Question

After all the recent political changes, the Syrians are figuring out again how they relate to each other and to the city they have always lived in without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, both politically and socially, with bricks and mortar.

• A. to each other and to the city they have always lived in without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, both politically and socially, with bricks and mortar.
• B. to one another and to the city in which they have always lived without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, both politically and socially, with bricks and mortar.
• C. to one another and to the city they have always lived in without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, politically and socially, as well as with bricks and mortar.
• D. to each other and to the city they have always live in without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, politically, socially, and with bricks and mortar
• E. to one another and to the city in which they have always lived without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for them, politically and socially, as well as with bricks and mortar.

Answer 1

The correct option is C to one another and to the city they have always lived in without quite fully owning - figuring out how to create that city for themselves, politically and socially, as well as with bricks and mortar.

There are several different decision points in this complex sentence. One of them is the idiomatic choice between “each other” and “one another”. If you know that idiom (“each other” is used with two people/entities whereas “one another” is used with more than two people/entities), you can use that to eliminate (A) and (D), but if you are unsure, you can use other decision points. In (A) and (B) the “with bricks and mortars” at the end creates illogical meaning. The goal of the sentence is to show that they are figuring out two things: how to create the city “politically and socially” and create it physically “with bricks and mortar” The goal is not to show that they are building it “politically and socially” with bricks and mortar - this makes no sense! Those two things need to be separated and only (C) and (E) do that properly. (D) uses the improper “each other” and also creates a strange series at the end instead of the two separate ways to create the city. (E) contains a pronoun error with “them” as it seems that the Syrians are creating the city for a group other than themselves. Answer is (C) - the only one with the proper idiom and logical construction at the end.