mooreliberty wrote:aj5105 wrote:Socially and environmentally responsible investing is on the rise: last year in the United States, over $2 trillion was invested in funds that screen companies according to a variety of criteria such as adherence to labor standards, protection of the environment, and observance of human rights.
A. according to a variety of criteria such as
B. according to a variety of such criteria, as by
C. according to such a variety of criteria as by
D. in accordance with such a variety of criteria as
E. in accordance with a variety of criteria, such as by
what's wrong with A?
spoiler below:
D
My first answer choice was D - it simply sounded correct. Knowing the danger of relying on my ear, I went through this thought process:
My first thought was parallelism... What was invested? Two trillion (noun)... how was it invested? "...was invested
in funds..." I was looking for an answer choice that paralleled "invested in." If the prepositional phrase "in funds that screened companies" did not exist, the next prepositional phrase should flow for the most part in the same manner.
So i'm looking for an answer that begins with a preposition, preferably a preposition that does not change the meaning of the sentence ("in" is what I hope to see in the answer choices, but with SC, I know I have to be flexible). Common prepositions are "in," "of," "off," "on," "to," "toward," "with," etc.
In answer choices A and B, "according" and the following prepositional phrase is incorrectly used to describe how these funds screen companies. Prepositional phrases follow an equation: preposition + modifiers (optional) + concludes with a gerund, pronoun, or noun. In A and B, the prepositional phrase is missing the noun, gerund, or pronoun. The prepositional phrase that begins with "according to" is left hanging - it is incomplete without the pronoun "such," which follows yet another preposition "of".
In addition, answer choice A incorrectly uses "such as" to introduce the screening criteria - as it reads, "adherence to labor standards, protection of the environment, and observance of human rights" are merely examples of the screening criteria, rather than the criteria itself.
In answers C & E "by" is used incorrectly as a preposition attempting to link "as" and "adherence to labor standards, protection of the environment, and observance of human rights." "By" splits the verb "as" and the clauses that follow. In addition, "by" is redundant, as it is intended to mean "in accordance with," which is already stated earlier in the sentence.
That leaves choice D.
I hope this is helpful - but I'm no expert. I would appreciate any and all feedback from the great minds of the site re:my analysis and reasoning.
