In the mid-fifth century, Rome was threatened by Hunnish troops who

E is the best of the lot. Can someone please explain how B is the IMO?

Poor quality question.


why? it can refer back to him as well. he might have been a great general or something.

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original sentence offers a few grammatical problems to fix, but since we're in the subordination and coordination section, let's start there. As the sentence originally stands, led by Attila the Hun is a subordinate phrase (remember that participles, such as led here, create subordinate phrases). Since it is subordinated to the previous clause about the Hunnish troops and since the who or which marks the troops, rather than Attila, as the subject for the sentence, the pronouns following troops should refer to them. In other words, Attila only further describes the troops; the troops are the real concern of the sentence. Therefore, the original pronoun in the answer choices needs to be which in order to refer accurately to the troops. Eliminate (A). Further, the phrase demonstrated his military superiority still needs to refer to the troops. His is wrong because the proper pronoun for troops is their. Eliminate (C) and (E). (D) alters the structure of the sentence and in doing so distorts its meaning, suggesting the purpose of the attack was to showcase Attila's, rather than the troops', power. (B) remains.

The usage of which without comma is almost always wrong. "The troops which demonstrated...." is wrong. There has to be a comma before which.

IMHO, "Hunnish Troops" cannot be followed by "that" since that cannot be used to modify people. Additionally, "which" followed by an appositive phrase seems structurally correct. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hello bluntkill,

We hope this finds you well.

To clarify, "led by Attila the Hun" is not an appositive, rather it is a past participle ("led" in this case) phrase that acts as a noun modifier on "troops"; appositives are noun phrases that modify nouns to define or explain them.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

A is wrong because of "who".

C is wrong because of pronoun "who" which leads to led

D is wrong because pronoun ambiguity, his should replace their.

E is wrong as two passive voices cannot be come in a single sentence. (Rome was threatened by..... that were led by .....)

B is correct

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A is wrong because of "who".

C is wrong because of pronoun "who" which leads to led

D is wrong because pronoun ambiguity, his should replace their.

E is wrong as two passive voices cannot be come in a single sentence. (Rome was threatened by..... that were led by .....)

B is correct

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Understanding the meaning of the sentence, we know that the troops demonstrated their military superiority. Attilla the hun cannot demonstrate his military superiority single-handedly. Therefore, A,C,E are out.

D is awkward. Also troops "that" is incorrect. You need which.

Therefore, B is the correct answer.