Sentence Correction

The Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia, were sighted in 1770 by the English navigator Caption James Cook, by whom they were named supposedly because its sheer wet rocks glistered like glass.

A. by whom they were named supposedly because its
B. by whom they were named supposedly and their
C. naming them supposedly since their
D. who so named them supposedly because their
E. who so named it since supposedly

Pls post your opinions with explanations

A. by whom they were named supposedly because its
"it" doesn't have the correct antecedent

B. by whom they were named supposedly and their
passive ?

C. naming them supposedly since their
naming and since doesn't sound right

D. who so named them supposedly because their
who refers to James cook and "them", "their" refers to mountains


E. who so named it since supposedly
"it" doesn't have the correct antecedent

Hence IMO D

C for me,

A can be ruled out, "Its" , should be plural.
B "AND their" is not right here, "AND" should be either since or because.
E -Ambiguous "it"

Between C & D - C is Correct ("ing" modifier required here)

umaa wrote:The Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia, were sighted in 1770 by the English navigator Caption James Cook, by whom they were named supposedly because its sheer wet rocks glistered like glass.

A. by whom they were named supposedly because its
B. by whom they were named supposedly and their
C. naming them supposedly since their
D. who so named them supposedly because their
E. who so named it since supposedly

Pls post your opinions with explanations

I go with A.

The subject is Glass House Mountains and its singular so D/B/C gone due to plural possesive "their."

"who so named it" --> bad reference pronoun construction

--i'm wrong here. my bad...proper plural nouns take on plural subject traits.

D for me.

the stimulus says "were" which points to the mountains. i hate all the options, but D maintains the S-V requirement.

IMO it's D.

OA is D. My question is, don't you think Caption James Cook is an object. So, we should use WHOM instead of WHO?

The Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia, were sighted in 1770 by the English navigator Caption James Cook, by whom they were named supposedly because its sheer wet rocks glistered like glass.

A. by whom they were named supposedly because its
-"its" no clear referent. Hence in correct
B. by whom they were named supposedly and their
-"because" is required in place of "and" to explain cause and effect relationship
C. naming them supposedly since their
-A relative clause is required to modify "James Cook"., and not a participle clause.
D. who so named them supposedly because their
-Correct Answer
E. who so named it since supposedly
-"its" no clear referent. Hence in correct

Agreed, D is the best option

umaa wrote:OA is D. My question is, don't you think Caption James Cook is an object. So, we should use WHOM instead of WHO?

This is not an active voice sentence. A passive one. The subject is Capt. James Cook. Hence, we use "who". Consider these two sentences:
1. James met Harry. He thought him to be a killer. (James thought Harry was a killer)
2. Harry was met by James,who was a killer. (James himself was a killer)

These examples are off the top of my head and most likely have grammatical mistakes, they make my point.

since emphasizes continuity of an action and we are talking about the naming of mountains that was done ages ago.

Answer should be D

pandeyvineet24 wrote:C for me,

A can be ruled out, "Its" , should be plural.
B "AND their" is not right here, "AND" should be either since or because.
E -Ambiguous "it"

Between C & D - C is Correct ("ing" modifier required here)

enniguy wrote:

umaa wrote:OA is D. My question is, don't you think Caption James Cook is an object. So, we should use WHOM instead of WHO?

This is not an active voice sentence. A passive one. The subject is Capt. James Cook. Hence, we use "who". Consider these two sentences:
1. James met Harry. He thought him to be a killer. (James thought Harry was a killer)
2. Harry was met by James,who was a killer. (James himself was a killer)

These examples are off the top of my head and most likely have grammatical mistakes, they make my point.

You made your point, but that doesn't answer the question, and I'm also confused. Here's an example from wiki that address the confusion:

John was arrested by the police.
The police arrested John.

In the first sentence (which is in the passive voice), the subject is John,
while in the second sentence (active voice) it[subject] is the police.

But wiki goes on to say, "But when it comes to the representation the action, the actor in both sentences is the police and the goal of the action is John."

Is this why it's "who" instead of "whom"?