The overall slackening of growth in productivity is influenced less by

Hello Everyone,

• The overall slackening of growth in productivity is influenced less by government regulation, although that is significant for specific industries like mining, than the coming to an end of a period of rapid growth in agricultural productivity.


This question is indeed quite confusing because three out of five answer choices are grammatically correct. But if we understand what the sentence intends to convey, then we can arrive at the correct answer. The logic of the sentence decides the grammar of the correct answer choice. So, let’s first understand the meaning conveyed by this official sentence:

Meaning Analysis:

• The overall slackening of growth in productivity is influenced

o less by government regulation,

 although that is significant for specific industries like mining,

o than the coming to an end of a period of rapid growth in agricultural productivity.

The sentence says that two factors are responsible for the decline in the growth in productivity:

a. government regulation.
b. The period of fast growth in agricultural productivity is coming to an end.

Presenting the comparison between these two factors, the sentence says that the impact of the latter is more on the decline in the growth in productivity that the former. The sentence also mentions that even if the impact of government regulation is less, it is important for certain industries such as mining.

Error Analysis:

i. The sentence uses the comparison expression less X than Y in which X and Y must be grammatically and logically parallel. From the Meaning Analysis, we know that X and Y (the two factors) are logically parallel. But they are not grammatically parallel because X = by government regulation = prepositional phrase, but Y = the coming to an end… = a noun phrase. Clearly, these two entities are not grammatically parallel.

If we add the preposition by before the coming to an end…, the error will be rectified. That is all we need to do to make this sentence correct.

Answer Choice Analysis:

(A) the coming to an end of: Incorrect: The error has been discussed above.


(B) the ending of: Incorrect: This choice repeats the error of Choice A.


(C) by the coming to an end of: Correct: This indeed is the correct answer choice. Presence of by after than makes the entities X and Y in the expression less X than Y perfectly parallel.


(D) by ending: Incorrect: This choice is grammatically correct. But it violates the intended meaning by conveying that the slackening in the growth in productivity is influenced more by ending a certain period.


(E) by the end of: Incorrect: This choice again is grammatically correct but present distorted meaning. This choice says that the slackening in the growth in productivity is influenced more by the end of a certain period. So, this choice presents the timing of the influence rather than mentioning the factor that is responsible for this influence.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha