According to Italy's top anti-Mafia

[saketvaishnav]

the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted.

what is- and near to those- referring to, does it mean- a town near to those he trusted? If that is the case, is it correct?how can a town be near to those you trust, those you trust might be living in a town but town near to those you trust- does not make a logical sense.

[jnelson0612]

Please read Ron's posts on the previous page. There is one that addresses exactly this issue.

[poonam.khatri]

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted.


Isn't the usage of "the" before "The Godfather" incorrect?

[jnelson0612]

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of the "The Godfather" and near to those he most trusted.


Isn't the usage of "the" before "The Godfather" incorrect?

Yes, that first "the" must be a typo.

[chandolumanmohan]

I am not able to understand what "near to those he trusted" modifies:
a) ailing mobster came to take a refuge in Corleone, near to those he trusted (Here it can mean he came near to people he trusted in Corleone, by coming to Corleone)
b) Town corleone was near to those he trusted --> This is the meaning which comes out from the option A, because of closeness principle..

To ensure the first option, which sounds more relevant to me, distance between "near to.. " and main phrase should be reduced and Corleone should be taken out... For this reason I thought E is better. But may be as pointed out above that phrases should not end with a preposition can be the reasn to rule out E.

Thoughts?

[jnelson0612]

I am not able to understand what "near to those he trusted" modifies:
a) ailing mobster came to take a refuge in Corleone, near to those he trusted (Here it can mean he came near to people he trusted in Corleone, by coming to Corleone)
b) Town corleone was near to those he trusted --> This is the meaning which comes out from the option A, because of closeness principle..

To ensure the first option, which sounds more relevant to me, distance between "near to.. " and main phrase should be reduced and Corleone should be taken out... For this reason I thought E is better. But may be as pointed out above that phrases should not end with a preposition can be the reasn to rule out E.

Thoughts?

"near to those he trusted" is modifying "the town": the town is near to those he trusted. There is a lot of explanation on the previous page about why E is incorrect; take a look and tell us if you still need help.

[mcmebk]

What you've done here is forced your chosen interpretation onto a question that allows two interpretations. If there are two possible interpretations of a sentence, you have to allow the sentence to take on either interpretation and not eliminate an answer just because it chooses a different correct interpretation than the one you wanted to see..

Hi Tim

Your answer did not answer anything, the degree it may have helped students is near to zero, if not misleading.

If there are two interpretations and both interpretations make the sentence grammatically correct, that means there is an ambiguity, and is thus wrong.

The reason why the "wrong interpretation" is wrong is not because the right interpretation is right, but because you can not say something "Famous because of the god father" and "famous because of near...." the latter part can only be parallel to "famous..." and modify the town.

Thanks.

[jlucero]

Hi Tim

Your answer did not answer anything, the degree it may have helped students is near to zero, if not misleading.

If there are two interpretations and both interpretations make the sentence grammatically correct, that means there is an ambiguity, and is thus wrong.

The reason why the "wrong interpretation" is wrong is not because the right interpretation is right, but because you can not say something "Famous because of the god father" and "famous because of near...." the latter part can only be parallel to "famous..." and modify the town.

Thanks.

mcmebk,

If you're going to respond on these forums, please keep it civil. If you don't like Tim's explanation, that's fine, but there's no need to respond like this. Second, I disagree with your counterpoint and agree with Tim. When there are two possible interpretations, you can't force one of those interpretations. If there's a second, better interpretation, we need to be open to that. That's the interpretation that you have above.

Thanks.

[LimeiC714]

Hi instructors: I have some problem with the pronoun "those"
because Ron has said ( if I haven't misunderstand it) : compared to it, they, them (which can use alone), this,that, these,those must follow noun, such as those people, those flowers.
and the noun has to be mentioned earlier in the sentence, then you can use "those"
since the word those has appeared alone in every choices, I wonder whether this rule still apply.
thank you in advance.

[RonPurewal]

if something happens in EVERY answer choice, then it's a non-issue, and you shouldn't think about it. have you ever seen this issue tested in an official problem?

[DeepthiS561]

According to Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutor, the ailing mobster came to take refuge in Corleone, a town famous because of “The Godfather” and near to those he most trusted.

Hi,

in the above sentence, why is "a town famous because of X and near Y" permitted? I felt that the construction "a town famous" lacked a connecting verb and that it should be "a town that is famous because of X and that is near Y".

Thanks

[esledge]

Deepthi, your suggestion sounds better to me, but I think both can be right. I took some liberties with some variations:

Corleone, a town near the border...
Corleone, a town that is near the border...
Corleone, a town famous for cannoli...
Corleone, a town that is famous for its cannoli...
Corleone, a town famous because of its cannoli...

Actually, the worst part about that last example is not the type of modifier, but that "famous because of" sounds inferior to the "famous for" idiom.