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.

It seems to be the law of biography that those characters who are known to the world by a few brilliant strokes of genius have as a rule only a meager personal history.

  1. those characters who are known to the world by a few brilliant strokes of genius have

  2. those characters that are known to the world by a few brilliant strokes of genius have

  3. those characters who are known to the world by few brilliant strokes of genius has

  4. those characters which were known to the world by a few brilliant strokes of genius have

  5. those characters that are known to the world by few brilliant strokes of genius has
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B Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): The sentence has error of relative pronoun. 'Those' is followed by 'that' rather than 'who'.

Justification for (2): The sentence has error of relative pronoun. 'Those' is followed by 'that' rather than 'who'. This option rectifies the error by replacing 'who' by 'that'.

Explanation for (3): The option does not rectify the error of relative pronoun and also introduces another error of adjective by replacing 'a few' by 'few'. 'A few' has positive connotation and 'few' has negative connotation. The sentence bears positive connotation.
Explanation for (4): The option does not rectify the error of relative pronoun. And it also introduces another error (replaces 'who' by 'which'). Explanation for (5): The option rectifies the error of relative pronoun, but introduces the error of subject-verb agreement ('have' in place of 'has').

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