The Godfather

Nice one...This is kind of mix of modifier and parallelism as well. At very first look, I narrowed down by choice to A and E and then opted A.

Please pay attention to commas, they are acting like a group modifier here. lets have a closer look and go by choices one by one:


According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.

A) the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted

In this choice the Corleone is followed by a town which is perfect and the ailing mobster is perfectly associated with the sentence opening According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor,
So we have perfect parallelism here. So A is a correct choice..

B) famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, is wrongly followed by famous because of “The Godfather,” and also badly modified. no parallelism in place at all. SO eliminate B.


C) the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
Misplaced Modifiers and broken parallelism...So eliminate C.

D) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”

same as B, misplaced modifiers. So eliminate D.

E) Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted

E is a wordy, passive and has misplaced modifers too. So eliminate E.

Thanks, I appreciate the response.

Your explanation is really good, but for option C I would like to point out that it is wrong because it changes the meaning of the sentence, I don't see a problem with parallelism in C.

According to A - The town is famous because of the "The Godfather" but C says the ailing mobster was famous because of the "The Godfather".

Happy to discuss

prinit wrote:Nice one...This is kind of mix of modifier and parallelism as well. At very first look, I narrowed down by choice to A and E and then opted A.

Please pay attention to commas, they are acting like a group modifier here. lets have a closer look and go by choices one by one:


According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.

A) the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted

In this choice the Corleone is followed by a town which is perfect and the ailing mobster is perfectly associated with the sentence opening According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor,
So we have perfect parallelism here. So A is a correct choice..

B) famous because of “The Godfather,” the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, is wrongly followed by famous because of “The Godfather,” and also badly modified. no parallelism in place at all. SO eliminate B.


C) the ailing mobster, famous because of “The Godfather,” came to take refuge in Corleone, a town near to those he most trusted
Misplaced Modifiers and broken parallelism...So eliminate C.

D) near to those he most trusted, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather”

same as B, misplaced modifiers. So eliminate D.

E) Corleone, famous because of “The Godfather,” was the town that the ailing mobster came to take refuge in because it was near to those he most trusted

E is a wordy, passive and has misplaced modifers too. So eliminate E.

Thanks for the replies guys. I think what threw me off was not recognizing that near is a preposition. I think I understand it now.

For Answer A -- isn't the "he" ambiguous because it can refer to either the prosecutor or the mobster?

Hi Osirus,

About option (A), the initial supplementive clause must be placed before the subject, that it is referring to ,hence option (A) and (E) are correct in that regard. The reference is Cataphoric. The Appositive modifier used in option (A) must come after the Noun phrase it is referring to (Corlene) , hence, the placement of the Appositive is correct. Now, regarding the parallelism within the Appositive construction, the parallel elements come after 'because of', which are both Noun phrases.
"The Godfather" is simply a noun. In " near to those he most trusted" near is an adjective pre-modifier modifying the noun formed by the prepositional phrase "to those" and "he most wanted" is a post modifier modifying the noun "to those". So it is a complex noun phrase ! So we have two parallel noun phrases within the Appositive construction.

Regarding heerag's question, the pronoun he is not ambiguous since it is part of the post-modifier within the noun phrase and the reference is Anaphoric. Also,since he is in the Nominative Case and position parallel to the mobster, which is also in the Nominative case and position ,the reference is clear and Anaphoric ,and not ambiguous. Prosecutor is the object of preposition and in the objective Case so 'he' cannot refer Anaphorically to prosecutor.

I hope this makes it clear !