series. In the case of the question above, the phrase should be “Having command of pathos and tragedy, as well as humor, George Eliot is considered…”</p>

<p>There is also a convention called the “literary present tense”, which discusses literary works and authors in the present tense, even though the author wrote the book in the past. The idea is that the author is telling you the story NOW. So it is acceptable to say “George Eliot writes beautifully” even though she died about 130 years ago.</p>

<p>I have to say that I’d be surprised if these points were being tested on a CB test.</p>

<p>Both are correct. “In which” is more formal and can be more precise, specifying ‘in which’ ‘on which’, ‘beneath which’ rather than the more general ‘where’.</p>

<p>Sorry, Nspired. I didn’t catch your final post before I posted.</p>

<p>So __which is interchangeable with where? and its okay if either appears?</p>

<p>Right. One might be considered better than another depending on the audience and situation, but that’s a matter of choosing an appropriate style, not of grammatical correctness.</p>

<p>A for 9 doesn’t really make sense at all to me. A list with no and or or? The only option seems to be E, assuming you noticed errors in the other options.</p>

<p>I did not understand the “because of” question in the BB either.</p>

<p>Just to add an example and question here to make sure I completely grasp this:</p>

<p>If you had the sentence, “Having never watched Finding Nemo before, Emily is known as the outcast at school”, the correct sentence should read “Because of never having watched Finding Nemo before, Emily is known as the outcast at school”?</p>

<p>And is this sentence grammatically sound? “Having never watched Finding Nemo before, Emily is behind the times at school.”</p>

<p>i think ur sentence is fine.</p>