Sentence Correction

Hi All,

In the below question, OA is[spoiler] "A"[/spoiler]. Although OA looks to be best, but can some one please help me understand what is the reasosn for kicking out "E" ?

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The republic of Philippines encompasses more than seven thousand islands, two of them with two thirds of its area.

A) two of them with two thirds of its area
B) two thirds of their area being in two of them
C) and its area is two thirds in two islands
D) two of them have two thirds of its area
E) which have two thirds of its area in two of them

IMO D absolute phrase is correct.

E doesn't work because the phrase "which have two thirds of its area in two of them" uses the plural "have" to refer to the country of the Philipines instead of "has." Alternatively you could use the phrase to refer to the word islands and say "which have two thirds of THEIR area in two of them."

bryantmichaels wrote:E doesn't work because the phrase "which have two thirds of its area in two of them" is referring to the islands, which is plural (therfore the word "have" instead of "has")...you would therefore need to say "which have two thirds of THEIR area in two of them" to make it gramatically correct for a plural direct object such as islands.

Hi Bryan,

IMO here "its" refer clearly to Philipines....the problem IMO that you have mentioned of "its" Vs "they" exists in even OA i.e. A.

Please tell if I am misinterpreting you.

yes I think the problem lies with the word "which" By using "which" the phrase suddently modifys or refers to "islands" instead of Philipines, so it is awkward to use its to refer back to the original subject.

bryantmichaels wrote:yes I think the problem lies with the word "which" By using "which" the phrase suddently modifys or refers to "islands" instead of Philipines, so it is awkward to use its to refer back to the original subject.

Hi Bryant,

But IMO the OA "A" also has the same issue....being the non "ing" modifier it also modifies the nearest noun i.e. islands. Kindly tell why it is awkward to use the similar structure in "A" but not in "E".

Please tell in case i am misinterpreting what you meant to say.

goelmohit2002 wrote:

bryantmichaels wrote:yes I think the problem lies with the word "which" By using "which" the phrase suddently modifys or refers to "islands" instead of Philipines, so it is awkward to use its to refer back to the original subject.

Hi Bryant,

But IMO the OA "A" also has the same issue....being the non "ing" modifier it also modifies the nearest noun i.e. islands. Kindly tell why it is awkward to use the similar structure in "A" but not in "E".

Please tell in case i am misinterpreting what you meant to say.

A. is clear because it says "islands, two of them..." which is the correct way to modify the first clause.

E. is unclear because it says "islands, which have..." which is not correct. For this to be correct it needs to be modifying "the republic of Philippines" not "seven thousand islands" because the Philipines has two thirds of its area in the two islands.

cata1yst wrote:
A. is clear because it says "islands, two of them..." which is the correct way to modify the first clause.

E. is unclear because it says "islands, which have..." which is not correct. For this to be correct it needs to be modifying "the republic of Philippines" not "seven thousand islands" because the Philipines has two thirds of its area in the two islands.

Hi cata1yst,

IMO in "A"....two of them does not modify previous clause...Only verb "ing" modifier modifies the entire previous clause.

both A and E modify the same thing i.e. islands....so there might be some other reason to kick out E...

Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

goelmohit2002 wrote:

cata1yst wrote:
A. is clear because it says "islands, two of them..." which is the correct way to modify the first clause.

E. is unclear because it says "islands, which have..." which is not correct. For this to be correct it needs to be modifying "the republic of Philippines" not "seven thousand islands" because the Philipines has two thirds of its area in the two islands.

Hi cata1yst,

IMO in "A"....two of them does not modify previous clause...Only verb "ing" modifier modifies the entire previous clause.

both A and E modify the same thing i.e. islands....so there might be some other reason to kick out E...

Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

A. clearly and concisely modifies islands correctly..."islands, two of them..."

Also in E. it says "which have" and if it is referring back to the republic of Philippines (like it should) it should read "which has".

So I guess the verb doesn't match, it contorts the meaning, and it is also wordier.

"A" should be it. "E" is wrong because "which have" could refer to the republic of phillipines or to the islands. The verb does not make a specific reference to a noun.

why D is incorrect choice ?

honeysn wrote:why D is incorrect choice ?

"have" is incorrect

yashanth.ponnanna wrote:"A" should be it. "E" is wrong because "which have" could refer to the republic of phillipines or to the islands. The verb does not make a specific reference to a noun.

Incorrect.

Republic of Philippines is singular. It cannot take on "which have" since that is plural..."which has" is needed.

I still do not get why D is wrong!

I'm confused between A and D... the only difference between A and D is

A- with
D- have .... and have here is correct which is for the plural subject "TWO"...

I'm not sure why D is wrong ... only possibility I can think of is that D seems to make it as a run-on sentence ... Is it right?

E - "which" modifies 'islands" here ... which means that sentence is saying "islands have two third of areas" ... islands can't have area ...an island can have area ...or a country" ... also it doesn't make any sense ...because sentence is talking about the area of Country.

Can someone explain why D is wrong?