Multiple choice

Directions: The following question presents a sentence, part of which or all 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.

Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.

  1. Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.

  2. Good eating habits sometimes fail to be maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts caused by desiring to be as thin as possible.

  3. Because they desire to be as thin as possible, good eating habits are sometimes not maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts.

  4. Because they desire to be as thin as possible, young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.

  5. Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits because they desire to be as thin as possible.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

There is an error of modifier here. ‘Caused by the desire’ does not connect with ‘desire to maintain’. Besides, what is being emphasized here is ‘the desire’. Although (5) could be taken as acceptable, there is lack of emphasis on the ‘desire’. (3) and (4) correct this error, but (3) unnecessarily and incorrectly turns the latter part into passive voice.

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