A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents

Question

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A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year,  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

B) which was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

C) and this was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

D) and was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

E) meeting half the country’s energy demand.

generis · Answer

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Aswin12 · Answer

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. - Correct answer . "enough to meet.....demand" correctly modifies 2000 TW-hours of energy

B)  which  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. -  pronoun which points to previous noun year

C) and  this  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. -  Pronoun antecedent error

D) and was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. -  parallelism error . This changes the meaning to currents in US water was enough to meet half the countrys energy demend

E) meeting half the country’s energy demand. -  it doesn't show a cause and effect relation

Sumi1010 · Answer

The actual sentence -
 A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that  currents  in U.S. waters  were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

i.e.

Currents were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

What is enough to meet half the country’s energy demand? 
- Up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year. 
Thus, the phrase "enough to meet half the country’s energy demand" is a noun modifier that modifies the energy or precisely "up to 2000 terawatt-hours of  energy  each year"
This construction has no issue.

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.
 Looks correct. Hold on. 
B)  which  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.
 "which" wrongly modifies "year" 
C)  and this  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.
 What is the antecedent of "this" ? Can't be -up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year.
 "This" is a demonstrative pronoun and can't stand alone to refer any noun.  
D)  and was  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.
 S-V mismatch.The subject is plural "currents in U.S. waters ". Can't use was here. 
E) meeting half the country’s energy demand.
  Currents were capable of generating ...., meeting half the country’s energy demand.   
 Note: The participle modifier at the end (after comma) modifies the entire preceding clause and applies to the subject. 
It can -
1. reflect the outcome of the action. 
2.the way the action is performed.  
 In this case, there is no action.
Note that the sentence says "Currents were  capable  of generating" and not that "Currents were generating". 
Thus, the participle modifier after comma is not correct here .

IMO  A

winterschool · Answer

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A)  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.   Correct

B)  which  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.  Incorrect

which modifies energy that changes meaning

C) and  this  was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.  Incorrect

antecedent of this is not clear

D) and  was  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.  Incorrect

currents ...were ....and was........... - currents plural, was singular

E)  meeting half the country’s energy demand.    Incorrect

it changes meaning, before underlined portion there is no action that is continuous

A sounds better

Adambhau · Answer

If we select option A, is it not a run on sentence?

Or it is acting as adverbial modifier.

Can anybody explain. Thanks!

Sumi1010 · Answer

Run-on sentence comprises of two sentences without adequate punctuation or conjunctions.
A sentence must have subject and verb. 
There is no other sentence here. 
"enough to meet half the country’s energy demand" is not a sentence, but just a modifier.

Adambhau · Answer

I agree with that but then how does "enough to meet half the country’s energy demand" modify energy?

Sumi1010 · Answer

The sentence hold the structure:

X does Y, <a phrase>
 
The phrase can modify :
1.entire preceding clause with -How aspect of action OR Result of the action
 (remember the cases of comma + participle modifier and absolute modifiers)
2.the nearest noun/noun phrase (if Y is a noun or noun phrase).

Let's see if it meets case 1.
In this case, "enough to meet half the country’s energy demand" can't modify entire sentence. 
Ask yourself - what is enough? If you try to modify entire clause, you will end up believing that - Currents were capable and outcome of "this capability" resulted in enough something. But currents (the subject) did not do anything here. 
Now, in case 2
 "up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year" is a noun phrase (with the main noun "energy")
Thus, 2nd case fits the bill.

Hope it helps.

RajatJ79 · Answer

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year,  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A)   enough to meet   half the country’s energy demand. --  The phrase correctly modifies '2000 terawatt-hours of energy'.

B)  which was  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. --  usage of which incorrectly modifies the noun right next to the comma 'year'.

C)  and this was  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. --  usage of this creates a  pronoun antecedent  error.

D)  and was  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. --  was refers to currents in U.S. waters and this creates a  SVA  error.

E)  meeting  half the country’s energy demand. --  'meeting' implies it's already happening, however, the currents 'were' able to - past tense.

Answer should be Option A.

ArindamLucky · Answer

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year,  enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

B) which was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

C) and this was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

D) and was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

IMO A

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. --CORRECT

B) which was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.-- Which refers to year .Wrong

C) and this was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. -- this refers to what?? was is not the right verb for currents

D) and was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. -- Same verb error as C

E) meeting half the country’s energy demand. -- Use of Verb-ing modifier is wrong here

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents in U.S. waters were capable of generating up to 2000 terawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to meet half the country’s energy demand.

A) enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. Correct

B) which was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. Incorrect

which modifies energy that changes meaning

C) and this was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. Incorrect

antecedent of this is not clear

D) and was enough to meet half the country’s energy demand. Incorrect

currents ...were ....and was........... - currents plural, was singular

E) meeting half the country’s energy demand. Incorrect

it changes meaning, before underlined portion there is no action that is continuous

A sounds better

VerbalBot · Answer

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A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that currents

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