Sat grammar question?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hi i dont understand why some of the answer choices for these writing questions are right, can someone please explain?

  1. Perched atop a sandstone mesa, Acoma Pueblo is the oldest inhabited community in North (America, currently a population of) about fifteen families.
    I thought the answer was to change the part in parentheses to (America, whose current population is) but the correct answer is to change it to (American and currently has a population of). Can some please explain this?
    And the second question,
  2. (Were they to be told) the purpose of the study, the participants might find it difficult to answer the questions spontaneously.
    Why is the part in parentheses correct and why is (By tellling them) not correct?
    Any help would be much appreciated, thanks</p>
2

<p>For the first question, you can’t use “whose” because that is reserved for people not places. “Whose” would also modify North America which cannot practically have 15 families. </p>

<p>For the second question, the problem is one of dangling modifiers. “were they to be told” correctly modifies the participants. However “by telling them” is something someone else does not what the participants do.</p>

3

<p>for the first one, you cannot use whose because it will be unclear whether whose refers to America or Acoma Pueblo.</p>

<p>The second one should be “Had they been told”.</p>