Sentence Correction

Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed through the stomach into the bloodstream and was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, have led them to conclude that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol before it reaches the liver.

A have led them to conclude
B have led to their conclusion
C have led doctors to conclude
D lead to doctors concluding
E lead to the doctors' conclusion

OA C


Hi Mitch,

I'm having hard time finding error in choice E. Can you please help me with that.

Regards
SR

solitaryreaper wrote:Hi Mitch,

I'm having hard time finding error in choice E. Can you please help me with that.

Regards
SR

E: Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol...was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, lead to the doctors' conclusion that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol.
Here, the usage of the in the red portion seems to refer to THE specific set of doctors mentioned previously -- nineteenth-century doctors -- implying that the conclusion in red was made by NINETEENTH-CENTURY DOCTORS.
The intended meaning is that CURRENT doctors have come to this conclusion, as stated in the OA:
Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol...was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, have lead doctors to conclude that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol.
Here, the word in blue -- which is NOT preceded by the -- refers not to the specific set of doctors mentioned previously but to CURRENT doctors.
Eliminate E.

E: Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol...was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, lead to the doctors' conclusion that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol.
Here, the usage of the in the red portion seems to refer to THE specific set of doctors mentioned previously -- nineteenth-century doctors -- implying that the conclusion in red was made by NINETEENTH-CENTURY DOCTORS.
The intended meaning is that CURRENT doctors have come to this conclusion, as stated in the OA:
Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol...was broken down only by the liver; recent studies, however, have lead doctors to conclude that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol.
Here, the word in blue -- which is NOT preceded by the -- refers not to the specific set of doctors mentioned previously but to CURRENT doctors.
Eliminate E.

Thanks a lot Mitch !

Few things just to cement my understanding:

1) We know that when two clauses are separated by a semi-colon , they are still related to each other via some idea.Is it because of that the doctor's refer back to the doctors of the 19th century?

To elaborate it say if we replace semi-colon with a period , will the doctor's still refer to the 19th century doctors.

Nineteenth-century doctors thought that alcohol, when ingested, passed through the stomach into the bloodstream and was broken down only by the liver.Recent studies, however, have lead to the doctor's conclusion that the stomach breaks down up to 20 percent of ingested alcohol before it reaches the liver.

2)in case article 'the' is removed from option E, would it then qualify as a correct choice?

Thanks in advance

Regards
SR

solitaryreaper wrote:
To elaborate it say if we replace semi-colon with a period , will the doctor's still refer to the 19th century doctors.

Yes it will.
Please understand few things.


What is an article in english? Basically, an article is an adjective. Like adjectives, articles modify nouns.

English has two articles: the and a/an.

The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. We call the the definite article and a/an the indefinite article.

the = definite article

a/an = indefinite article

For example, if I say, "Let's read the book," I mean a specific book. If I say, "Let's read a book," I mean any book rather than a specific book.

So when we say "the doctors" we are referring to a definite group of doctors. got It? Did you reap the benefit of this discussion solitaryreaper?