Question

In light of her extraordinary creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the best candidate of the two.
Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise and meets the requirements of standard written English

• A. In light of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor, finding Susan to be the best candidate of the two.
• B. A recent poll put Susan ahead of George, in the race for governor, found Susan to be the better candidate of the two because of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal.
• C. In light of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the better candidate of the two.
• D. In light of her extraordinary creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the best candidate of the two.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

To find the most precise and standard written English form for the sentence, let's analyze each option carefully.

1. In the original sentence:
   "In light of her extraordinary creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the best candidate of the two."
   • The phrase "the best candidate of the two" is not appropriate; when comparing two things, we use the comparative form. "Better" is the comparative form, while "best" is the superlative form used for comparing three or more.
2. Option 1: "In light of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor, finding Susan to be the best candidate of the two."
   • This option also incorrectly uses "the best candidate of the two". It does use "extraordinarily" correctly, but the main issue with the comparative form remains.
3. Option 2: "A recent poll put Susan ahead of George, in the race for governor, found Susan to be the better candidate of the two because of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal."
   • This option contains a structural problem. The sentence starts with "A recent poll put Susan ahead of George," which is a complete clause, then adds another clause without a proper conjunction or structure.
   • Additionally, the placement of commas disrupts the sentence flow and coherence.
4. Option 3: "In light of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the better candidate of the two."
   • This option corrects the grammatical issue by using the comparative form "better".
   • The use of "extraordinarily" also strengthens the sentence, making it more precise in describing the degree of creativity in Susan's proposal.
5. Option 4: "In light of her extraordinary creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the best candidate of the two."
   • Similar to the original option, it misuses "the best". Additionally, "extraordinary" without "extraordinarily" weakens the sentence's descriptive strength.

The correct form of the sentence is Option 3:
"In light of her extraordinarily creative budgeting proposal, a recent poll put Susan ahead of George in the race for governor and found her to be the better candidate of the two."

This option accurately uses the comparative "better", and the word "extraordinarily" properly intensifies the description of Susan's proposal.