Question

A magazine, as part of a survey, asked the reasons of the readers working late and the effect of their absence from home affecting their families.

• A. the reasons of its readers working late and the effect of their absence from home affecting their families
• B. its readers why they worked late and their absence from home affecting their families
• C. why its readers work late and the ways in which their absence from home affects their families
• D. the reasons why its readers worked late and how their absence from home had affected their families
• E. its readers why they work late and how their absence from home affects their families

Hint:

When you see a coordinating conjunction like "and" in a Sentence Correction question, immediately check for parallelism. The grammatical structures on both sides of the "and" should match. For lists or series, look for patterns like `verb... and verb...`, `why... and how...`, or `noun... and noun...`.

Answer 1

Answer: (E)

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question tests logical prediction and, most importantly, parallelism. The two items being asked about in the survey should be presented in a grammatically parallel structure.

Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The original sentence (Option A) is awkward and lacks parallelism. It asks about "the reasons of..." and "the effect of...". A clearer structure would use interrogative clauses (clauses starting with words like who, what, why, how). Let's evaluate the options for parallelism: (A) Not parallel and awkward phrasing ("reasons of," "effect... affecting"). (B) The two parts are not parallel. The first is an interrogative clause ("why they worked late"), but the second is a noun phrase ("their absence..."). (C) The two parts are "why its readers work late" and "the ways in which their absence from home affects their families." While both are noun clauses, the structure is not perfectly parallel ("why..." vs. "the ways in which..."). (D) "the reasons why..." is redundant (use either "the reasons" or "why," not both). The verb tenses are inconsistent ("worked" vs. "had affected") without a clear reason for the shift to past perfect. (E) This option presents two perfectly parallel interrogative clauses: "why they work late" and "how their absence from home affects their families." The structure is `asked its readers [question word]... and [question word]...`. This is the clearest, most concise, and most grammatically correct option.

Step 3: Final Answer:
Option (E) provides the best correction by using a clear and parallel structure, making the sentence both grammatically sound and easy to understand.