Sociologists who focus on social recognition report that many people f...
Sociologists who focus on social recognition report that many people from minority groups join the workforce with enthusiasm and hope to participate in the capitalist culture for potential success for everyone, only to find themselves alienated from their colleagues and subjected to prejudice.
Meaning Analysis
- Sociologists
- who focus on social recognition
- report
- that many people from minority groups
- join the workforce with enthusiasm
- and hope to participate in the capitalist culture for potential success for everyone,
- only to find themselves
- alienated from their colleagues
- and subjected to prejudice.
This sentence talks about something reported by sociologists whose work is concentrated on social recognition. According to them, many people from minority groups join the workforce with willingness and desire to take part in the capitalist culture for possible success for everyone. However, they find that they are separated from their colleagues and subjected to prejudice.
Error Analysis
1) The modifier “only to” correctly presents the contrast between the expectation of minority groups and the reality that they face.
2) The verb-ed modifiers “alienated” and “subjected” logically refer to the pronoun “themselves” and are parallel to each other.
3) This sentence has no errors.
Answer Choices
A
only to find themselves alienated from their colleagues and subjected
Correct:
This choice has no errors as pointed out in the error analysis.
B
finding themselves alienated from their colleagues and subjected
Incorrect:
1) The intended contrast is missing from this choice.
2) The comma + verb-ing modifier “finding” cannot logically modify the previous clause “many people… join the workforce… and hope…” The fact that minority groups find themselves alienated and subjected to prejudice is not a description for the actions that they join the workforce and hope to be successful. As per the intended meaning, the reality is opposite to the expectations.
C
and they find themselves alienated from their colleagues and subjected
Incorrect:
Like choice B, this choice fails to present the contrast.
D
finding themselves alienated from their colleagues, and subjected them
Incorrect:
1) This choice has the same “finding” modifier and meaning error as in choice B.
2) Also, here “subjected” is used as a verb, but it’s not clear who the doer of “subjected” is. This word should be parallel to the verb-ed modifier “alienated” since according to the intended meaning both words describe “themselves”, which refers to “people from minority groups”.
E
where they find themselves alienated from their colleagues and subjected
Incorrect:
1) The relative pronoun modifier “where” is incorrectly used here since it should be used to refer to places.
2) This choice fails to present the intended contrast.