I am just practising some english grammar related questions.
Question: Identify the one bold word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct.
Newtonian physics accounts from the observation of the orbits of the planets and moons.
A) accounts
B) from
C) observation
D) orbits
Its correct answer is "B) from". But why should we select "from" as wrong word that must be changed to "for" in order for the sentence to be correct. what's the logic or rule behind it?
Best Answer
Accounts has to be the verb in this sentence, because there's no other word that could play that role. And account from is not idiomatic English: it doesn't mean anything at all.
Account for, however, is standard idiom: to account for something is to give an adequate account or explanation of it.
As FumbleFingers points out, however, the observation wants changing, too. What Newtonian physics gives an adequate account of is not the (repeated) act of observing the orbits, but what is observed. In current use that might be expressed (somewhat loosely, but adequately) with the plural:
And since what is observed and what is accounted for is in fact the orbits themselves, demoting observe to an adjectival participle would be even better: