Sentence Correction

The work of short fiction writer Charles Chesnutt reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists" as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.


A) as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century

B) as much as it did the intellectual ferment in, and historical reassessments of, Black American culture in the late 19th century

C) as much as it had reflected, during the late 19th century, the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture

D) as much as it was reflective and characteristic of the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

E) as much as it does the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture


[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]
my Q is that how we can locate time adverb in the sentence > that is, in this case how we could undrestand whether this sentence talks abt 'work of writer during the late 19th century' OR 'reflect historical assessment of the late 19th century black american?'
Also, could someone explain in general how we can find the location of time adverb in the sentence withount affecting the intended meaning?

Hi mehrasa--

This sentence doesn't seem to have a "time adverb."

The core of the sentence is

"The work... reflects..."

We don't see any adverb modifying "reflects."

You probably know that adverbs often end in -ly which is the first clue; the other types of "time adverbs" are words like "now" or "sometimes"; these are words that change when the action of the verb is in effect. There is no such sense in "the work reflecting".

To try and come at your question at another angle:

The sentence is saying that what the author wrote is relevant to [we're substituting that for "reflects"] what he lived through as a Black American in the late 19th century.

The sentence is not trying to say anything about the work of the writer at the time of the 19th century; the meaning is not modifying when he did the work. It's saying that if we look at the work TODAY, then we can see evidence of that era within it.

This sentence is also not trying to say anything about what the "historical reassessments" of that time were.

Boy, what we're saying is also confusing - we maybe didn't help you here - but hopefully something in all this is of use!!

EssaySnark

mehrasa wrote:The work of short fiction writer Charles Chesnutt reflects characteristic interests of his contemporary "local colorists" as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century.


A) as much as the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture during the late 19th century

B) as much as it did the intellectual ferment in, and historical reassessments of, Black American culture in the late 19th century

C) as much as it had reflected, during the late 19th century, the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of Black American culture

D) as much as it was reflective and characteristic of the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture

E) as much as it does the intellectual ferment and historical reassessments of late 19th century Black American culture


[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]
my Q is that how we can locate time adverb in the sentence > that is, in this case how we could undrestand whether this sentence talks abt 'work of writer during the late 19th century' OR 'reflect historical assessment of the late 19th century black american?'
Also, could someone explain in general how we can find the location of time adverb in the sentence withount affecting the intended meaning?

We can solve this without bothering abt 'time sequence'

A - XX as much as YY (here XX and YY should be parallel). Here THE WORK compared with THE INTELLECTUAL ..
B - unnecssary preposition IN and OF; Moreover comma before AND and after OF is not necessary. This makes the phrase (and historical reassessments of) unnecessary when its very much required for the overall meaning
C - Use of past perfect
D - Unnessary wordy
IMO E

note: the non-underline protion of the sentence indicates WORK is reflecting characateristics in a general terms and therefore 2nd part (underlined part) should also use the same tense.

patanjali.purpose wrote: A - XX as much as YY (here XX and YY should be parallel). Here THE WORK compared with THE INTELLECTUAL ..

"Intellectual" is an adjective in this sentence. The noun is "ferment" in that bit.

patanjali.purpose wrote:
We can solve this without bothering abt 'time sequence'

A - XX as much as YY (here XX and YY should be parallel). Here THE WORK compared with THE INTELLECTUAL ..
.

i do not agree with ur reasoning for A
the intended meaning is that the work of C.C reflect two things, XX and YY
bcuz of that we need to incorporate a helping verb representing the verb 'reflect'