Two Puzzling SC's

[ikkokusenkin]

I found these two sentence completions especially puzzling. Have a go at them!

1. Among the many ....... of the project, expense cannot be numbered; the goals of the project's promoters can be achieved with impressive .........
A. highlights .... efficiency
B. features .... savings
C. disadvantages .... innovations
D. claims .... speed
E. defects .... economy

2. When George Wilson graduated from high school, his parents, both of .... were hearing impaired and on disability, could provide .... financial help toward college.
A. whom .... no
B. they .... none
C. who .... little
D. them ... scarce
E. parent ... nary
[Hint: This is the classic quandary between 'who' and 'whom'. Another one on the same lines: I can invite .... I wish to my party. (whoever/whomever)]

[ikkokusenkin]

2. When George Wilson graduated from high school, his parents, both of .... were hearing impaired and on disability, could provide .... financial help toward college.
A. whom .... no
B. they .... none
C. who .... little
D. them ... scarce
E. parent ... nary
[Hint: This is the classic quandary between 'who' and 'whom'. Another one on the same lines: I can invite .... I wish to my party. (whoever/whomever)]

No takers? Oh well...

The correct choice is C. A simple rule of thumb is that 'who' serves as the subject of a verb while 'whom' serves as the object. In the pertinent clause, "...his parents, both of ____ were hearing-impaired,..." the inserted pronoun must serve as the subject of the verb "were." Hence, 'who' is the correct option. You can see it better if you replaced "his parents" with (say) "his father." So, the sentence becomes "...his father, ____ was hearing-impaired,..." Clearly, you would use the pronoun 'who' in this case.

Going by the same reasoning, in the sentence "I can invite ____ I wish," the correct answer would be "whomever" since it serves as the object of the verb "invite."

[ikkokusenkin]

1. Among the many ....... of the project, expense cannot be numbered; the goals of the project's promoters can be achieved with impressive .........
A. highlights .... efficiency
B. features .... savings
C. disadvantages .... innovations
D. claims .... speed
E. defects .... economy

This one's a little puzzling because three options -- A, B and E -- seem to be equally valid. Which one to choose?

Strictly speaking, 'expense' cannot be considered as a 'feature' of a project. Low expense possibly could, but not just expense. So we strike option B off.

Option A seems harder to tackle. If expense is not a highlight of the project, it could be a drawback. The second half of the sentence seems to agree with this view: "the goals of the project's promoters can be achieved with impressive efficiency." Or to be more accurate, it would agree if we made one small change: "the goals of the project's promoters could (not can) be achieved with impressive efficiency." What's the difference? Proposing that the promoters could significantly cut costs if they wanted is a hypothetical scenario -- something that could potentially be true. However, since the sentence uses 'can,' the second half refers to something that is already true. So, we discard A.

Now, E. "Among the many defects of the project, expense cannot be numbered; the goals of the project's promoters can be achieved with impressive economy." This is more like it. If the promoters are already on as tight a budget as they can be, expense is certainly a highlight and not a defect of the project.