Sentence Correction

As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

A) As the former
B) The former
C) Former
D) She was
E) As the

C????

Answer is E.

Answers with the word "former" are not parallel with board member- you would expect "former chair and former board member".

Also, more importantly adding former changes the meaning of the sentence.

She atteneded (past tense) those meetings and and reviewed those applications as THE chair and/or board member, not as THE "former" chair/board member.

i think it is E too

Canman wrote:Answer is E.

Answers with the word "former" are not parallel with board member- you would expect "former chair and former board member".

Also, more importantly adding former changes the meaning of the sentence.

She atteneded (past tense) those meetings and and reviewed those applications as THE chair and/or board member, not as THE "former" chair/board member.

IMO E.

but @Canman, I'm sorry but I don agree with ur reasoning of parallelism, a person can no longer be the chair but he/she can continue as a member of the organization.

Point well taken on the parallelism, reachac.

Thanks.

As is used for comparing verb.
I would go with D,
any one can explain?

Ok, I'm absolutely confused about this one. Can anyone explain why a, b and c are wrong? Thanks!

bumping it once more... would really appreciate help with this one!

She can modify for Joan Philkill.
Others cannot.

IMO E

My first thought was A. But soon realised that someone cant be a formaer cair for 18 continuous years.
So picked E.

I guess for A to be right, we would have to say:

As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a [current/former] board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

uwhusky wrote:I guess for A to be right, we would have to say:

As the former chair of the planning board for 18 consecutive years and a [current/former] board member for 28 years, Joan Philkill attended more than 400 meetings and reviewed more than 700 rezoning applications.

i'm still a little mystified as to why A is wrong...


i thought the sentence meant that she was a former chair of the planning board...a position she filled for 18 years...

if the sentence were to read, "As the former chair of the board, Joan attended more than 400 meetings.." wouldn't it be correct? why does tacking on "For 18 consecutive years" make it wrong? please help. thanks!

I must have posted the original response before I understood the question.

The issue with A is that it is illogical to suggest that Joan was a "former chair" for 18 consecutive years.

For example, you would say that you were a teacher for 18 years, but you wouldn't say that you were a former teacher for 18 years.

Hopefully I make sense in the explanation =).

IMO E

@Uwhusky you are right.