The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly

Very good question. Got me into serious analysis of the sentence. I think the core of the sentence is to maintain parallelism and Subject-Verb agreement. Notice how the subject and verb are hidden from each other. If you pay close attention in maintaining the agreement between Subject and Verb, the correct answer will simply pop up.
The correct answer is A.
E is out because of S-V disareement "were the cause" should be "were the causes".
D is out because of faulty parallelism. Notice the use of "by" in the second clause. Its not required.
B is out because of parallelism and sentence structure. Pay close attention to Subject-Verb disagreement. "the recent spate of traffic jams" calls for a plural verb instead of the singular verb "was". Incorrect.
C is eliminated for the same reason. Subject-Verb disagreement. "was" should be "were"

took me 3 whole minutes to answer this one. Good Question.

My Answer would be C for the above reasons.

Essentially the issue is not primarily about the use of as well as or along with.
In A the lack of main verb is the issue.
In B, the issue is about //ism between caused by and ((caused) along with; caused in the second arm is elliptical. Caused by X as well as by Y is the correct version. There is a cause and effect factor here; along with cn not bring about cause and effect so well that //ism suffers not only structurally but also logially.
In C the above two issues have been solved.
In D, the issue is S- V agreement between ‘a spurt’ and ‘have caused’.
In E, the issue is that the tense of the verb has been changed to past tense from the original present perfect and once again a S- V mismatch between heavy truck movement and were

So the issue is indeed complex and not restricted to as well as or along with, which by virtue o being prepositional phrases are nothing much different in the given context.

whats the source of this question ?

Source is my own personal construction, posted only in gmatclub . You will not find this elsewhere.

Well let me give my perception of how to handle long passages. Firstly, in most of the cases, it is no more a ploy than to intimidate the candidate. Most of them are decided by simple and basic grammar principles such as S-V number mismatch, basic tense and comparisons, fragmentations and run-ons. I have not found most of them go deep into meaning. Sometimes the wrong choices omit some part of the original passge and to tht extent alter the meaning.

However, the basic approach will be to strip the passage naked by getting rid of the unnecessary modifier phrases and reduce the bulk.

For example, let us take the case in question.

The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains


Now in this case, if you try to match the subject of spate with its due verb, you will see that you do not have one. So now, you search a working verb. B and C are properly verbed by was caused. So keep them.

In D, the subject is the singular spurt, but the verb is ‘having caused’.

In E, the subject is movement and the verb ‘was caused’ (as well as has no role here)

Now between the B and C, B misses the ‘by’ parallelism. C is perfect.

Therefore, no need to worry about coal trade or traffic jam or the maintenance delay, those modifiers purposely stacked for distracting

Another example:

Humans have been damaging the environment for centuries by over cutting trees and farming too intensively, and though some protective measures, like the establishment of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries, having been taken decades ago, great increases in population and in the intensity of industrialization are causing a worldwide ecological crisis.
though some protective measures, like the establishment of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries, having been taken decades ago, great increases in population

though some protective measures, such as the establishment of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries, were taken decades ago, great increases in population

though some protective measures, such as establishing national forests and wildlife sanctuaries having been taken decades ago, great population increases.

with some protective measures, like establishing national forests and wildlife sanctuaries that were taken decades ago, great increases in population

with some protective measures, such as the establishment of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries, having been taken decades ago, great population increases

What is the verb for the subordinate clauses starting with ‘though some protective measures’? You will see that only choice B has a working verb and hence that is the choice.

Example 2
In attempting to solve the problems caused by a lowering of the price of oil, oil companies operating in the North Sea have taken a variety of approaches, which includes their reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently from smaller fields, and finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms.

which includes their reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently

which includes reducing employment, using new technology to be more efficient in pumping oil

which include reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently

which include the reduction of employment, their using new technology to pump oil more efficiently

including a reduction of employment, their use of new technology to be more efficient at pumping oil


Even a cursory glance will make out that it is approaches which include, an not includes. So A and B are out; then it is simple list parallelism among C, D and E, you can see C fits the bill easily.

Take away; If you see a big passage, fall back on grammar first.

all answer choices are wrong.

1. use of due to is not correct.
2. by spurt in traffic in passive voice is not correct. (refer chapter 5, MGMAT SC) better because or through would have been used rather than by.

