Hi All,
In December of 1987 an automobile manufacture pleaded no contest to criminal charges of odometer tampering and agreed to pay more than $16 million in civil damages for
cars that were test-driven with their odometers disconnected.
Understanding the intended meaning of the sentence is the key to get to the correct answer choice. The automobile manufacturer agreed to pay the fine for its action. It agreed to pay for the action of test-driving the cars which had their odometers disconnected.
Per the original choice, the auto manufacturers agreed to pay fine for the cars and not for their action. This distorts the intended meaning of the sentence.
PoE: (A) cars that were test-driven with their odometers disconnected:
Incorrect for the reason stated above.
(B) cars that it had test-driven with their disconnected odometers:
Incorrect. Same error as in choice A.
(C) its cars having been test-driven with disconnected odometers:
Incorrect. Same error as in choice A.
(D) having test-driven cars with their odometers disconnected:
Correct. This choice correctly conveys the action for which the auto manufacturers agreed to pay the fine.
(E) having cars that were test-driven with disconnected odometers:
Incorrect. Per this choice, the auto manufacturers agreed to pay the fine for “having cars”. This is not the intended meaning.
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
I do not clearly understand your answer. Would you please help me more on this? Thanks in advance.
In (E), I thought that "that were test driven" modifies "cars" so the meaning will not be different from (D). Is there any different between "test driven cars" and "cars that were test driven"