Fiber glass statues

[Fiver]

Q] In an attempt to attract more tourists, the Swiss government commissioned several lifesize fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and set them up on the streets of Zurich

A. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and
B. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, they were decorated by local artists, and then
C. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, had them decorated by local artists, and
D. several life-size fiberglass cow statues were commissioned by the Swiss
government, decorated by local artists, and then
E. several life-size fiberglass cow statues, commissioned by the Swiss government, were decorated by local artists, and they

Request all to discuss.

[nverma]

IMO C.

D,E : the modifier "In an attempt..." does not have a proper subject..
B: Improper referencing of "they"
A: Improper tenses ..commissioned......... and............ had them

[harishr1981]

IMO C

[romrubiens]

A. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues,having them decorated by local artists, and
Tense issue
B. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, they were decorated by local artists, and then
They refers back to statues - its not a case of improper referemce. Problem is with then
C. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, had them decorated by local artists, and
Looks good as of now
D. several life-size fiberglass cow statues were commissioned by the Swiss
government, decorated by local artists, and then
We need reference as who's attempting,modifer issue
E. several life-size fiberglass cow statues, commissioned by the Swiss government, were decorated by local artists, and they
We need reference as who's attempting,modifer issue

[santroz]

one more C from my side..

[samarpan_bschool]

Q] In an attempt to attract more tourists, the Swiss government commissioned several lifesize fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and set them up on the streets of Zurich

A. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and
B. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, they were decorated by local artists, and then
C. the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, had them decorated by local artists, and
D. several life-size fiberglass cow statues were commissioned by the Swiss
government, decorated by local artists, and then
E. several life-size fiberglass cow statues, commissioned by the Swiss government, were decorated by local artists, and they

Issue: Parallel structure
commissioned statues ...had them decorated ... set them up

Option E - > Not cleat what 'they' refers to. It can either be artists / statues. Though the closest noun artists seems more logical. Then it changes the meaning of the sentence

Option D - > switch between active and passive voice. So parallel structure is violated

C seems to be the best option

[arindambanerji]

Yea
C for me as well

[Fiver]

Here my understanding:
In option A: The Swiss govt. performs 2 actions: 'commissioned' and 'set', while 'having decorated' is a participle (not a verb) modifiying 'the swiss govt.' and the following 'them' refers to 'cow statues'. Hence here we have 2 actions that the govt. does in active voice(hence parallell) and a well defined modifier in between.

In option C: The swiss govt. performs 3 actions: 'commisioned', 'had decorated' and 'set'. Here the 1st & last actions are in the active voice, while the 2nd is in the passive voice. I would agree to the usage of passive if the subject were not clear; however here the subject is 'the govt.'
Moreover the order of occurrence according to me is: First the Gvt. commissioned, then decorated and then set them up. Hence the act of commisioning preceeds 'decorating'. Then how can 'decorated' become 'had decorated' (past perfect) when 'commissioned' is simple past.
IMO the parallellism as well as tenses is at fault here.

Please pour in more thoughts on my query.
BoB/Erin where art thou?

[samarpan_bschool]

Swiss government did three things -
(i) It commissioned several lifesize fiberglass cow statues
(ii) It had them decorated by local artists
(iii) It set them up on the street of zurich

So point (ii) 'It had them decorated by local artists' does not modify 'swiss government'. Lets assume 'having' is used as a participle here. In that case it should modify the entire clause, as long as the entire clause 'swiss government commissioned several lifesize fiberglass cow statues' converted into a noun phrase could function as the subject of the verb 'have' that is now in 'ing' form. This somehow does not seem to be the case. So it is very clear that 'having' does not modify 'swiss government'. ( You can refer to page91 Manhattan 4th edition for further clarification)


For passive voice, if we re-write the sentence - 'Swiss government had the cow statues decorated by local artists'- will it be considered passive voice ? I am not too sure. Any other thoughts? Thashkor

[atishree]

IMO C