By installing special electric pumps, farmers’ houses could be heated

Modifier question. By installing special electric pumps.,... Who installs? Farmers , So clear D.

@noboru, this problem deals with advanced modifier where the initial phrase impacts not only the main subject but also the main verb of the sentence.
(A/B) >> Modifier Problem: "By installing special electric pumps" is modifying “houses” in A and “the warmth” in B;
(C/E) >> Grammatically, all of CE & D are correct. Meaning-wise also, both an engineer and a farmer can install a pump. But, we shall look for the meaning in the whole sentence which goes much beyond away from just the noun getting impacted by the initial phrase. This distinction actually makes this problem superior than other problems where the initial modifier just impacts the ensuing main subject noun.

In this problem, the ensuing main verb in the sentence is also getting impacted by the initial phrase.
The strategy to tackle such problems of modifiers where multiple subjects or similar subjects are fitting in the modifier schema is to check the applicability of the modifier to the entailing main verb in the sentence. Here, “installing” in modifier phrase has no bearing on “reports”(main verb) in CE, though has correct bearing on “could use”(main verb) in D.
Let us take example from the current problem.

If we restructure CE, we get “engineer reports(main verb) by installing pumps engineer(initial phrase)” which is wrong. Looking meaning-wise at D, we can say “farmers could use(main verb) warmth …. by installing pumps(initial phrase)”, which is correct.
(D) >> Correct

By installing special electric pumps, farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk, according to one agricultural engineer.

A. farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk, according to one agricultural engineer What needs to immediately follow “By installing special electric pumps” is who has done this action. This option looks tempting, but notice the possessive usage. “Houses” is what is being referred to. We need an option that starts with “farmers” since they have installed the special electric pumps.

B. the warmth from cows’ milk could be used by farmers to heat their houses, according to one agricultural engineer What needs to immediately follow “By installing special electric pumps” is who has done this action.

C. one agricultural engineer reports that farmers could use the warmth from cows’ milk to heat their houses What needs to immediately follow “By installing special electric pumps” is who has done this action. The agricultural engineer has reported something; he is not the one who has installed the pumps.

D. farmers, according to one agricultural engineer, could use the warmth from cows’ milk to heat their houses Intended meaning is clear.

E. one agricultural engineer reports that farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk What needs to immediately follow “By installing special electric pumps” is who has done this action. The agricultural engineer has reported something; he is not the one who has installed the pumps.

- Nitha Jay
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it is between C and E. yes it is modifier problem ... electric pumps ...who installs? an engineer ..

so I go with C for clarity and active voice.

i think you mistook, actually engineer is reporting, only farmer installs ..

Its a clear D..
Its the farmer who is installing..

how can the farmer be the one who install?
shouldnt it be the engineer?
Please clarify.
thanks

" their" can not have "cows " as antecedent...as cows is not mentioned anywhere..its rather the possessive case cows milk..., however.., their can have .., "farmers" or "engineers" as antecedent..
pls clarify...

I rejected option B,C,D on the basis of pronoun error - "Their Houses" can refer to Cow's houses and Farmer's houses

Can you please help me understand where am i going wrong?

RAHUL_GMAT Be careful with pronoun ambiguity! We can't eliminate a choice just because there is more than one possible antecedent for the pronoun. The sentence needs to be phrased in such a way that the reader may actually become confused about what the pronoun refers to. Here, it's pretty clear whose houses are getting heated!
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I think clue for the correct sentence is who would install the pump that is clearly farmer.

Looks confusing at first glance. Specially the phrase "according to on engineer".

Let's focus on non underlined portion.

By installing special electric pumps -- Who is installing? The engineer is not doing the installation because we are just quoting his/her study.

So only a machine/human can do installation. That makes D as the right answer.

Also since there is no essential information added by the phrase "acc to the engineer"; the best is to just make it non essential which is what D does.

(A) farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk, according to one agricultural engineer - Modifier Issue + Passive Voice + What exactly is according to the engineer?

(B) the warmth from cows’ milk could be used by farmers to heat their houses, according to one agricultural engineer Same as A

(C) one agricultural engineer reports that farmers could use the warmth from cows’ milk to heat their houses There is literally no way you can connect the phrase "By installing...." to this part of the sentence.

(D) farmers, according to one agricultural engineer, could use the warmth from cows’ milk to heat their houses Good as mentioned above.

(E) one agricultural engineer reports that farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk Same as A and C

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma GMATNinjaTWO please help me with options C,D,E?

Option (A): By installing special electric pumps, farmers’ houses could be heated by the warmth from cows’ milk, according to one agricultural engineer.

Who will install special electric pumps? Farmers.

So what should follow immediately after "By installing special electric pumps," is "farmers"

Something like this: By installing special electric pumps, farmers can heat their houses ... according to one engineer.

Only option (D) gives us this structure.

The engineer only reports what the farmers can do by installing special pumps. The installation of the pumps in their homes will be done by the farmers only.

Answer (D)
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GMATNinja or any experts

I don't see any grammatical mistake or ambiguity in option C.

Kindly help.

The problem with (C) is that the opening modifier ("By installing special electric pumps") seems to modify "one agricultural engineer" - more specifically, (C) makes it sound as though one agricultural engineer REPORTS something by installing special electric pumps, and that doesn't make any sense.

It's the farmers who could, by installing special electric pumps, use the warmth from cows’ milk to heat their houses. That's why it's best to put "farmers" immediately after the opening modifier.

I hope that helps!
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Isnt "according to electrical engineer" denote the subject which is the farmer in option d. So it means that the farmers are according to the electrical which is wrong . please clarify my doubt

“according to one agricultural engineer” is not a modifier. It is just adding nonessential information. You can delete this part and the sentence can still be understood.

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Dear Ninja, I chose E, since in E there is no pronoun ambiguity.
In C and D, 'their' could go back to cows' as well.
Possessive -> their , possessive --> cows'.

please suggest.

I am not denying your suggestion of - an engineer installs and then reports.. not so sensible. does this 'meaning' even surpass the 'grammar'?
\Rgds