Unlike the team of lawyers working for the petitioner, whose

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Unlike the team of lawyers working for the petitioner, whose argument rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that only recently passed Congress, the government's argument centered on what many legal experts consider a main-stream interpretation of the Bill of Rights.


A) the team of lawyers working for the petitioner, whose argument rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that only recently passed Congress

B) the argument from the petitioner, which rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that only recently passed Congress

C) the petitioner's argument, which rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that only recently passed Congress

D) the petitioner's argument, whose case rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that recently only passed Congress

E) the petitioner's argument, which rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that recently only passed Congress
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:30 am

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This question is testing COMPARISONS and MODIFIERS.

Whenever a sentence begins with a comparison signal like "unlike" or "like," we must make sure that we're comparing logically comparable ideas. In the original sentence, we have "Unlike the team of lawyers..., the government's argument centered..."

It does not make logical sense to compare a team to an argument. Since the main clause ("the government's argument...") is not underlined, we need something that says "Unlike one argument..., another argument..." Eliminate A.

"The argument from the petitioner" and "the petitioner's argument" are both comparable to "the government's argument," so there is no need to choose between those. We must now look to the modifying clause that comes after.
- if it says "the argument from the petitioner," the clause that follows should begin with "whose," modifying the petitioner. Eliminate B.
- if it says "the petitioner's argument," the clause that follows should begin with "which," modifying the argument. Eliminate D.

We are left with C and E, which at a quick glance might seem identical. But observe the difference:

C) the petitioner's argument, which rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that only recently passed Congress

E) the petitioner's argument, which rested on a questionable interpretation of a bill that recently only passed Congress


The difference between these two is in the placement of the modifier "only." When modifiers move, they change the meaning! In C, "only" is modifying "recently" - i.e. it did not happen in the past, it only happened recently. In E, "only" is modifying "passed" - i.e. it only passed Congress, it didn't do anything else. This doesn't make much sense.

That leaves us with C.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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