Many environmentalists believe that the widespread planting of trees,

The basic structure of the sentence is something like this:

Es believe that P would be one of the best ways to begin to halt or reverse C.

There are 3 modifiers for 'ways' - surest, easiest, and least expensive ways
It's best to put them in parallel form where possible.

Since 'sure' and 'easy' have a superlative form, we should use those - 'surest' and 'easiest'
Not that 'most sure' or 'most easy' would be wrong but we use 'most' when we do not have the superlative form such as 'most beautiful.'

Also, 'halt' and 'reversal' are in parallel. So we can use 'to halt' and 'to reverse' OR 'halting' and 'reversing' OR 'a halt' and 'a reversal'
(infinitive, gerund or noun form)

(B) one of the most sure, easy, and least expensive ways to begin a halt or even reverse

'one of the most sure, easy, and least expensive ways' is incorrect.
Is 'most' common to all 3 modifiers? Cannot be because 'most least expensive' doesn't make sense.
Then the 3 modifiers are 'most sure,' 'easy,' and 'least expensive'. But 'easy' is not in the superlative form.

Also, 'a halt' (noun form) and 'reverse' (verb form) is not correct. We should use 'a reversal' in this case.

(C) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways that would begin halting or even reversing

When we use 'that would begin halting ...' we are saying that this is what the way would do. The 'that clause' modifies 'the way.' But what we actually want to do is tell the purpose of the 'way.'

Consider these two examples:
...this is the best way to begin the project... (the purpose of the way is to begin the project and in that respect, it is the best way)
...this is the best way that would begin the project... (the sentence tells us that this is the best way. This way would begin the project. Are we looking for a way to begin the project - not known. What is this the best way for? Not known. It is not clear that the purpose of the 'way' is to begin the project)

Hence, option (A) is better than option (C).

(D) a most sure, easy, and inexpensive way beginning the halting and even reversing of

This is the structure of (D)
Many Es believe that P would be a most sure ... way beginning the halting and reversing of ...

The use of 'beginning' is incorrect. It uses present participle to modify 'way.' But we do not want to modify 'way.' We need to show the intent, the purpose of the 'way.'
We need to say 'a way to begin the halting ... ' to show the purpose.

(E) the most sure, easiest, and inexpensive way that would begin halting or even reversing

Here, 'easiest' does not need 'the most' but 'inexpensive' does. Hence the elements are not parallel. Also, 'that would begin' is not appropriate. We need 'to begin.'

Option (A) is the best in all these aspects.

Answer (A)

(A) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways to begin to halt or even to reverse
> 'to begin to halt...' appears wordy.

(B) one of the most sure, easy, and least expensive ways to begin a halt or even reverse
> not parallel

(C) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways that would begin halting or even reversing
> use of 'would' since 'believe'.

(D) a most sure, easy, and inexpensive way beginning the halting and even reversing of
> wrong usage of 'a'.

(E) the most sure, easiest, and inexpensive way that would begin halting or even reversing
> not parallel among the terms.

https://gmatsentencecorrection.blogspot. ... chive.html

972). OA - A - some of the surest, easiest least expensive ways to begin to halt

B, E - incorrect - modifier error - "most" modifying sure, easiest, least

C - incorrect - unidiomatic - ways that - must be ways to

D - incorrect - We need definite article the instead of a
------
Many environmentalists believe that the widespread planting of trees, along with the conservation of existing forests, would be one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways to begin to halt or even to reverse the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air
(A) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways to begin to halt or even to reverse
(B) one of the most sure, easy, and least expensive ways to begin a halt or even reverse
(C) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways that would begin halting or even reversing
(D) a most sure, easy, and inexpensive way beginning the halting and even reversing of
(E) the most sure, easiest, and inexpensive way that would begin halting or even reversing

I have a doubt..how can we have "one" of the surest,easiest and least expensive ways. There will be only 1 Surest , 1 Easiest and 1 least expensive,as this is superlative for,and we cannot have one of the surest,easiest... "A" would mean we have many surest,easiest... ways.. and ONE OF THEM is best according to environmentalist.
Pls explain.

Please see my attached answer.

Which is correct? One of the most sure or One of the most surest? Is superlative required after one of the most?

