In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of

Option E is correct.

Let's walk in through all other answer choices

A) It seems as if the federal government was still offering ---- wrong.
B) which refers to 1980's ---- wrong
c) and is wrong .
d) It seems as if the largest single provider is offering ---- wrong .

understand the meaning -
split
1. offered/offering - pick offered
2. use of which - pick E

This question tests parallelism. The key to solution is not in the underlined part of the sentence, but rather in non-underlined one..... just keep in mind this part -->.....,...... and which supported private....

In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children, offering child care, health, and educational services to hundreds of thousands of children from poor households through the Head Start program and which supported private day-care facilities through child-care tax credits, state block grants, and tax breaks for employers who subsidized day-care services.

a. In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children, offering --> offering / and which not parallel

b. The federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s, which offered --> which can not modify 1980s

c. In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children and offered --> and offered...and educational services ... and which --> Wrong reprtitions of AND

d. The largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s was the federal government, offering --> offering / and which not parallel

e. In the 1980s the largest single provider of day care for children was the federal government, which offered --> CORRECT; which offered .... and which supported - both parts are ideally parallel and make sense togetherl.

Hope this Helps.

Split1) Parallelism. "which offered" and "which supported" = the second part of the sentence tells us that the first part will have to use the same style, "which offered" is favored". A,C and D are out.

Split2) Modifier issue. Who provides the largest day care for children? THe gov = Yes. In other words, when you use a modifier "which" the subject of the sentence must be right before the comma = The Government. B is out for this reason.

In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children, offering child care, health, and educational services to hundreds of thousands of children from poor households through the Head Start program and which supported private day-care facilities through child-care tax credits, state block grants, and tax breaks for employers who subsidized day-care services.

a. In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children, offering - offering(Verb-ing) and which (relative noun clause) -- not parallel

b. The federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s, which offered - which illogically modifies 1980

c. In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children and offered -- parallelism issue -- offered and which supported

d. The largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s was the federal government, offering - offering(Verb-ing) and which (relative noun clause) -- not parallel

e. In the 1980s the largest single provider of day care for children was the federal government, which offered - Correct

Answer E

(A) The government was the largest provider of daycare, offering A, B, and C and which supported D, E, and F.


(E) The largest provider of daycare was the government, which offered A, B, and C and which supported D, E, and F.

If you simplified the sentence to this form, it is cleared why (E) is the correct option.

This question may trip you up if you are not in the habit of reading the sentence completely.
The entry point to this question is in the non-underlined portion – there is already a ‘which supported’ towards the end of the sentence.

All you need now is an option that exhibits parallelism.

(A) In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children, offering

(B) The federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s, which offered

(C) In the 1980s the federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children and offered

(D) The largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s was the federal government, offering

(E) In the 1980s the largest single provider of day care for children was the federal government, which offered

Go ahead and eliminate Options A, C, and D.

Now the choice is between B and E.

Option B says - The federal government was the largest single provider of day care for children in the 1980s, which offered

On the GMAT, ‘which’ follows the proximity rule – it modifies the most eligible noun that comes before it. This does not happen with Option B. Eliminate.

Option E is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

GMATNinja please could you give your views on the below

Many times I see that the relative pronouns "that" and "which" are repeated to maintain parallelism. While at times we keep the common and repeated words out of the list to maintain parallelism

EG:- where the relative pronoun is repeated

The largest provider of day car was the government, WHICH offered child care and WHICH supported private day-care facilities

EG:- Where the common word is left out

He went to eat, drink and dance

(here to eat, to drink and to dance --> where "to" is common"

I don't have a very satisfying answer for you, sadly. There are no specific rules regarding when you should and should not repeat the "common" word. It all boils down to clarity of meaning.

• "Tim said that he was hungry and he went to McDonald's." - Did Tim say that he was hungry and say that he went to McDonalds? Or did he SAY that he was hungry and then GO to McDonalds?
• "Tim said that he was hungry and that he went to McDonald's." - The second "that" makes it perfectly clear that Tim said both of those things. Does that make the previous example wrong? No, but the meaning is more clear in this option.

So just continue to NOTICE this sort of thing when analyzing official questions. Do the repeated words make the logical meaning more clear? Are the repeated words unnecessary and/or confusing? Compare your options and try to determine which option makes the meaning the most clear. And if you aren't sure about a specific question, feel free to ask.

I hope that helps a bit!

@generis- Dear Sir , Can you please provide an official explanation for option C. Thanks in advance.

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