<p>Find the part of the sentence with the error:</p>
<p>The television station (A. has received) many complaints (B. about) the clothing advertisements, (C. which some) viewrs condemn (D. to be) tasteless. (E. no error)</p>
<p>The official solutions says that the answer is D. but I think it is E. Any reasons for D?</p>
<p>this is an idiomatic usage with the verb "to condemn." when you use "condemn + [INFINITIVE]," it means that the person doing the condemning has an authority over the condemnee. for example, a judge can condemn a convict to die because he has the authority to do so, or god can condemn someone to walk the earth forever with five ears. in both constructions, we use "condemn" plus an infinitive ("to die" or "to walk").</p>
<p>if the sentence above were correct as written, the viewers would be exercising some sort of authority over the advertisements, which isn't possible because they don't have any.</p>
<p>the proper usage here would be something along the lines of "condemn as"--in that usage, the condemner is offering a judgment, not exercising any authority.</p>
<p>of course, the problem you face now is that this point of grammar is almost certain not to come up on the SAT when you take it :) but at least now you know.</p>
<p>I agree that this was a particularly difficult problem in terms of idiomatic expression. Most idiomatic expression problems are more obvious than this one. I answered the problem correctly because A,B,C were clearly correct and "condemn to be" was not nearly as understandable as "condemn as".</p>
<p>Good Luck! Try to fill in your own answers like I did...sometimes it helps.</p>