Sentence Correction

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at a time, and narrow it down to the correct option! To begin, here is the original question with any differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.

(A) empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or
(B) empire, fashioned from either the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from
(C) empire, either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or
(D) empire and either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from
(E) empire and were fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from

If we glance over the options quickly, we clearly see 2 places we can focus on:

1. How to handle the verb "fashioned" (modifiers, punctuation, parallelism)
2. or / or from (parallelism)

Let's start with #1 on our list. If we look closely, it appears that options A, B, and C use a comma after the word "empire," which turns the rest of the sentence into a modifier. Options D & E use the word "and" to connect the two parts into one statement. So - which one should we use?

Remember that whenever we see modifiers, we need to make sure they're placed directly before or after what they're modifying. Let's start by checking to see if options A, B, and C use modifiers correctly:

Many of the earliest known images of Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.

modifier = fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or Gandharan grey schist.
antecedent (What is it modifying?) = images

We can see from the options available, NONE of them place the modifier next to "images." Instead, they're all incorrectly trying to modify the word "empire":

(A) empire, fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or
(B) empire, fashioned from either the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from
(C) empire, either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or

This means we can eliminate options A, B, and C because the punctuation turns them into incorrectly placed modifiers.

Now that we're left with only 2 options, let's tackle #2 on the list: parallelism! The word "either" is a tip-off that we need to be careful that both items are written using parallel structure. Let's see how they stack up:

(D) empire and either fashioned from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from Gandharan grey schist.

...either fashioned from X or from Y = WRONG

Anything that is written AFTER the word "either" needs to be written in both items! For this to be parallel, it would have to say "...either fashioned from X or fashioned from Y."

(E) empire and were fashioned either from the spotted sandstone of Mathura or from Gandharan grey schist.

...fashioned either from X or from Y = CORRECT!

This is parallel! The word "fashioned" appears before the word "either," so it doesn't have to be in both items. However, the word "from" is after the word "either," and it should be included with both items (and it is).

There you have it - option E is the correct choice!


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