Although films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills, in reality these gregarious creatures live in stable groups that occupy the same territory for long periods.


(A) films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(B) in films about the American West coyotes are depicted to be solitary animals that howl mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(C) coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West
(D) films about the American West depict coyotes as if they were solitary, mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills
(E) films about the American West depict coyotes to be solitary and mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills

I choose C since C makes coyote as the subject of the sentence.However the OA is A,citing active voice over passive one.Which one is correct.Also in what cases can passive voice be the right choice?

Shib,

We need the source (book, problem number, website, test, etc.) before we can comment on any problem. Thanks!
-dan

The source is 1000 SC

Hope this give a little more clarity to the problem.

80. Although films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills, in reality these gregarious creatures live in stable groups that occupy the same territory for long periods.
(A) films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(B) in films about the American West coyotes are depicted to be solitary animals that howl mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(C) coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West
(D) films about the American West depict coyotes as if they were solitary, mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills
(E) films about the American West depict coyotes to be solitary and mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills

FYI: on the official test, it is rare to see two completely grammatically correct choices, one of which is active, one passive.

The larger issue with C is a modifier issue. The sentence moves films to the middle of that opening clause and this changes the meaning. The original sentence says that "films... depict..."

The setup in C essentially says that the coyotes are depicted by some unknown thing or entity as "solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West" - all as one phrase. That is, the depiction (whoever's doing it) is of "animals in films" - so, I could be giving a lecture that depicts "coyotes in films," but that's not what the original sentence is trying to say. The original sentence is specifically saying that films depict coyotes as solitary animals.

Confusing, I know, but placement of modifiers actually makes a difference to what the sentence means. It's especially hard to see after you've read A, because now you know what the intent / meaning of the sentence is, so it doesn't occur to you to think that the wording in C actually messes up the meaning.