<p>The question "The era of Greek tyrants..."</p>
<p>Was it "who had ruled" or "ruling"</p>
<p>Secondly,</p>
<p>Everyone is debating over superlatives in the Hemmingway question...maybe I just read it too fast but I put the answer that said "For Whom the Bell Tolls, critics argue" because that opening was the best.</p>
<p>^I don't remember seeing an issue about superlatives...</p>
<p>i put who had ruled.</p>
<p>i dont remember the sentence but i believe it was in past tense</p>
<p>Yeah, I put had ruled because that's the only one that would be grammatically correct since era is singular and ruling is just wrong because the era did not do the ruling, the Greek tyrants did.</p>
<p>it is who had ruled, and you are right on the Hemingway one</p>
<p>It's "who had ruled"<br>
:]]</p>
<p>Now what about that question about the Native Americans:
It was something along the lines of: The <em>whatever</em> tribe didn't have any legacy of migration, _________________ to have been born from stones and jaguars.</p>
<p>My answer to the question about the Native Americans was ", believing they were" (to have been born), where the phrase in quotation is the part of the answer. (I think that was choice C)</p>
<p>Other answers lacked commas, included "but"s, and said "believed themselves" (to have been born) or any combination of those things.</p>
<p>Well "themselves" is an object pronoun while "they" is a subject pronoun (or whatever their proper names are).</p>
<p>Sometimes English has some perverted form of subjunctive where the object pronoun is correct (and is followed by an infinitive):
He asked ME to fetch the stick.
They asked THEMSELVES to fetch the stick. (Well, this doesn't make sense but it seems grammatically correct)
This is the only way in which I could see "themselves" possibly functioning.</p>
<p>The problem is that I don't think that "believe" has such a subjunctive form. "Believe" followed by an object pronoun would result in a statement like:
He told me the truth, but I didn't believe HIM.
This makes it sound like the Indians actually believed themselves, not that they believed something about themselves. Using "themselves" also leaves no subject for the "to have been born."</p>
<p>Also, I don't know if this would be appropriate, but removing "to have been" makes ", believing they were" (born) the clear choice.</p>
<p>What does everyone else think?</p>
<p>again, i don't see anything wrong with "they believed themselves to have been," and have seen it used in numerous respectable publications. try googling the phrase in quotes if you want some examples.</p>