According to a recent study of consumer spending on prescription medications, increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised
very little.

A. heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came
B. heavily were what accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year; the remainder of the increase coming
C. heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming
D. heavily, accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came
E. heavily, which accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, with the remainder of it coming

This one's a tricky one; we need daagh and gyanone in on this...

I was stuck between C and E since I knew accounted had to be in the past tense.

E has a which followed by a clause so I was leaning towards C...

E is wrong.Read the full sentence now with option E.
According to a recent study of consumer spending on prescription medications, increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily, which accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, with the remainder of it coming from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised very little.
The use of the word 'which' is not correct. which is redundant here . The presence of that makes it redundant.
Instead of '.....most heavily, which accounted for....', we could have used '.....most heavily that accounts for.........'.
Hope this helps.

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Hi all,
According to a recent study of consumer spending on prescription medications, increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised.



Error Analysis

1. The singular verb “accounts” does not agree in number with plural subject “increases”.
2. There is inconsistency in the use of verb tenses as well.
3. Relative pronoun “which” does not have clear referent here.

POE

Choice A: heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: heavily were what accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year; the remainder of the increase coming: Incorrect. 1. “were what” is not required in the sentence. They make this choice wordy. 2. After semicolon, we do not have an independent clause.

Choice C: heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming: Correct. 1. By turning “accounts” into “accounted”, not only the SV number agreement has been corrected but also the verb tenses have also been made consistent. 2. The verb-ing modifier “coming” correctly modifies the preceding noun.

Choice D: heavily, accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came: Incorrect. 1. This choice does not have a main verb. Hence, we have a fragment here.

Choice E: heavily, which accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, with the remainder of it coming: Incorrect. 1. This choice does not have a main verb. Hence, we have a fragment here. 2.Singular pronoun “it” does not agree in number with plural “increases”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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