Sentence Correction

4. Since the l930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.
(A) wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
(C) wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so

wings cant be shaped smooth or what?
i chose C but answer is...B

IMO B..

(B) wings, wings

Am i right that without additional "wings"
"so smooth and so perfectly shaped" refers to "airplanes"?

correct me please, if i am mstaken

I really don't see anything wrong with A.
'shaped' is modifying the noun wings and seems the adverbs smoothly and perfectly are parallel and they refer to the verb shaped.

B. has issue with parallelism and also there is no need to repeat wings again
C. You don't need to use 'that' because the second sentence is not absolutely required. It is just describing/modifying wings.
D. Between A and D I prefer A. D might be a little too wordy (in such a ........... manner)
E. Wrong tense

What is the answer?

B is correct answer....

wings,wings is necessary....otherwise 'shapes so' modifyniing airplanes...

I am confused.. This modifier thing is killing me
So acco. to midifier rule, anything before comma is alwys gets modified and if that is case then A is corect.

If you consider airplane with frictionless wings as one object then we require the word wing again.

SC gurus we NEED your help here.

I think A is correct too. Could someone explain whyy A isn't correct?

This sentence correction deals with what is known as resumptive modifiers. Simply put, the modifying clause should have a clear ancedent to whom it refers to. In this case, 'shaped so smoothly...." shold modify wings and not the airplane(which is the subject in A). Hence we need a resumptive modifier "...wings, wings...." to provide a clear antecedent.
Therefore B.

Searching and reading about resumptive modifiers may help those who want a deeper insight into the topic.

Cheers!

exactly wat reachc said.....agree with him....

IMO: A

shaped .... modifies wings [a noun] perfectly. Sentence need to be as concise and short as possible. No wordiness, etc.

Another reason why A is not correct. Shape can not be smooth, surface can be.
Hence, "smoothly shaped wings" should be wrong...and "smooth wings"... should be right.
Am I right?

i don't think the reason you have given for using resumptive modifier is right here. for two reasons:

1. participle modifier -ed form modifies the preceding noun.
< no issues regarding that >

2. We require a subject for the second clause, other there would be sentence fragmentation...

Since .........., < noun>......... .

aditikedia wrote:I think A is correct too. Could someone explain whyy A isn't correct?

so smooth and so perfect are parallel

so smoothly and perfectly are not parallel

@ rohan,

that is fine...

but the parallelism is one aspect checked above!!

the parallelism reasoning is besides the modifier issue.

Because of both these issues A is incorrect.

and reachac is correct that without 'wings', the second clause is modifying the subject of the first clause.

instead of 'wings', if the second clause had used a non-essential modifier like 'which' I am sure no one would have had any issues