The states three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease

i am lost here.i somehow feel A should have "increasED wages" instead of "increasING wages" to complete the parallelism.

daagh a little help here please!!. how do you say "increasING wages" is parallel to "an expandED police budget" and "improvED monitoring.

Thanks daagh for the explanation.
a kudos is in order.

This is a tough one.
D and E are out because they lack "one".
A is so right because it conforms parallelism.

A, pure shot of parallelism

Well, what does 'one' indicate?
If I don't provide 'one', answer still looks good to me.

Any specific reason for the usage of 'one'?

+1 A

Parallelism. Also it keeps "one" to not change the meaning of the sentence.

I had a same question, Why One is required? Also, regarding parallelism I was also having the same question of increasing versus increased. Kudos to daagh.

Parallelism for A makes sense,

But I will repeat the same question - why 'one' is required?

To kind of clarify the questions on why "one" is needed.

The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.

My interpretation is that the "one" refers to the "gradual decrease." The decrease is caused by expanded police budget, increasing wages, and improved federal workers.

Without the one, the meaning of the sentences changes. If you left out the one, you would be saying that the problem areas occurred because of the police budget, wages, etc.

makes sense.. man this is tough !

Thanks !!

Good One ...
Thanks Dagh For the explanation...

I was also confused with the past and present participle thing...

good question clears concept of parallelism

@Swoosh617



It is really tempting to think that one refers to the decrease. But on a deeper perusal, the word '‘curtailed” is a problem.

Actually when we say that the decrease is curtailed, (two negatives canceling each other to make a positive) we in effect mean that the problem areas have increased in severity, curtailed by factors A, B and C. Isn't this antithetical?

But the appositive ’one’ can very well refer to the severity, the object of the preposition ‘in’ to mean that the severity has been curtailed. All said and done, still the indefinite pronoun 'one’ is a source of trouble.

@daagh

Doesnt 'one' refer to one of three problems????

No. It can not refer to one of the three problems. If only one problem is curtailed, what is happening to the other two? Are they not being curtailed?

This problem is not about PARTICIPLES but about PARALLELISM. Participles are verbals that can be formed by removing the be form of the verb from sentences in active/passive voice. Curtailed itself is a participle (past-participle) used in the question. Correct answer is one that puts all the NOUN PHRASES in PARALLEL. All option have NOUN PHRASES so grammatically all are || but only A has all noun phrases that are logically ||

(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
(B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
(C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers.
(D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
(E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.

Problem with B,C,D,E -Severity CANNOT be curtailed by wages, federal workers, rural towns
A says Severity curtailed by expanded police budget, increasing wages and improved monitoring

Nicely explained. Earlier i went with B, but now it is clear that A is correct.

Hi Jai. Please see my response.

The state’s three problem areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity, one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.

(A) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and improved monitoring by federal workers.
CORRECT.
Parallelism: Three areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity.............., increasing wages......, and improved monitoring..... <== Blue parts are parallel. The three parts are all NOUN phrases ==> keep Parallel.

Modifier: "one curtailed by an expanded police budget" <-- is appositive modifier. "One" refers to "severity" clearly. Remember: Verb+ed modifier always modifies preceding noun. However, the sentence uses appositive modifier to eliminate ambiguity. If you remove "one" --> Readers will be confused. "curtailed" modifies "a gradual decrease" or "severity"?

(B) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages that have increased in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Wrong. Parallelism problem. Three areas have seen a gradual decrease in severity.............., wages that have increased......, and federal workers monitoring.....<== NOT parallel, noun phrase vs clause vs noun phrase.

(C) one curtailed by an expanded police budget, rural towns that have increased their wages, and monitoring improvements by federal workers.
Wrong. Same as B. Not parallel. We need three NOUN Phrases. However, in C, the structure is: Noun phrase vs Clause vs Noun phrase --> Not parallel.

(D) curtailed by an expanded police budget, wages increasing in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Wrong. Modifier problem. If you remove "one" --> Ambiguous (see explanation in A above).

(E) curtailed by an expanded police budget, increasing wages in rural towns, and federal workers improving their monitoring.
Wrong. Modifier problem. If you remove "one" --> Ambiguous (see explanation in A above).

Hope it helps.