Sentence Correction

In 1988, the Council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping for a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.

A) same
B) which had the simple thesis of consumers having
C) where the thesis was simple: consumers having
D) with a thesis that is a simple one: consumers have
E) whose thesis was simple: consumers have

The OA is E. I can't understand why whose is the proper word here, the underlined phrase does not refer to people or live subjects. Can anyone explain please? Thank you!

what is wrong with B?

I chose B too, but the OA is E.

whose can be used to denote possession by an inanimate thing. so E is just fine.

https://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/wh ... jects.aspx

B is awkward as it describes the thesis and uses "of". the use of "that" would have been better to describe the thesis. thesis of consumer purchasing power is ok. thesis of consumer having....is awkward.

Thank you so much for the info and the link, scoobydooby! Now I get it. [/u]

what is wrong with B?

take a look feruza:

with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change

We should not use Having power, so A,B and C are out

Left with D and E

D is wordy so answer has to be E

Although E not a proper answer too but best among the choices given

Thanks, gmat740

First E sounded wrong, but after reading the grammar link posted by skoobydooby, E looks much better.

Cheers,

In 1988, the Council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping for a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.

Let us simplify this statment

In 1988, the council published X, with the simple thesis of consumers having Z.

Mistakes:
with does not have a proper antecedent; thesis of - unidiomatic; having is not right use for a subjunctive phrase

Correction:
... theis that consumers have Z
or
... thesis: consumer have Z
Note: "... thesis; consumer have Z" is wrong

Now let us focus on the wrong usage of "with"
In 1988, the council published X, with the simple thesis of consumers having Z.
can be rephrased as
In 1988, the group of people published X, whose simple thesis was that consumers have Z.
This is not in the answer choices.
So the closest is D

Note the word whose has an animate antecedent!

Nasa, great explanation overall, you identified all mistakes in the sentence. One correction though, whose CAN have an inanimate antedecent as well as an animate antedecent according to the link posted by scoobydooby. OA is E.

Can't we kick out A and B based on

A) comma + with = comma + prepositional modifier...modifies the entire previous clause.......which is not correct....it should modify the immediate preceding noun....so we should not use comma + preposition setup.
B) had is incorrect tense.....
C) where is used to modify places.
D) same as A.
E) Correct.

Can't we use this approach for resolution.

A) same - Change the meaning.

B) which had the simple thesis of consumers having - Tense Problem + Consumers having is incorrect

C) where the thesis was simple: consumers having - Where is used for a place + againg consumers having is incorrect.

D) with a thesis that is a simple one: consumers have - Since the sentence started in past tense as "Began" so is cannot be used.

E) whose thesis was simple: consumers have - So only option left is E , although looks awkward.

good_done25 wrote:Can't we use this approach for resolution.

A) same - Change the meaning.

B) which had the simple thesis of consumers having - Tense Problem + Consumers having is incorrect

C) where the thesis was simple: consumers having - Where is used for a place + againg consumers having is incorrect.

D) with a thesis that is a simple one: consumers have - Since the sentence started in past tense as "Began" so is cannot be used.

E) whose thesis was simple: consumers have - So only option left is E , although looks awkward.

Yes......that is good catch....D can be kicked out due to tense issue....

But can you please tell why are you kicking out A ? Also what is the issue with consumers having in B ?

According to me, having can not be used for this so all A, B and C option are incorrect. Having signifies that something is still going on but the sentence only talks about past so It should be have. Only D and E uses it correctly.

what's the source of this question?