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OG SC - Question 15

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by Mission2012 » Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:41 am
Many experts regarded the increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.
A rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
B yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to
C but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
D but as a sign that households were confident they could safely
E but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to

I could spot the correct answer to this question on the basis of correct usage of idiom "not as..but as". However, I could not understand the issues pointed out by OG in its explanation.

A> how placement of "by" between confidence and household and placement of restrictive clause "that they could safely" confuses the idea of the sentence

B> how "it was safe for them" modifies the meaning

C> usage of "by" is incorrect (Same as option A)

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by ilyana » Mon Nov 25, 2013 12:16 pm
Hello!

I always read OG explanations but try to look at them from critical point of view.

--> A, C: "confidence by households"

I don't think that "by" here confuses anything; rather, it is just a wrong usage.
What we need here is to indicate that confidence "belongs" to households. I would expect something like "confidence of households" or "households' confidence", but not "confidence by households".

The only situation I can think of where "by" comes close to this meaning is when we want to say that somebody created something:

"Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling is the last book of "Harry Potter" series."

--> B: "it was safe for them"

There's a problem with the pronoun. It logically refers to "households", but close at hand this noun is in possessive case - households' can't be the antecedent (referent) for the pronoun.

So, we must look at the beginning of the sentence. Here we have two possible antecedents: "experts" and "households" --> ambiguity.
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by Mission2012 » Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:26 pm
Mission2012 wrote:Many experts regarded the increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.
A rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
B yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to
C but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
D but as a sign that households were confident they could safely
E but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to

I could spot the correct answer to this question on the basis of correct usage of idiom "not as..but as". However, I could not understand the issues pointed out by OG in its explanation.

A> how placement of "by" between confidence and household and placement of restrictive clause "that they could safely" confuses the idea of the sentence

B> how "it was safe for them" modifies the meaning

C> usage of "by" is incorrect (Same as option A)

Regards,
Thanks for a very informative reply.

Could you also help me understand why in option A restrictive clause followed by "that" creates confusion (as per OG explanation).

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by ilyana » Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:45 am
OG: "The placement of the restrictive clause that they could safely handle new debt after houselolds could also cause confusion."

What they probably mean is that this restrictive clause "that they could safely..." refers not to "households", but to "confidence":

confidence that they could safely handle...

I don't think you should pay much attention to this, because it is not really a reason to eliminate an answer choice.
Restrictive "that"-clauses are quite flexible:

The boy was watching the tree by the fence that had all its leaves fallen. --> here "that"-clause refers to the whole noun-phrase "the tree by the fence".
The boy was watching the tree by the fence that had a hole in it through which cats could get into the yard. --> here "that"-clause refers to "the fence".

You just have to figure out the referent for "that"-clause using the context. If it's clear enough, then there's no mistake.

I would eliminate A for two reasons: the wrong usage of "rather" and the wrong usage of "by".

"Rather" is an adjective and can't connect two elements by itself (by the way, "rather than" is a conjunction and can connect, but it won't work here because of the meaning).

We need a conjunction. In the correct answer choice we have "but", which is a conjunction.
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