It is very difficult to identify the parallel elements here. Actually C has correct parallelism because of the usage of by, and B has faulty parallelism because of the absence of by!

Option C.
Traffic jams are caused by X as well as by Y.
X = a spurt in traffic, Y = delayed response.
Traffic jams are caused by 2 things: 1. a spurt in traffic, 2. a delayed response
Usage of by is required to express this parallelism.

Option B is wrong not because of the use of along with, but because of the missing preposition by. In option B it appears as though the illegal trade has flourished due to 2 things: lack of govt control, 2. delayed response.The wrong meaning is conveyed by this faulty parallelism.

The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains


(A) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

(B) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing- Tibet highway reportedly was caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute along with the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

C) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly was caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

(D) A spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains reportedly have caused the recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway


(E) Heavy truck movement carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as the delayed response by the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains reportedly were the cause of the recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway


I hope now it is clear why C is answer . took 3 minutes to identify the answer after narrowing down to ABC . I suppose finding subject-verb pair is really really important in almost every question.

PiyushK is right that the use of "due to," a noun modifier, is wrong in every answer choice. However, some GMAT OAs use passive voice. Style is last on the checklist of considerations, and choice C is the only one that could feasibly be correct (if we imagine "due to" was replaced by "because of") because the elements are parallel.

The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains


(A) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

(B) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing- Tibet highway reportedly was caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute along with the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

C) The recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway reportedly was caused by a spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains

(D) A spurt in traffic by heavy trucks carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as by the delayed response of the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains reportedly have caused the recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway


(E) Heavy truck movement carrying coal and heading to Beijing as part of the illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control enroute as well as the delayed response by the maintenance agencies to undertake timely repairs to the roads damaged in the recent incessant rains reportedly were the cause of the recent spate of traffic jams on Beijing-Tibet highway

Hi daagh,

Isn't the use of "due to" wrong here? Shouldn't we use "because of" here?

We are essentially saying that "illegal activity has flourished due to X as well as Y". The correct usage should be "illegal activity due to X as well as Y has flourished". I am very confused with this usage. Please throw some light.

Regards

Yes, certainly 'because of' is a better expression than 'due to'. However, since 'due to' is appearing in all the five choices, one might look at the other aspects of the topic and see if one can take away something.
The main intent of the topics was to unnerve test takers with monstrous verbiage but indicate that simple things like SV and fragmentation could be of much help.

Hi daagh,
Thank you for the quick response.
Please throw some light on the below 2 doubts:

Doubt 1:
Please explain which of the following structures is parallel?

1. illegal trade due to lack of government control along with by the delayed response ...
2. illegal trade due to lack of government control as well as by the delayed response ...

Doubt 2:
Is "as well as" parallelism different from "and" parallelism?

For example,
The depreciation in rupee's value is caused by bad economic policies and demonetisation. ---> here caused by is used only once still the sentence is correct

In the similar manner is the following structure correct?
illegal trade due to lack of government control as well as the delayed response ... [Please not that contrary to the option C above, we are not using "by" after as well as]

Hi daagh,

I just now went through MGMAT's thread by RonPurewal,

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t5324.html

as per the explanation given by Ton on parallelism in case of "as well as" and "along with", both option B and C should be correct. In addition to this, the parallelism in option D and E is also correct.

Now I am really confused, as to why B is incorrect.

Please help.

IMO, it will be better to use by in both places and be safe. One doesn't lose anything by using the preposition in both places, although there are umpteen instances where the correct answer may miss the preposition in the second arm. However, I would personally prefer explicit expression rather than an ellipsis.
Maybe, it would be better to follow official guidance, when in doubt.

Can someone please explain why we use "due to" and not "because"? As per my understanding:

"Due to" modifies nouns
"Because" modifies verbs

We answer the question, "what happened?"
--> illegal trade in coal that has flourished due to lack of government control

so, illegal trade flourished. flourished is a verb, therefore we should use "because"

Please help me to understand where I'm going wrong

daagh

I would help with some logic which i nailed down which made it thoroughly simple to nail down the right choice
The Beijing illegal coal cases were never helped by the rain lashed which were not repaired by the authorities this parallelism error is present in all the choices expect for C hence where in states that the trafic situation is worsened by the delayed road work as well as the coal buisness hence IMO C