求解释OG2018 .777题

(Book Question:777)

Before 1988,insurance companies in California were free to charge whatever rates the marketwould bear, needing no approval from regulators before raising rates.

附OG解释

The sentenceexplains that, prior to 1988,insurance companies in California could raise rates without regulators’approval. This idea isexpressed concisely using a participial phrase and two prepositionalphrases: needing no approval from regulators before raising rates. Unlike some of the answer choices that contain errorsinvolving antecedents, this construction uses no pronouns and contains no such errors.

A   Correct. Thecombination of a participial phrase and two prepositional phrases expresses theidea clearly with no errors involving pronouns or antecedents.

B   The singular pronoun it has no clear antecedent.If it is taken to refer to the market (the only grammaticallyplausible antecedent), the sentence is illogical. Whatever rates themarket would bear clearly indicates that market isbeing used in the sense of an abstract set of forces affecting prices. To saythat the market, in that sense, raised taxes and that it needed no approval todo so is nonsensical.

C   The construction were . . . and needing isungrammatical. The pronoun they is intended to refer to companies butcould also seem, illogically, to refer to regulators.

D   By regulators illogically indicates that regulatorsare the ones who did not need approval; the pronoun they isintended to refer to companies but could also seem,illogically, to refer to regulators.

E   Before the raising of is wordy and awkward. Both thatphrase and with no approval needed are strangely uninformativeand rhetorically ineffective in that they appear to pointedly avoid telling whodid not need the approval or who might have raised the rates.