For this week's roundup of grammar, style and other editing missteps, we're resurrecting the always-popular After Deadline Quiz. Try to identify at least one problem in each of the following passages from recent editions; answers and explanations are below. (Thanks to colleagues and readers for contributions.)
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1. Sensing a possible victory, celebrities of the right including Sarah Palin, Senator Jim DeMint, Glenn Beck and Rick Santorum have come to Texas in recent days to campaign for Mr. Cruz. “He's going to do the heavy lifting to reign in our out-of-control government,†Ms. Palin said of Mr. Cruz before a crowd of 1,000 in a Houston suburb on Friday.
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2. But the most amazing artifacts at the show may not be the live organisms that the handlers display but their shedded skins - exoskeletons that are regularly molted during growth and astonishingly preserve the geometry of the spider with al l its limbs in one unbroken piece, an eerie mixture of fragile delicacy and uncommon creepiness.
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3. Today, the factory still produces traditional monteras for bullfighters, a stable niche market, and plumed, dress military hats made from a collection of more than 2,000 wooden molds. But its growth industry is the basic black felt hat, selling more than 12,500 of them a year - largely purchased by the growing Satmar sect. More than 70 percent of all their hats are exported to the United States, England, Japan, Belgium and Israel.
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4. After missing the first half of the season, he said, the elbow hurts every day he plays.
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5. In the meantime, longtime residents are left to harken back to that first crowd that had to endure an invasion of newcomers, the Montauket tribe. As Mr. Devlin's wife, Eileen, joked on Friday as the restaurant prepared for another busy night, “Now I know how the Indians felt.â€
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6. As event s paces go, it is pretty unique: an oblong half-acre of solitude between Second Avenue and the Bowery in the East Village, with an immaculate bright green lawn, hibiscus trees in full flower and a peach tree bearing fruit. It has been the site of four weddings, a Stella McCartney fashion event, a Vogue photo session, birthday parties and ballet recitals, as well as a setting for films and television shows.
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7. Uruguayan officials, including Mr. Sabini - one of several lawmakers who openly admits to having smoked marijuana - favor a more neighborly approach. They imagine allowing individuals to cultivate marijuana for their own noncommercial use while professional farmers provide the rest by growing it on small plots of land that could be easily protected.
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8. Oakland's civic core, such as it is, is shrinking. The city has three professional sports teams. One team, the A's, are trying desperately to relocate to San Jose.
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9. R.A.F. o fficials say that with years to plan since the Games were awarded to London in 2005, they have had time to fashion a shield not only against hijacked airliners, but also an array of other airborne threats. These, they say, include light aircraft, hot-air balloons, fixed-wing gliders, hang gliders, microlight planes, airships, unmanned drones and even remote-controlled model aircraft capable of carrying small bombs.
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10. The campaign features Ms. White in humorous situations where she advocates for wearing white clothing without worrying about staining them. One new commercial opens with Ms. White approaching a mirror in a trendy clothing store to check out her outfit, a white denim jacket with fuchsia leopard trim and matching white skirt.
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Answers
1. Sensing a possible victory, celebrities of the right including Sarah Palin, Senator Jim DeMint, Glenn Beck and Rick Santorum have come to Texas in recent days to campaign for Mr. Cruz. “He's going to do the heavy lifting to reign in our out-of-control government,†Ms. Palin said of Mr. Cruz before a crowd of 1,000 in a Houston suburb on Friday.
Watch out for those homophones. Make it “rein in.†(The same error often appears in the phrase “free reign,†which should be “free rein.â€)
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2. But the most amazing artifacts at the show may not be the live organisms that the handlers display but their shedded skins - exoskeletons that are regularly molted during growth and astonishingly preserve the geometry of the spider with all its limbs in one unbroken piece, an eerie mixture of fragile delicacy and uncommon creepiness.
The past and past participle forms of the verb “shed†are “shed,†not “shedded.†If it sounds awkward as a modifier here, rephrase - perhaps “the skins that have been shed.â€
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3. Today, the factory still produces traditional monteras for bullfighters, a stable niche market, and plum ed, dress military hats made from a collection of more than 2,000 wooden molds. But its growth industry is the basic black felt hat, selling more than 12,500 of them a year - largely purchased by the growing Satmar sect. More than 70 percent of all their hats are exported to the United States, England, Japan, Belgium and Israel.
Two common problems. “Selling†is a dangler; there's no noun for it to modify. And the plural “their†has no proper antecedent; make it “its†to refer to “factory.â€
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4. After missing the first half of the season, he said, the elbow hurts every day he plays.
A bit trickier, but this is another dangler. The “he said†is parenthetical, so in this construction “missing†seems to modify “elbow†- not what we intended.
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5. In the meantime, longtime residents are left to harken back to that first crowd that had to endure an invasion of newcomers, the Montauket tribe. As Mr. Devlin's wife, Eileen, joked on Friday as the restaurant prepared for another busy night, “Now I know how the Indians felt.â€
As The Times's stylebook points out, the phrase meaning “return to an earlier point†is “hark back†- not “hearken†or “harken.â€
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6. As event spaces go, it is pretty unique: an oblong half-acre of solitude between Second Avenue and the Bowery in the East Village, with an immaculate bright green lawn, hibiscus trees in full flower and a peach tree bearing fruit. It has been the site of four weddings, a Stella McCartney fashion event, a Vogue photo session, birthday parties and ballet recitals, as well as a setting for films and television shows.
“Unique†means “one of a kind.†Even in an informal context, adding a modifier like “pretty†or “very†undermines the meaning of the word.
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7. Uruguayan officials, including Mr. Sabini - one of several lawmakers who openly admits to having smoked ma rijuana - favor a more neighborly approach. They imagine allowing individuals to cultivate marijuana for their own noncommercial use while professional farmers provide the rest by growing it on small plots of land that could be easily protected.
I have a recorded announcement for this one. This construction requires a plural verb in the relative clause; the “who†is plural, referring to “lawmakers,†not to “one.â€
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8. Oakland's civic core, such as it is, is shrinking. The city has three professional sports teams. One team, the A's, are trying desperately to relocate to San Jose.
Using the plural “A's†in apposition with the singular “team†makes the grammar awkward - “team†demands a singular verb. Perhaps better to rephrase.
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9. R.A.F. officials say that with years to plan since the Games were awarded to London in 2005, they have had time to fashion a shield not only against hijacked airliners, but also an arr ay of other airborne threats. These, they say, include light aircraft, hot-air balloons, fixed-wing gliders, hang gliders, microlight planes, airships, unmanned drones and even remote-controlled model aircraft capable of carrying small bombs.
Another familiar problem. To make this parallel, either put “against†before “not only†or repeat “against†before “an array.â€
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10. The campaign features Ms. White in humorous situations where she advocates for wearing white clothing without worrying about staining them. One new commercial opens with Ms. White approaching a mirror in a trendy clothing store to check out her outfit, a white denim jacket with fuchsia leopard trim and matching white skirt.
Two points. The plural “them†doesn't work with the singular “clothing.†Also, “advocate†is a transitive verb and shouldn't be used with the preposition “for.â€
