Parts of a sentence are given below. While the first part is in the correct…

Concept

In a sentence-rearrangement item the order is fixed by grammatical dependencies, not by meaning alone. Three dependencies govern items of this shape:

• A coordinator such as “and …” introduces the LAST member of a list, so every other member of that list must already have been named before it. Closing a list early leaves any later enumeration stranded, with nothing to introduce it.

• A quantifier such as “all …” refers back to a set already named in full, so it can only follow a completed list.

• A relative clause introduced by “which” attaches to the nearest preceding noun it agrees with in number, so it must stand immediately after that antecedent.

Application

1. The fixed opening “The solar system is made up of the Sun,” begins a list of the system’s members, so the part that continues that list comes next: Q, “eight planets with their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids,”.

2. P, “and other celestial objects,”, is introduced by the coordinator “and”, so it is the last member of the list and every other member must precede it. It therefore follows Q, completing the inventory as “… the Sun, eight planets with their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and other celestial objects,”.

3. S, “all orbiting the Sun due to its strong gravitational pull,”, opens with the quantifier “all”, which refers back to every member just named, so it can only come after the list has been closed by P.

4. R, “which keeps everything in balance and order”, carries the singular verb “keeps”, so its antecedent must be a singular noun. The only singular noun available at that junction is “pull” at the end of S, so R comes last.

5. The dependencies therefore fix the order as 1 → Q → P → S → R, that is QPSR.

Cross-check and contrast

Read as one sentence, QPSR gives: “The solar system is made up of the Sun, eight planets with their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and other celestial objects, all orbiting the Sun due to its strong gravitational pull, which keeps everything in balance and order.” The commas delimit the list and the two supplementary phrases, and every part sits beside the word it modifies.

• PQSR places “and other celestial objects,” immediately after the opening, which closes the list at just two members — the Sun and other celestial objects. Q, “eight planets with their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids,”, is then stranded after a list that is already complete, with no coordinator or introducing punctuation of its own.

• QPRS puts “which keeps everything in balance and order” directly after the plural “other celestial objects”, forcing the singular “keeps” onto a plural antecedent, and it leaves the unpunctuated junction “order all orbiting”.

• PQRS repeats that premature closing of the list and in addition separates “which keeps everything in balance and order” from any singular noun it could agree with.