2 grammar questions

JimboSteve
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:01:10 +0000

The CollegeBoard does not like ambiguity. It thinks that the construction you suggest would be incorrect because it may be modifying the ocean, i.e., that the ocean is lasting for several days. This is obviously ludicrous, and for the most part nobody cares about such pedantic errors-- but the CollegeBoard is not nobody. Generally, good writers stay away from writing two "that"s in a row because it has very little style in that form, but it is also technically incorrect…

There isn’t a general rule I can explain for number one, and it’s not an interesting topic in grammar (at least, not for me). However, here’s an SAT hint.

(E) must definitely be correct. It has no error whatsoever, even if it’s hideous. Once you see that, you know that, even if (B) sounds like it may be right, it can’t be. (E) cannot be wrong, so even if (B) is better-sounding, it must be wrong. This happens a lot on the SAT, especially in the Critical Reading section. I had to discover this method independently, but it most definitely is the most useful one I found for tackling the SAT. Before, I’d waste time dilly-dallying over how stylistically ugly a construction like (E) is. But no. Irrelevant.

Number two is an easier one. “Them” is not ambiguous. There’s only one noun that it can be. If it were “they,” then it would be referring to the analysts. “Public opinion polls” is the only object you can refer to with “them,” as the other noun (“analysts”) is a subject.