<p>Can you guys help me with the following? Thanks!</p>
<p>By employing exotic harmonies and making unusual use of instruments, [Mahler was a pathfinder] from romanticism to modern music.
(A) Mahler was a pathfinder
(B) a path was created by Mahler
(C) Mahler created a path
(D) Mahler was the creator of a path
(E) was how Mahler created a path</p>
<p>Some plants use chemical signals [that repel] insects, and [also, these] signals help to put neighboring plants on alert [so they can] [mount their own defenses.]</p>
<p>[Despite] the attorney’s moving plea, the judge [placed] the juvenile offender [on] probation for an [indecisive] period.</p>
<p>‘By employing harmonies and making creative use’, is an introductory adverbial construction. It modifies a verb telling how something was done. C. contains the verb “created”. The adverb construction tells how he created the path.</p>
<p>Who employed the harmonies etc.? Mahler. Therefore, “Mahler created” is the most direct relationship between the adverbial construction and the idea of the sentence.</p>
<p>A leaves the adverb modifier without a verb to modify
B changes the subject of the sentence from Mahler to ‘path’.
C is correct.
D while technically also correct, it is wordy, less direct, and substitutes a weak linking verb ‘was’ for an active verb ‘created’.
E The phrase “was how…” is a sentence fragment lacking a subject. The introductory adverb construction seems to be the intended subject, but an adverb can’t be a subject. Mahler is not the subject of the main clause, “was how…”. Mahler is the subject of the noun clause “how Mahler created a path”. The noun clause acts as the predicate complement of the linking verb ‘was’ in ‘was how’.</p>