Question

Although they were both employed by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, unlike Ralph Ellison in New York and Massachusetts, Zora Neale Hurston lived and wrote almost exclusively in the South.

A. unlike Ralph Ellison in New York and Massachusetts, Zora Neale Hurston lived and wrote almost exclusively in the American South.

B. unlike Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston lived and wrote almost exclusively in the South.

C. Zora Neale Hurston lived and wrote almost exclusively in the South, unlike Ralph Ellison in New York and Massachusetts.

D. Zora Neale Hurston lived and wrote almost exclusively in the South, whereas Ralph Ellison worked in New York and Massachusetts.

E. Zora Neale Hurston did not live and write in New York and Massachusetts, like Ralph Ellison, but rather was in the South.

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Answer 1

In this sentence, we open with a subordinate clause: "Although they were both employed by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s..." The use of the plural pronoun "they" means that we need two nouns serving the same grammatical and logical function. Only D does this correctly, using both "Zora Neale Hurston" and "Ralph Ellison" as subjects (albeit in different clauses). The other four choices all use "Zora Neale Hurston" as a subject but "Ralph Ellison" as the object of a preposition, making it impossible to join the two together into one unit to encapsulate within one plural pronoun reference.