Because of the flood of immigrants between 1905 and 1910, so

I will go with 'D'

(A) so overcrowded were the school buildings on the lower East Side beyond their capacity
overcrowded & beyond their capacity - redundant.

(B) so overcrowded beyond their capacity were the school buildings on the lower East Side
same as A

(C) school buildings on the lower East Side were overcrowded so far beyond their capacity
same as A

(D) school buildings on the lower East Side were so overcrowded
This is it.

(E) lower East Side school buildings were so overcrowded
Makes it look like 'Lower East Side' is a name of a school.

D is best. It's free of any grammatical errors, and is clear and concise.

Because of the flood of immigrants between 1905 and 1910, so overcrowded were the school buildings on the lower East Side beyond their capacity that the city converted a hospital ship into a school where ten thousand children received instruction.

(D) school buildings on the lower East Side were so overcrowded
(E) lower East Side school buildings were so overcrowded

I think we can narrow down to D and E pretty much quickly.

Between D and E, D is better. we want to say school buildings on the lower east side to make clear it's not any school buidlings, but only those situated on the lower east side.

E is not so clear on that point. By syaing lower east side school buidlings, the reader can take it to be the eastern corners of school budilings

IMO, "D" makes it sound like we are talking abt buildings that are located on the lower east side of the school.

I pick "D"

A --> redundant

B --> so overcrowded and beyond their capacity
Mention the same thing twice

C --> [..] overcrowded so far beyond [..]
"far beyond" doesn't make any sense.

E --> lower East Side school
Definitely a name of a school

I go for D.

IMO we can narrow to C and D because of dangling modifiers. And since C is very cumbersome D becomes the obvious choice.

https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=14177

I found a previous link:
https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=14177

Relax guys


I too picked D....

I would have liked someone like Paul/HH to explain us about this.

Because of the flood of immigrants between 1905 and 1910, so overcrowded were the school buildings on the lower East Side beyond their capacity that the city converted a hospital ship into a school where ten thousand children received instruction.

(D) school buildings on the lower East Side were so overcrowded
(E) lower East Side school buildings were so overcrowded

D & E, IMO, could be chosen depending on the intended meaning.

D will be true of the author wants to convey that the school buildings near the lower East Side were overcrowded

But, I believe E is more logical than D in this context - E basically says that All the school buildings within the lower east side region were overcrowded. This is better than the intended meaning in D, which gives a sense of overcrowding of a subset of schools

Yes, and the intended meaning is mentioned in the original wrong choice.

How come there are different OAs for the same question.