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.

A tortoise desired to change its place of residence, so he asked an eagle that carried him to his new home, promising her a rich reward for her trouble.

  1. that carried him to

  2. to carry him to

  3. that fetched him to

  4. if it could carry him to

  5. for carrying him to

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): 'That' becomes the pronoun for 'eagle'. This results in a sentence fragment. To be idiomatically correct, the sentence requires either a 'to' or a 'for' to complement the subject 'he asked'. 

Justification for (2): That' becomes the pronoun for 'eagle'.  This results in a sentence fragment. To be idiomatically correct, the sentence requires either a 'to' or a 'for' to complement the subject 'he asked'. This option maintains the correct intention and supplies the necessary verb to complete the sentence.  

Explanation for (3): 'That' becomes the pronoun for 'eagle'.  This not only changes the meaning, but also results in a sentence fragment.
Explanation for (4): This option is grammatically incorrect as 'could carry' should be followed by 'and prmised'. Explanation for (5): This option uses 'for' to carry the sentence but is grammatically incorrect.