Can someone walk me throug all the options. Why is B incorrect?

Thanks.[/img]

The question is Why is ans choice C wrong?

I have a question about this also....please explain...

hey guys:

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please type the text of this problem into the forum thread, and then we'll answer it. thanks.

Hi Ron,

Apologies for posing the question in image format. Find below the question in correct text format
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Shipwrecks are more likely to be found undisturbed at great depths than in shallow coastal waters, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether they be archaeologist, treasure hunter, or sport diver.

A) than in shallow coastal waters, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether they be

B) than in shallow coastal waters, where archaeological remains are exposed to turbulence and are accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether

C) as opposed to shallow waters alon the coast, where archaelogical remains are exposed to turbulence and accessible to anyone in scuba gear, including

D) instead of in shallow waters along the coast, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and making them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, including an

E) instead of shallow coastal waters, because it exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether

can someone please help with this one??? thanks!

first of all, you can use the correct idiom 'more likely to be found ... than ...' to eliminate choices c, d, e right away. you can't write 'more likely ... as opposed to ...' or 'more likely ... instead of ...'; both of those are unidiomatic, and therefore incorrect, 100% of the time.

so now it's down to a versus b. (choices c, d, e certainly have their share of other issues, including the bad parallelism in choice d, the bad usage of 'including' with the list of singular nouns in choice c, and the lack of referent for 'it' in choice e)

to decide, look no further than the 'which' in choice a, which is followed by the verb 'exposes'. that verb is singular, indicating that 'which' must refer to something singular - and there are no singular nouns in that part of the sentence at all. ('whether they be' is also unnecessarily wordy.)

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your response.

You mentioned that C has other issues - "the bad usage of 'including' with the list of singular nouns".

I didn't quite get your point. If you don't mind, could you elaborate on the usage of "including" with the list of singular nouns.

Is it valid to use "whether" to refer to a list of items such as "whether X, Y or Z"?

Thanks in advance :)

when you use the word 'including', you have to use it was singular/plural according to the quantities of whatever it refers to. in this case, there is clearly more than one archaeologist / treasure hunter / sport diver, so you'd have to say '...including archaeologists, treasure hunters, and sport divers'.

as for your last question, yes, that construction involving 'whether' is valid.

hey Ron
u mean
including Xs, Ys and Zs is correct irrespective of singular/plural objects
including Xs, Ys or Zs is wrong

In A, does which refer to waters or "shallow coastal waters" ?
Apart from using the singular verb exposes, is it okay to use which ? I am thinking yes, because coastal waters is a noun.

C has parallelism issues, that I missed completely.

I couldnt quite grasp what you were syaing about 'including' - 'you have to use it was..'?

so, what needs to be changed in order for the singular version, as used in C) correct: '.., including archaelogist, treasure hunter, or sport driver'?

Thanks.

I think there was a typo in his post there - he meant that, if you use the word "including" here (as choice C does), then you are talking about the class of <whatevers>, so that should be plural.

That's not what the sentence is trying to say, though - the sentence refers to "anyone in scuba gear," so what we say after that should apply to that single person. That one person isn't going to "include" archaelogist, treasure hunter, or sport diver. Rather, that one person could be an archaelogist, or a treasure hunter, or a sport diver.

A and B use a different setup: whether instead of including. Can't use A, though, because it says "anyONE... whether THEY be..." and that's a pronoun error. But B says "anyone, whether A, B, or C." Because "anyone" is singular, that person can only be one thing - you're essentially saying: this one person could be an archaelogist, or a treasure hunter, or a diver.

I also feel that one important point in this question is voice. Since the non underlined portion here represents passive voice the entire sentence should be passive. This happens in b and not a. Please comment if you agree/disagree.

Thanks
Manish