Multiple choice

Directions: This question presents a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose one of the others.

Thor Heyerdahl, accompanied by the crew of the Ken Take has sailed specifically charted courses in order to prove their theories of cultural diffusion.

  1. has sailed specifically charted courses in order to prove their theories

  2. have sailed specifically charted courses in order to prove their theories

  3. has sailed specifically charted course in order to prove their theories

  4. has sailed specifically chartered courses in order to prove his theory

  5. has sailed specifically charted courses in order to prove his theories
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): ‘Thor Heyerdahl’ refers to a singular person and should be followed by a singular pronoun. But, in the given sentence, the same is followed by the plural pronoun ‘their’.

Explanation for (2): ‘Thor Heyerdahl’ refers to a singular person. This option compounds the error of pronoun agreement by replacing the correct singular verb ‘has’ with the incorrect plural ‘have’.

Explanation for (3): This option fails to correct the error of pronoun agreement and also unnecessarily changes the plural ‘courses’ to singular ‘course’.
Explanation for (4): This option corrects the error of pronoun agreement but changes the meaning by replacing ‘charted’ with ‘chartered’. Justification for (5): ‘Thor Heyerdahl’ refers to a singular person and should be followed by a singular pronoun. But, in the given sentence, the same is followed by the plural pronoun ‘their’ and it has been rectified in option (5) only.

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