In the 1980s advertising revenues accounted for

Official Explanation

The original sentence correctly uses the semicolon to connect two closely related independent clauses, both of which can stand alone. Furthermore, by starting each of the two clauses with time references, "In the 1980s" and "in the 1990s," the original sentence creates a parallel construction. Finally, the reference to “this proportion” unambiguously indicates that the increase in the second part of the sentence refers to the proportion of “advertising revenues” in the structure of profits, thus maintaining clarity of expression.

(A) CORRECT. This answer choice is correct as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This answer choice suffers from two errors. First, the verb construction “increased by 57%” incorrectly alters the meaning of the original sentence, implying that “57%” indicates the relative magnitude of the increase rather than the new proportion of “advertising revenues” in the structure of “operating profits.” Second, the pronoun “they” lacks a clear antecedent and could be interpreted to refer either to “operating profits” or to “advertising revenues.”

(C) This answer choice creates a run-on sentence by joining two independent clauses with a comma, rather than with a semicolon or with a connecting conjunction. Further, the pronoun “they” lacks a clear antecedent and could be interpreted to refer either to “operating profits” or to “advertising revenues.”

(D) This answer choice incorrectly uses a semicolon to connect two clauses, only one of which can stand alone. The phrase “increasing to 57% in the 1990s” is not an independent clause and cannot follow the semicolon. Furthermore, by moving the time reference “in the 1990s” from the beginning of the second clause to the end, this answer choice violates parallelism with the non-underlined portion of the sentence that begins with another time reference “In the 1980s.”

(E) In this answer choice, the relative pronoun “which” is used incorrectly. Clauses introduced by the relative pronoun “which” can refer only to the immediately preceding noun. In this case, the relative pronoun “which” refers to “a typical local newspaper,” thus illogically suggesting that “a typical local newspaper” was the subject of the increase. Finally, by moving the time reference “in the 1990s” from the beginning of the second clause to the end, this answer choice does not maintain parallel structure with the non-underlined portion of the sentence that begins with the time reference “In the 1980s.”

Answer: A