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Difficulty: HardIllogical and Incomplete Comparisons

The primary source documents of the early Mesopotamian dynasties are far more difficult for modern scholars to translate than ancient Egyptian scribes, who utilized a much more standardized writing system.

Which of the following options makes the comparison in the sentence logical and grammatically correct?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    ancient Egyptian scribes; who
  3. those of ancient Egyptian scribesAnswer
  4. D
    those of ancient Egyptian scribes, they

Answer

The option that replaces the underlined phrase with 'those of ancient Egyptian scribes' is the correct answer.
The correct option correctly uses the plural pronoun phrase 'those of' to refer back to 'primary source documents,' making a logical comparison between the documents of the Mesopotamian dynasties and those of the Egyptian scribes. It also preserves the relative pronoun 'who' to connect the dependent clause, maintaining correct sentence structure.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the elements being compared in the sentence.
The sentence attempts to compare 'The primary source documents of the early Mesopotamian dynasties' (plural noun phrase) with 'ancient Egyptian scribes' (plural noun referring to people).
Establishing what is being compared helps identify whether the comparison is logical and grammatically parallel.
2
Determine if the comparison is logical.
Comparing documents to people is illogical. The sentence must compare documents of the Mesopotamian dynasties to the documents of the Egyptian scribes.
ACT English requires comparisons to be between similar categories of nouns.
3
Evaluate the grammar of the pronoun and clauses.
Since 'documents' is plural, the pronoun 'those' (plural) must be used. Additionally, the subsequent clause is dependent ('who utilized...'), which means relative pronoun 'who' is required to avoid a comma splice or fragment.
Ensuring proper pronoun agreement and sentence structure prevents grammatical errors like comma splices and punctuation fragments.

Key Concept

Illogical and Incomplete Comparisons
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Topics

Illogical and Incomplete Comparisons

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