No matter how patiently they explain their reasons for confiscating certain items, travelers often treat customs inspectors like wanton poachers rather than government employees.
(A) travelers often treat customs inspectors like wanton poachers rather than government employees
(B) travelers often treat customs inspectors as wanton poachers instead of government employees
(C) travelers often treat customs inspectors as if they were not government employees but wanton poachers
(D) customs inspectors are often treated by travelers as if they were wanton poachers rather than government employees
(E) customs inspectors are often treated not like government employees but wanton poachers by travelers
This question is based on Modifiers and Idiomatic Usage.
The sentence begins with a modifier - No matter how patiently they explain their reasons for confiscating certain items. The appropriate subject of this modifier is “customs inspectors”. “Travelers” would not patiently explain their reasons for confiscating items.
In Options A, B, and C, there is a modifier error as the noun ‘travelers’ is placed immediately after the modifier. So, these options can be eliminated.
Option E lacks parallelism. The correlative conjunctions - not-but – should each be followed by a similar word. In this option ‘not’ is followed by the conjunction ‘like’, which should be repeated after the conjunction ‘but’ to maintain parallelism. Since the conjunction is missing after the second conjunction, Option E can be eliminated.
The phrase “treated by travelers as if they were wanton poachers” is in the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is used to convey something that is unreal or improbable. The customs inspectors are not actually wanton poachers but the travelers treat them as if they were. The verb ‘were’ is in the subjunctive form in this sentence. Therefore, D is the most appropriate option.