GMAT CLUB OLYMPICS: Over the past ten years, the National Endowment fo

Over the past ten years,
the National Endowment for the Arts
has also awarded nearly five million dollars
to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly
There is no need for also in the sentence and it is redundant. Incorrect
B. has been awarded up to
This changes the meaning of the original sentence in 2 ways
1. the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded nearly five million dollars and not has been awarded nearly
2. nearly is replaced with up to
Incorrect
C. has awarded up to
nearly is replaced with up to
Incorrect
D. has been awarding nearly
it seems that the million dollars has been awarded every year and changes the meaning of the original sentence. Incorrect
E. has awarded nearly
Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded nearly five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.
is a correct sentence

IMO E

My answer is (E). I can confidently eliminate just one option (B).

(A) The difference between (A) and (E) is the additional word "also" in (A). If I accept (E), must I accept (A)? The answer is probably YES. As we do not know anything about the context of the sentence, we can argue "also" is needed. In that case, (A) and (E) must be both wrong.

(B) Passive voice is definitely wrong: the National Endowment for the Arts is not the recipient of the award.

(C) The difference between (A) and (E) is between "up to" and "nearly". The use of each is quite common and not controversial. A minute distinction can be made that "An amount that is up to five million dollars" can actually turn out to be much lower than 5million. After all, if I decide to buy up to 100 bitcoins, I may just buy 0.00...001 bitcoins and claim that my goal is fulfilled. "Nearly", on the other hand, is more precise. But what is the intension of the author? We do not know.

(D) Usually I can eliminate (D) without much thinking. There is no need / justification to emphasize that the National Endowment for the Arts awarded the nearly / up to 5 million dollars on the continuous basis. It would probably only make a batch of awards each year over the past ten years. Why am I not that confident? Well, this is GMAT CLUB OLYMPICS, in which some questions reveal arcane rules and astonishing answers. haha.

(E) My choice. It is not that different from (A) or (B). Instead of dwelling on this question, picking one answer and moving on to the next question is the wise call.

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has also awarded nearly five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly
Grammatically, the usage of also in this example is correct. If the clause is in the perfect or past perfect, also is after the auxiliary and before the verb. But when you check the meaning of the sentence, also usage is unnecessary for this sentence. There is no other action, the National Endowment for the Arts has done/mentioned, to use also in the sentence.
So, this is an incorrect choice.

B. has been awarded up to
'up to' usage alters the meaning of the sentence. It could be from one dollar to five million dollars. Also, "has been awarded" completely changed the meaning of the original sentence. Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

C. has awarded up to
'up to' usage alters the meaning of the sentence. It could be from one dollar to five million dollars. Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

D. has been awarding nearly
Grammatically, may be correct but this changes the meaning of the original sentence. It changes such that every time, the Nation Endowment for the Arts has been awarding nearly 5 million dollars( multiple occurrences of entire amount, instead of sum of smaller amounts). Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

E. has awarded nearly
has conjunction along with -ed verb makes the tense of the sentence, in all voices, correct with respect to the time period, "Over the past ten years" - from past to present. So, the answer choice is E.

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has also awarded nearly five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly

“also” is unwarranted, so I s wrong

B. has been awarded up to

this organization was not awarded, but it itself awarded, hence wrong.

C. has awarded up to

“up to” is mostly used to show a maximum capacity, so a reader may perceive as though the organization will not award more than this. Probably this not the intended idea.

D. has been awarding nearly

These shows perfect continuous that seems unwarranted here.

E. has awarded nearly

Correct choice as far as I know. I have seen GMAT use “nearly” a lot.

So E