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Difficulty: HardAdjective and Adverb Usage

During the excavation of the ancient Roman villa, the archaeologists uncovered a cache of beautifully preserved glass vessels. Because the glass had become extremely brittle over the centuries, the researchers had to handle each piece with extreme care. They worked at their exceptionally slow pace, carefully documenting the coordinates of each find before lifting it from the soil.

Which of the following choices best replaces the underlined portion to ensure the sentence is grammatically correct?

  1. NO CHANGEAnswer
  2. B
    their exceptional slow
  3. C
    there exceptionally slow
  4. D
    a pace more slower than any excavation

Answer

NO CHANGE
The correct option correctly uses the possessive pronoun 'their' to refer to the researchers, and the adverb 'exceptionally' to modify the adjective 'slow,' which in turn modifies the noun 'pace.' This maintains proper grammatical relationships and modifier usage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion and identify the parts of speech and grammatical relationships.
The phrase refers to the speed ('pace') at which the researchers worked. The pronoun must be possessive ('their') to refer to the researchers, and the modifier for the adjective 'slow' must be an adverb ('exceptionally') because only adverbs can modify adjectives to express degree.
To ensure correct word choice and modifier usage in the context of the sentence.
2
Evaluate the original phrase 'their exceptionally slow'.
It uses the correct possessive pronoun 'their,' the adverb 'exceptionally' to modify the adjective 'slow,' and the adjective 'slow' to modify the noun 'pace.' This is grammatically correct.
To determine if NO CHANGE is the correct option.
3
Evaluate the alternative options for errors.
The option with 'exceptional slow' incorrectly uses an adjective to modify another adjective. The option with 'there' introduces a homophone error. The option with 'more slower than any excavation' contains both a double comparative and an illogical comparison.
To rule out the distractors.

Key Concept

Adjective and Adverb Modifier Usage
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Topics

Adjective and Adverb Usage

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