Sentence Correction

This is from the original ETS test package, Test code 37

In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

(A) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that

(B) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies

(C) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the American West’s homesteading policies

(D) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the homesteading policies of the American West

(E) Urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside in feudal Europe, unlike the American West where homesteading policies

Long one and was difficult to solve under pressure of time.. I chose C.

OA is B

Thanks
p

This is from the original ETS test package, Test code 37

In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

Unlike signals that there is a comparison and if you scan through the choices to check what is compared with what, you can solve this question faster:



(A) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that

(B) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies

(C) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the American West’s homesteading policies

(D) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the homesteading policies of the American West

(E) Urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside in feudal Europe, unlike the American West where homesteading policies

In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

(A) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that

illogical comparison


(B) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies

(C) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the American West’s homesteading policies

illogical comparison

(D) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the homesteading policies of the American West


illogical comparsion
(E) Urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside in feudal Europe, unlike the American West where homesteading policies

awkward placement of modifier..

I just wanted to pipe up to say that Logitech, the way you bolded the parts and suggested scanning through it is exactly the way people should do it. On this kind of sentence, you want to have a laser-like approach, scanning to match up the parts and wasting no time laboriously reading the rest of the sentence. With practice, a person can learn to solve this kind of problem *very* quickly (15-30 seconds).

logitech wrote:This is from the original ETS test package, Test code 37

In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

Unlike signals that there is a comparison and if you scan through the choices to check what is compared with what, you can solve this question faster:



(A) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, unlike homesteading policies in the American West that

(B) In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies

(C) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the American West’s homesteading policies

(D) Unlike feudal Europe where urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and commuted to farmlands in the countryside, the homesteading policies of the American West

(E) Urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside in feudal Europe, unlike the American West where homesteading policies

for option E is there any rule that unlike american west would modify the subject of the previous CLAUSE... ????

Well, in E, "unlike the American west" has to be an attempt at a comparison with the subject of the previous clause. It's the fact that the comparison comes out sounding so bad that makes it a bad choice.

Does that help, or did I not understand your question?

wow, excellent replies. thanks all

Karen wrote:Well, in E, "unlike the American west" has to be an attempt at a comparison with the subject of the previous clause. It's the fact that the comparison comes out sounding so bad that makes it a bad choice.

Does that help, or did I not understand your question?

wow!

Thanks a lot karen!!!

I also went for B as the other options have modifier errors :

However :

clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted


is the which appropriate ? I guess which points to "clusters of houses"

which can actually modify both singular as well as plural nouns. For example:

The cases, which are pending against the MLA, are all for hineous crimes.

Here which is modifying cases, a plural.

There are many examples in the Official guide as well (Q 26 in OG, where which modifies letters).

Not sure if I am correctly getting this across my brain !

In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside, but in the American West homesteading policies required residency on the land itself in order to obtain eventual ownership.

--> "But" signifies start of a new clause. So what is the main verb in the first clause which is as follows:
In feudal Europe, urban areas developed from clusters of houses where peasants lived and from which they commuted to farmlands in the countryside
"Developed" cannot function as an action verb since its a transitive verb and needs an object. It is acting as a verb-ed modifier in this example.

Let me know your thoughts.