Rearrange the following sentence parts to form a coherent and meaningful sentence about the white American underclass: "The white American underclass is in thrall P – and used heroin needles Q – to a vicious, selfish culture R – whose main products are misery."

Difficulty: Medium

Correct Answer: QRP

Explanation:


Introduction / Context:
This jumbled sentence question tests understanding of logical and grammatical order in complex English sentences. The sentence describes how the white American underclass is controlled by a harmful culture. The parts labelled P, Q, and R must be arranged so that the sentence flows smoothly and the relative clause and objects attach to the correct nouns.


Given Data / Assumptions:

    - Fixed beginning: The white American underclass is in thrall - Part P: and used heroin needles - Part Q: to a vicious, selfish culture - Part R: whose main products are misery - Exactly one ordering will produce a clear, grammatically sound sentence.


Concept / Approach:
The phrase in thrall usually takes a prepositional phrase with to, explaining what someone or something is enslaved or addicted to. Therefore, Q, to a vicious, selfish culture, should come immediately after in thrall. The relative clause introduced by whose must refer back to a noun phrase that makes sense as a possessor. Here, whose main products are misery naturally describes the vicious, selfish culture mentioned in Q. Finally, the phrase and used heroin needles should attach to the list of products of that culture, forming misery and used heroin needles. Thus the most logical order is Q followed by R followed by P.


Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Attach Q after the opening: The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture. Step 2: Add the relative clause R to describe the culture: whose main products are misery. Step 3: Join P to complete the list of products: and used heroin needles, so the phrase becomes whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Step 4: The complete sentence reads: The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Step 5: This arrangement corresponds to the sequence QRP, which matches option B.


Verification / Alternative check:
Read the full reconstructed sentence aloud. It smoothly moves from the subject, to the prepositional phrase describing what the group is in thrall to, and then to a relative clause that names the main products of that culture. If you try an alternative order such as PQR, you would get in thrall and used heroin needles to a vicious, selfish culture, which is clearly ungrammatical. RPQ and RQP similarly break the natural links between the culture and its products.


Why Other Options Are Wrong:
PQR forces the phrase and used heroin needles directly after in thrall, leaving to a vicious, selfish culture in an awkward position and breaking the strong connection between in thrall and to. RPQ begins with whose, but the relative pronoun whose would then lack a clear antecedent, as the culture is only introduced later. RQP separates whose main products are misery from the noun culture and produces an odd pattern that does not follow standard English syntax.


Common Pitfalls:
Many learners attempt to connect the fragments purely by looking for pronouns and conjunctions, without focusing on which word each phrase naturally describes. A better strategy is to first identify the core verb phrase and its required prepositions, then place relative clauses next to the nouns they qualify, and finally attach additional phrases that expand lists or give extra details. This disciplined method makes rearrangement questions much easier to handle.


Final Answer:
QRP is the correct order of the parts, so option B is the right answer.

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