Not trusting themselves to choose wisely among the

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi there :) Thanks for your input. You're correct that in (C), "not trusting themselves" would modify "many people," which is what we want. However, and as you mentioned, there are other errors in this choice that make it incorrect. Nice work analyzing the answer choices :D

Jul 23, 2016 • Reply

Adam

Hi Kai,

Here are the options:

Not trusting themselves to choose wisely among the wide array of investment opportunities on the market, stockbrokers are helping many people who turn to them to buy stocks that could be easily bought directly.

(A) stockbrokers are helping many people who turn to them to buy stocks that could be easily

(B) stockbrokers are helping many people who are turning to them for help in buying stocks that they could easily have

(C) many people are turning to stockbrokers for help from them to buy stocks that could be easily

(D) many people are turning to stockbrokers for help to buy stocks that easily could have been

(E) many people are turning to stockbrokers for help in buying stocks that could easily be

In A, B, and C, "not trusting themselves" modifies "stockbrokers," whereas it should modify "people." The people don't trust themselves, so they turn to the stockbrokers, who DO trust themselves.

In (D), we have the past tense "that easily could have been," but nothing in the sentence indicates that the past tense is appropriate here. The rest of the sentence is in the present.

This leaves us with E.

Dec 18, 2015 • Reply

Junjun Zhuang

Can you explain why "in buying" is incorrect in answer choice D?

Aug 12, 2016 • Reply

Adam

Hi Junjun,

"In buying" is not part of (D) — it is in (B), but it is not what makes (B) incorrect.

Sep 2, 2016 • Reply