ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by coconut shells. They go great with a grass skirt.

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How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

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cover that is enclosing

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And here are the potential answers:

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The word "that" frequently inflicts wordiness on innocent sentences.

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If a sentence works without it, it's always best to leave it out.

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We can eliminate choice (A) for this reason. "Cover that is enclosing" isn't the

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most concise way to express this thought.

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The "that" is making this poor sentence wordy when it doesn't need to be.

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"That" causes problems in choice (C) as well. This choice also makes the mistake of

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needlessly placing us in the future tense with the word "will."

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The rest of the sentence is in the present tense, so shifting into the future tense for

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no reason is inconsistent.

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It's not like these coconut shells are only going to enclose coconuts on some day in the

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future; they're doing it right now.

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Choice (D) incorrectly makes "cover" the subject and "encloses" the verb. This sentence already

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has a subject, "drupe," and a verb, "is."

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All the other parts of the sentence should be working towards describing this "drupe"

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and nothing else. There's no room for rival subjects and predicates here.

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Choice (B) is the correct answer. For starters, it eliminates that troublemaking "that."

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It also correctly applies the word "enclosing." In this form, "enclosing" is a participle,

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which is a word derived from a verb that acts as an adjective by modifying a noun.

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Here, the participle "enclosing" introduces a participle phrase that describes the coconut's

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"hard stony cover."

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But...while the coconut seems tough on the outside, inside he's a real softy

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