paes wrote:Posting the problem again :
The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes， and meat rarely．
(A) and meat rarely
(B) and meat was rare
(C) with meat as rare
(D) meat a rarity
(E) with meat as a rarity
[spoiler]Please explain the difference in C and E.
OA later[/spoiler]
The issues:
1. Single dash:
Single dash is used to set off an appositive phrase, which is NOT allowed to contain INDEPENDENT clauses. So, the structure "
single dash-----and comma(,)" is as like as non-essential modifier, which can be eliminated from the sentence without losing the grammatical accuracy of the sentence.
Therefore, we have "
The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian, and meat rarely"
Comma + AND can be used in the following two ways:
1.1.---> before the last item of a list or series. This is not the case.
1.2.---> Before an independent clause that is joined with another clause. The "
and meat rarely" is NOT a clause.
So, option A fails this test.
Think about B and C:
The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian,
and meat was rare.
The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian,
with meat as rare.
Rare has different meanings.
==> uncommon, unusual;
==> not thoroughly cooked (meat);
==> sparse, thinly distributed; excellent, fine
Which meaning will we assume? We can assume any one of them. Since there are different meanings, it is ambiguous.
2. We know, "
comma + NOUN" defines the immediate preceding NOUN before comma.
Look at the option D.
The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian,
meat a rarity.
--> it means that vegetarian is meat a rarity. So, it is misleading.
The option E remains.
