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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to rese

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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to rese

by BTGmoderatorAT » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:32 am
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

What's wrong with options B and D? Can any experts explain?
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by ErikaPrepScholar » Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:16 am
This question requires us to know that the correct idiom is "to research X" - as in "I went to graduate school to research genetics" or "I went to the library to research the subject of my paper". Adding any sort of preposition ("on", "about", "into") is not idiomatic when "research" is a verb. (Note: when "research" is a noun, we can follow it with a preposition - e.g. "I presented my research on the history of Sumer").

This allows us to eliminate all answer choices but E.

If we didn't know this idiom, B and C don't tell us that Baldwin lived in France when he wrote the books, just that he was in France. So we lose meaning with both answer choices and can eliminate them. Then, based on concision issues, we can likely pick E over A and D. However, knowing the correct idiom is the best way to get to the correct answer.
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by deloitte247 » Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:05 pm
The correct option is E.
Option B is wrong because "research the books" would have been more accurate than" research about the books"
Option D is also wrong because "research the books" would again have been more accurate than "research on the books".
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