SC ques: In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's

[JA]

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.
(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting

Answer is D.

I thought that since the author is comparing three things: Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism, the verb should have been suggest not suggests. I am not sure how to pick an answer here. Please help!

Thanks!

[Guest]

Lemme try...

'She' can not be used here... as the sentence is like this...
In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's A, B & C suggests her blah blah blah... there is no need of 'she'

So you can eliminate A, C & E
between B and D...

borrowing sounds awkward and the tense is wrong too...

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's A, B and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage - is much better than B...

There is no option with suggest so I'm not sure why you are considering that....

[RR]

If you go by process of elimination, then D is easy to pick. As mentioned before - A,C and E, have 'she' which is incorrect. B is incorrect because in 'borrowing images' the word borrowing is modifying 'images' which makes it look as if the images are borrowing something. If it had been 'borrowing of images', it would have been appropriate. Which leaves us only with D.

However, I find JA's question very valid. How can the verb 'suggests' be in plural ? Can someone please clarify.

[Xins]

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.
(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting


I read this sentence as

In her later poems, P Wheatey's BLENDING of A,B and C SUGGESTS her range and depth of influences, not the least ....

subject is the W's blending hence the verb is suggests and not suggest.

Hope this helps.

[JonathanSchneider]

Nice work Xins - you got to it before we did : )

Yes, the subject is "blending." Be careful with middlemen - they're everywhere!

[plunumberone]

"In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending..."

Is the pronoun her referring to Phyllis Wheatley correctly in this question stem?

[RonPurewal]

"In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending..."

Is the pronoun her referring to Phyllis Wheatley correctly in this question stem?

first --
OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWERS ARE CORRECT!
do not question officially correct answers!
far too many students on this forum make the mistake of questioning the correct answers; please note that doing so is a complete waste of your time and effort. i.e., exactly 0% of the time that you spend posting "isn't this official answer wrong?" is productive, and exactly 100% of that time is wasted.

"is this correct?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always yes.
"is this wrong?" / "is this X type of error?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always no.

instead, the questions you should be asking about correct official answers, if you don't understand them, are:
"why is this correct?"
"how does this work?"
"what understanding am i lacking that i need to understand this choice?"

this is a small, but hugely significant, change to your way of thinking -- you will suddenly find it much easier to understand the format, style, and conventions of the official problems if you dispose of the idea that they might be wrong.

--

the answer to your question is "yes".

if you are thinking of the so-called "possessive poison" rule, please IGNORE that "rule". pretend that you have never seen it.
it was a huge mistake on our part to emphasize it in our previous strategy guides; it will be removed from the next editions.

see here for more info:
post46683.html#p46683

[nimisha.jain12]

while going through this post recently, i came across a doubt .
sorry if its a stupid question

example-
john's room is very dirty thats why his mother was yelling at him

john's room is very dirty thats why he thought to clean it up this weekened

in first eg. since his, him are determiners and so is john's room, so the usage is correct
but in second sentence, he has no antecendent since we are talkin about john's room and not john himself.
therfore it must be this way

john's room is very dirty thats why JOHN thought to clean it up this weekened

SIMILARLY, in the given question above,

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage....

the subject is blending, so SHE used in the third clause is referring to which antecendent.
can anyone help me in clarifying this ??

[RonPurewal]

while going through this post recently, i came across a doubt .
sorry if its a stupid question

example-
john's room is very dirty thats why his mother was yelling at him

john's room is very dirty thats why he thought to clean it up this weekened

in first eg. since his, him are determiners and so is john's room, so the usage is correct
but in second sentence, he has no antecendent since we are talkin about john's room and not john himself.
therfore it must be this way

john's room is very dirty thats why JOHN thought to clean it up this weekened

SIMILARLY, in the given question above,

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage....

the subject is blending, so SHE used in the third clause is referring to which antecendent.
can anyone help me in clarifying this ??

you could use that to eliminate a/c/e, yes.

there will *always* be other things wrong with such choices -- i.e., this sort of possessive issue will never be the only thing wrong with an answer choice -- but, if you know it, you can use it.

[danli311]

Dear Instructors,

I have a question with regarding to the non-underlined part of the sentence, i.e. I couldn't work out the meaning .....could you let me know what is the intended meanning of this sentence and what does Which refer to?

many thanks!

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

[RonPurewal]

Dear Instructors,

I have a question with regarding to the non-underlined part of the sentence, i.e. I couldn't work out the meaning .....could you let me know what is the intended meanning of this sentence and what does Which refer to?

many thanks!

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

"Some of which", "most of which", "(not) the least of which", etc. follow the same rules as "which". So, here, "which" = "influences".

On my desk are three sculptures, which were carved by the Inuit of Rankin Inlet.

On my desk are three sculptures, the largest of which is 12 inches high.

[danli311]

Dear Instructors,

I have a question with regarding to the non-underlined part of the sentence, i.e. I couldn't work out the meaning .....could you let me know what is the intended meanning of this sentence and what does Which refer to?

many thanks!

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

"Some of which", "most of which", "(not) the least of which", etc. follow the same rules as "which". So, here, "which" = "influences".

On my desk are three sculptures, which were carved by the Inuit of Rankin Inlet.

On my desk are three sculptures, the largest of which is 12 inches high.

So .... is the sentence saying Her African heritage is not the least one factor of those influences ? Just want to make sure....confused by the "double negative" i.e. not and least.

Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

So .... is the sentence saying Her African heritage is not the least one factor of those influences ? Just want to make sure....confused by the "double negative" i.e. not and least.

That's not a double negative. It's like saying "I didn't finish last" -- there's no other simple way to say that.

[meet8]

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of peimar solar, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.
(A) the images she borrowed from ancient classicism suggesting
(B) borrowing images from ancient classicism, suggests
(C) she borrowed images from ancient classicism, which suggests
(D) images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests
(E) images that she borrowed from ancient classicism, suggesting

Answer is D.

I thought that since the author is comparing three things: Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and the images she borrowed from ancient classicism, the verb should have been suggest not suggests. I am not sure how to pick an answer here. Please help!

Thanks!

Were you able to find right answer for this.. I know thread is bit old but I am very confused so please reply.

[RonPurewal]

Were you able to find right answer for this.. I know thread is bit old but I am very confused so please reply.

Scroll down to the fourth and fifth posts.