Please correct this sentence.

Question

Quite a few celebrities who are involved in the forged degree scandal set forth their leaving prestigious university, while showing off that they have an ability to graduate those universities but the circumstances made it impossible.

I wonder if the purple colored parts convey their meanings well.

Please correct it if there is unnatural or ungrammatical part.

Ant_222 · Accepted Answer

Here's my try:

«Quite a few celebrities involved in the forged degree scandal set forth their leaving (or: having left) a/the (— depending on the context) prestigious university, while showing off that they have (had) an ability to graduate those universities but the circumstances made (had made) it impossible.»

You may want to use backshifting if this is not a report about a recent event.

CalifJim · Answer

set forth their leaving isn't saying anything to me. Please elaborate what that is supposed to mean. stated that they had previously attended prestigious universities?
showing off that ... is also a little hard to figure out. claiming?

Thanks.

CJ

Ahn · Answer

Thank you for your correction, Ant_222.

Ahn · Answer

CalifJim set forth their leaving isn't saying anything to me. Please elaborate what that is supposed to mean. stated that they had previously attended prestigious universities?
showing off that ... is also a little hard to figure out. claiming?

Thanks.

CJ

I'll elaborate it.

'set forth their leaving prestigious university'

->'state(or 'emphasize') that they quit (or dropped out) prestigious universities'.

"showing off that they have an ability to graduate from those universities but the circumstances made it impossible."

->'they want to tell (show) people that they could have graduated from those prestigious universities if they didn't have any circumstantial difficulty."

But I think 'tell' isn't enough to express the nuance. So I used 'show off' because it seems that they brag about the fact.

Thanks for you help.

(By the way, for what do you thank? )

CalifJim · Answer

Quite a few celebrities who are involved in the forged degree scandal set forth their leaving prestigious university, while showing off that they have an ability to graduate those universities but the circumstances made it impossible.

Here's my attempt to make it more idiomatic.

Quite a few celebrities involved in the scandal of forged degrees boasted that they had dropped out of prestigious universities, offering this as proof that they could have succeeded in earning degrees from those institutions if only circumstances had permitted.

CJ

Ahn · Answer

Thanks for your correction, CalifJim.^^

Please correct this sentence.

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