Question

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her (1)as gently as possible the news of her husbands death. Which is the BEST revision of Sentence (1)?
A) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

B) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her, as gently as possible, the news, of her husband's death.

C) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard, was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

D) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

Answer 1

 the answer is (a) because she is grieving the loss of her husband

Answer 2

Answer:

D) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

Explanation:

The best revision of the sentence includes a comma to separate the present participle clause Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble from the next clause.

The rest of the choices are incorrect because option A has no commas at all, sentence B contains unnecessary commas, and option C separates the suject from the verb in the participle clause.