In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of

Good question. A IMO. I am just trying to explain my views on other explanations. See the quotes.

In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat.
(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staplesCORRECT
(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staplesreversion and back both mean the same----redundancy error
(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples againsame problem as B
(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staplesLook closely,meaning changed by using the infinitive "to raise" instead of the gerund "raising". We need a gerund here as we are comparing nouns
(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staplesreversion into is unidiomatic


IMO A

IMO A

revert to - hence, 'reversion to' is needed ......

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples
(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples - REDUNDANT
(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again - REDUNDANT
(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples - no infinitve needed
(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples - 'to' needed

The infinitive indicates purpose. Option D is saying that the agronomists foresee a gradual reversion because they want to raise agricultural staples. Obviously this is not the intended meaning.

the problem is ' a gradual reversion' is noun and ' raise agricultural staples' is verb.... so noun to verb does not sound ok... whereas in A 'the raising of agricultural staples' is noun.. so noun to noun is ok
_________________

398. In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat.

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples


(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples

How does ''back'' fit in here? Sounds redudant and unncessary

(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again
Same reasno for B, and ''again'' in this passage sounds wierd.

(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples
Changed the whole meaning.

(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples
Just doesn't feel right here

Inspite of trends toward increased consumption, agronomists foresee a reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: corn and wheat.

lets put in simple words.........

reversion [regression] to the raising [growing] of staples --> means....downward trend in the growing of agricultural staples...is better than

reversion to raise agricultural staples --> regression to grow agricultural staples....Hence A

In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat.

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples -
(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples -
(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again -
(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples -
(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples -

I chose A over D to make the sentence more parallel over all.

......trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods............

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples (Noun to noun)

(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples (Noun to infinitive)

The correct idiom is = reversion to sth.
B is Incorrect => back is superfluous and wordy
C is incorrect => back is superfluous and wordy and also at the end we need staples so that it can connect well with examples mentioned in the sentence.
D is Incorrect => reversion to raise incorrect use of idiom. Infinitive is not expected after reversion.
E is Incorrect => again incorrect idiom.

Answer: A
'gradual reversion back' is wrong as 'back' is redundant. B and C is out.
Idiom: 'reversion to' - E is out.
In this case, the question stem is talking about a reversion to a certain practice. Hence, we need to use 'raising of agricultural staples', which signifies an ongoing act/process i.e. practice. D is out.

Could someone please explain why A is better than D?

Option D has a problematic meaning:

A: the agricultural staples were raised - the agronomists now foresee a downward trend in agricultural staples.
D: the agronomists are foreseeing in order to raise the agricultural staples, i.e. the purpose of the foreseeing is the raising of the staples.

Hence D is wrong.

tough one...
reversion - get back... so B and C are eliminated right away because of the redundancy.
D - revision to raise - the meaning is changed. the revision is done with the intention to raise ... this is an incorrect meaning.
between A and D: revision to vs revision into. revision to seems more concise. return to not return into. so I chose A.

Can anyone explain more clearly why option D is incorrect?

Posted from my mobile device

when you say in option D that we are comparing nouns, does ''increased consumption of spec. foods'' is also a noun? IMO verb to verb is compared hence I chose C

Narrowed it down to A & E, However chose E.

Can you explain the contrast between to and into.

Thanks

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
_________________