Sentence Correction

Source: Veritas Prep

The anthology Georgian poetry was named to give the impression that the contents were as contemporary as the newly installed king, George V, but by selecting rather conventional poets, the term Georgian came to have the opposite connotation.

See below for list of all answer choices) and answer explanation

Why is A wrong and C correct?

queenisabella wrote:Source: Veritas Prep

The anthology Georgian poetry was named to give the impression that the contents were as contemporary as the newly installed king, George V, but by selecting rather conventional poets, the term Georgian came to have the opposite connotation.

See below for list of all answer choices) and answer explanation

Why is A wrong and C correct?

Let's just look at the last part of the sentence, from "but by selecting, the term Georgian ..."

What the explanation is saying, which is correct is, if we were to rearrange the phrases around the comma, it would read "The term Georgian came to have the opposite connotation by selecting rather conventional poets." That doesn't sound right, does it? "Georgian" did not, and cannot select anything. This rules out A,B, and E.

If we look at D: "The term Georgian came to have the opposite connotation the selection of rather conventional poets." Also not right.

If we take answer C: "The term Georgian came to have the opposite connotation because of the selection of rather conventional poets." That fits properly.

Sometimes rearranging the phrases helps to make the mistakes more glaring.

Hi yesman238,
Could you explain more about the phrase "selection of rather"? I feel it awkward.