SC question

[sourabh.18.07]

edited by moderator JNelson

[ajdecristino]

Hi,

"Attribute...to" is the correct idiomatic expression so that get's rid of D and E.

Then it becomes a modifier issue. The original sentence says, "in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior...the perpetrators." But wait, are the perpetrators the ones doing the attributing? No, the defense attorneys are the ones "attributing criminal or delinquent behavior." Because we can't change "perpetrators" (it's not underlined), we have to pick an answer that fixes the problem in a different way. But, as you can see, the modifier error let's us eliminate A & C. We are left we only B, the correct answer. I'll admit that B sounds kind of weird but that's the type of situation I've noticed with harder SC problems: sounds awkward but it's grammatically correct.
-AJ

[sourabh.18.07]

Can you please little elaborate the modifier error in this question
for not not choosing b) and a) as the options??

[ajdecristino]

Sure. In choice A, the phrase "in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior to some food allergy" modifies "perpetrators" because "perpetrators" comes right after that phrase. This isn't correct because the perpetrators are not the ones making this claim. Think of a courtroom with lawyers, a plaintiff, and a defendant. The lawyers are the ones who generally make arguments and do most if not all of the talking on behalf of their clients. So a client would not be attributing his or her OWN behavior to a food allergy. The clients LAWYER would be making that attribution. (People may not hire lawyers for a small claims court but we can assume that the question is not referring to small claims court because "defense attorneys" is used in the original sentence.)

So we need to find a way to make the underlined portion NOT modify "perpetrators." The only choice that works and does not commit other idiom errors (mentioned above) is choice B.
Hope that helps.

[jnelson0612]

Hi all, I recognize this question and it is from the OG, which is a banned source on this forum since we do not have permission to use their questions. Thus, I have had to delete the original question. Please read the forum guidelines regarding which sources are allowed and not. Thanks!

[Levent-g]

Hi Jamie,

I am studying currently pronoun errors and scanning all SC questions regarding pronouns, not only when this part is underlined also the sentence in general to get a better feeling how to use them correctly.

This sentence is an example of the ones which do confuse me. Am I correct that the pronoun "they" at the end of the sentence could refer to perpetrators and defense attorneys and therefore is not unambiguous?

Thanks

[jlucero]

Levent,

I'm not sure the sentence that you're referring to as the original sentence has been deleted. However, if the sentence is from the Official Guide, look at the explanation in the back. If it refers to a pronoun error, there is one and if they don't mention it, then it's usage is ok. The explanations in the back won't forget to mention an important issue like pronoun ambiguity. On a side note, I like your approach for helping you get better at noticing pronouns in sentences.