Writing Question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I'm messed up. Here's the question from SparkNotes:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Having a bargain price, Marcel snatched up the designer jeans right away.
(A) Having a bargain price, Marcel snatched up the designer jeans.
(B) Marcel who has a bargain price, snatched up the designer jeans.
(C) The jeans’ bargain price led to Marcel’s snatching them up.
(D) Due to their bargain price, Marcel snatched up the designer jeans.
(E) Based on their bargain price, the jeans were snatched up right away by Marcel.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Correct answer is D.</p>

<p>I'm learning from Gruber's Complete SAT Guide. It says that sentence cannot begin with due to and it should be replaced with because of. SparkNotes says that due to is correct. ***? Can the sentence begin with due to or not?
I'm totally mad!!!!</p>

<p>Sorry.</p>

2

<p>As reiterated before,don’t trust Gruber’s for Critical Reading and for Writing. For math however, Gruber’s is one of the best available. Now, on to your question: A sentence usually does not begin with due to but in this case it would make sense. Why? This is because “due to” is an adjective and is clearly supposed to modify the bargain price of the jeans.</p>

<p>A). Dangling Modifier. Michael doesn’t have a bargain price, the jeans do.
B). Again, Michael cannot have a bargain price (who’s antecedent is Michael).
C). Here the sentence implies that Michael snatched up the jeans because of its bargain price. Thus them is not correct and should thus be changed to it. Now even if it is substituted the gerund “snatching” is not idiomatic. It should be “led Michael to snatch the jeans up.”
D). Misplaced modifier, the jeans had a bargain price not Michael.
E). The passive voice, as is this sentence, should be avoided on the SAT and in general should also be avoided in colloquial use.</p>

3

<p>Actually, I don’t understand what you are trying to say. Do you mean that D is incorrect and C is correct?</p>

4

<p>“Due to” is perfectly fine to have at the beginning. It’s another way to say “because of.” Choice D is right.</p>

<p>A and B have misplaced modifiers. The jeans should be modified, not Michael (who’s being modified in the sentence).</p>

<p>C and E are wordy. D is the most concise and correct way to write the sentence.</p>

5

<p>thank you both!</p>

6

<p>314159265 is incorrect. This is a really, really badly written question. It doesn’t look like any of them are right.</p>

<p>D has a misplaced modifier. A correct way to write that sentence would be “Due to their bargain price, the designer jeans were snatched up by Marcel.”</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>(A) has a misplaced participial phrase.</p>

<p>(B) has a misplaced relative clause and improper restriction (needs a comma before “who”).</p>

<p>(C) is correct.</p>

<p>(D) is incorrect because “due to” functions adjectively; “because of” functions prepositionally or adverbially. The sentence intends for “due to” to modify the entire clause and is thus an adverb.</p>

<p>(E) is incorrect because “based on” does not mean what the sentence intends to convey.</p>

8

<p>thanks guys!</p>

9

<p>I don’t see how D is a misplaced modifier. It’s worded very weirdly, but I don’t see anything wrong. “Due to their bargain price” employs the plural possessive “their,” which can only refer to “jeans.” While silverturtle’s argument about the function of “due to” seems to be right, I don’t see how the “Due to their bargain price” part can be considered to be a misplaced modifier.</p>

10

<p>^ It is not a misplaced modifier. The cataphoric pronoun is somewhat detached from its referent, but this is not ungrammatical either.</p>