The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration have been corrected, according to the firm of consulting engineers.

A) The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration.
B) The Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure, leading to its deterioration.
C) leading to its deterioration, the Statue of Liberty's defects in its supporting structure.
D) The defects that the Statue of Liberty had in its supporting structure that led to its deterioration.
E) The defects in the supporting structure of the Statue of Liberty which led to its deterioration.



How is OA correct?
My doubt about OA : 1. Doesn't "which" modify only preceding words in the GMAT world?
2. When "which" is used, should't there be a comma before "which"?

Also, I have several other questions.
1. What's wrong with b and c? I think that the Statue of Liberty's defect IS LEADING its deterioration.
Is "its" before deterioration a problem? Does it have a ambiguity issue?

2. If "which" or "that" doesn't modify only preceding words like "which" in the OA, can't a be the OA?
What's wrong with a?

I can't seem to buy any option here...how can E be correct..no comma before 'which', which seems to modify the structure..

According to the discussion of the following question: "A possessive pronoun can refer to a possessive ('s)."
So why can't A be the answer in this case?


With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.


With her archaeologist husband, travels inspired several mystery novels by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels

Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

E is the answer.

Wrong with D:
"structure that led to its deterioration"

Structure dint lead to the deterioration but the defects did!
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In the original statement, "that led to its deterioration" is a noun-modifier. And a noun-modifier must touch the noun that it modifies. Secondly, the reference of "its" is incorrect because it is refering to supporting structure, but we know that the intention of the sentence is to refer to Statue of Liberty, which is not present in the sentence, rather, its possessive form is present. So an alternate that removes these errors will be correct. Either the source of this question is a problem, or there is an error in retyping the question by the original poster, because none of the options look correct to me. Here's why

A. As explained above
B. "its" is ambiguous. Secondly, ", leading" (-ing verb with a comma) modifies the verb or the whole clause before it. But in this case, there is no action happening in the first part of the sentence.
C. "its" is ambiguous again. Secondly, the modifier "leading to its deterioration" should follow the noun that is being deteriorated or is referred to by "its". In this case, it is the defects.
D. The presence of "that" after "supporting structure" implies that the supporting structure led to the statue's deterioration. The ambiguity with "its" however has been resolved.
E. Incorrect usage and wrong placement of non-essential modifier.
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Can someone either delete or rectify this question there his is no chance OA can be E

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