Sentence Correction

Unlike the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was to get rich quickly.

(A) the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(B) the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(C) that of the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the prospectors
and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush hoped
(D) that of the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the
prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(E) the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush hoped



I'm sure if I should compare the hope D or the people E. Also in D, if I change whom to who, will it change the meaning?

norizam wrote:Unlike the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was to get rich quickly.

(A) the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(B) the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(C) that of the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the prospectors
and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush hoped
(D) that of the people whom settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the hope of the
prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush was
(E) the people who settled the Western states after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, the prospectors and adventurers who came to California during the gold rush hoped



I'm sure if I should compare the hope D or the people E. Also in D, if I change whom to who, will it change the meaning?

IMO answer is E, as D compares two different type of "hopes" whereas E compare two different "People",the comparison that is consistent with intention of original sentence.
Yes, whom is object form and is acted upon by subject where as "who" is subject form thus acts on "hopes" instead of acted upon.

You have made mistake in underlining the sentence. "was" is also part of the underlined segment.

IMO E.

D is grammatically wrong because it uses "whom". We require "who" there, not "whom".

A, B and C have comparison issues. There are illogically trying to compare hope to people.

E is the option grammatically correct and has the logical comparison. (compares people with people)

norizam wrote: if I change whom to who, will it change the meaning?

In D, if you change "whom" to "who", then D becomes grammatically correct but it is preferred that you compare different groups of people rather than hopes of different people.

Hope that helps..