Apourv
I presume your question is more academic than with reference to the question at hand as 'the most surest' is not one of the choices available in this question. 'The most surest' is never correct because of using a double superlative. Even 'the most sure' is not right; 'a most sure' is bad for missing the definite article ‘the’ that has to precede a superlative. 'The surest' is correct.

student26, superlative terms don't always have to refer to one thing. For instance, I might say that basketball players are the tallest athletes. Sure, one person in the world must be the tallest athlete of all (unless there's a tie), but we can also compare the attributes of entire groups. So if I say that basketball players are the tallest, it just means that if I compared their heights with the heights of other groups (probably using mean height), basketball players would be the highest as a group.

Similarly, I might say that meditation is one of the best ways to improve your concentration skills. That doesn't mean there's nothing better I can do, just that there are many more things I can do that are worse! It's also common to say something like "Steve Vai is one of the best guitar players in the world." We might not be able to agree on a standard by which one player could objectively be said to be the best, but we can often agree that most guitar players are much worse than Steve Vai, so this usage makes sense. If we were to enumerate the best guitar players, Steve Vai would be in that group, and most of the rest of us would not!

hi, i am still unclear after reading the post why c is incorrect...

is it wrong to have two -ing words like "halting or even reversing"

One way to take option C out is to take a meaning call. This is the sentence option C leads to:

Many environmentalists believe that the widespread planting of trees, along with the conservation of existing forests, would be one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways that would begin halting or even reversing the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.

It's not the ways themselves that are going to do anything. The intended meaning is that we are discussing methods.

This is one of the best ways that would get a good score on the GMAT.
vs.
This is one of the best ways to get a good score on the GMAT.

We clearly don't want to imply that the ways themselves will get a good score on the GMAT.

GMATNinja,

I am surprised at the inconsistencies demonstrated by GMAT.

The sentence uses would despite having a present tense ( Many people believe that -----).

In another GmatPrep question (given below), the use of the present tense was the sole reason to rule out one of the wrong answers.

"A majority of observers interviewed see the Middle East as unstable at present but that it will, or could, become less volatile in the future."

(A) that it will, or could,
(B) that it would, or could,
(C) it will be or could
(D) believe that it will be or could
(E) think the Middle East would or could

These sorts of things only seem like inconsistencies when we try to distill SC down to a concrete list of black and white rules. But because every question is unique and because the context is so important, you always have to think really hard about meaning rather than trying to memorize and apply a complicated list of made-up rules.

The two questions referenced here are, of course, entirely different. In one, we have specific time markers ("at present" and "in the future"), so we need the verb tenses to fit with those times.

Also, the "would" in the "environmentalists" question accurately conveys the implied conditional nature of the situation: IF the widespread planting of trees and the conservation of existing forests were actually done, then it would be one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways to...

But in the "observers" question, we don't have a conditional situation. In fact, in choice (E), the "would" causes us to expect a condition that we never get. "A majority of observers interviewed think the Middle East would become less volatile in the future... if what??".

So we have two entirely different situations. In one, "would" makes the most sense; in the other, "will" makes more sense. Welcome to GMAT SC!

Hi AjiteshArun

Please comment on correct reasons to correct D and E .
ANything i missed except points highlighted below.

Your opinion.

Thanks!

Many environmentalists believe that the widespread planting of trees, along with the conservation of existing forests, would be one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways to begin to halt or even to reverse the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.


(D) a most sure, easy, and inexpensive way beginning the halting and even reversing of
a most is wrong
we are talking about specific entity the is preferred over a
-most sure, most easy and most inexpensive---i think this point is not an issue in D.( most sure, easy and inexpesnive -correct; no issue with this, right?)
- to begin is prefeered over beginning but not necessarily wrong
please comment

(E) the most sure, easiest, and inexpensive way that would begin halting or even reversing
can we reject E ?
- change in meaning ( from one of the to the most)
- way that would xx --change in meaning

Hi mSKR,

Most should make sense with the elements in the list.

1. the most sure, easiest, and inexpensive way ~ the most sure, the most easiest, the most inexpensive...

Why is Option C wrong? I could not find any explanations in the thread except that the infinitive as in the Option A, correct answer, is needed.

Here's choice (C).

(C) one of the surest, easiest, and least expensive ways that would begin halting or even reversing

Notice that the (C) version conveys that "ways" themselves "would begin halting or even reversing the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."

This meaning is nonsensical because ways do not engage in actions, such as halting or reversing.

Rather, someone or something would engage in the action of halting or reversing by USING the ways TO halt and reverse the buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.

Hello Sir,
Can you please explain the use of "would" in this sentence?

As per my understanding, "would" is used only when
- someone in the past speaks about their future
- Second conditional- unlikely If-then statements

Here both these conditions are not there.