Option E is actually quite interesting and has good learning. It says:

....the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

It is important to note that the fact that United States bought Louisiana for about four cents an acre had no bearing (was not the reason) on doubling the country's size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

GMAT does test this concept in some cases. A very interesting example that comes to mind:

Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

The reason this sentence is incorrect is because the fact that those letters where written "over a specific period", was not the "reason" why these letters outnumber her letters to anyone else.
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Not an expert, but i have spend a lot of time on these type of questions. So here we go...
A. In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought - No parallelism .. "Which more ... and Than brought " .. Nay not happening.
B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought - Parallel issue, also "and it" make it a clause without a comma. So i think its called run-on sentence.
C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing - Perfect parallelism. "Doubling its ... and Bringing its ..."
D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing. - Two modifiers back to back is just bad.. Awkward. Reject.
E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing -[b] "It" is a not working here, what does it refer to, it is singular so the most logical antecedent would be "Louisiana Purchase" , but it is the land not the contract that is being purchased here.

i think since the purchase was made in 1803 rest of the sentence should be in past tense...
"doubling" and "bringing" seems as the process is still on
MY say is more on "A"

A.) .....which more than doubled ---> refers to 'four cents an acre', which is meaningless (Discarded)

B.) .....totally awkward...come on...give me a better (tough) option

C.) ...more than doubling its size and bringing ---> correctly modifies the preceding part. The whole sentence looks fine to me.

D.) This sentence looks correct too but option C still is better.

E.) This changes the meaning of the sentence. Looks as if there's more land left to be purchased. The original sentence refers to the whole deal as the 'Louisiana Purchase of 1803'


IMHO, it's option C.

In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

A. In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought
wrong:', which' modifies acre
B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought
wrong: awkward
C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing
correct:no mistake and also by POE
D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing
wrong: passive voice and awkward
E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
wrong: pronoun error - it refers to 828,000 square miles

It would be really helpful if you could type out the question correctly their is an error with the period and also please underline the part that needs to be examined so we do not have to search for it.

Much appreciated.

I find D to not be parallel while E is too wordy and A In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 is not used correctly +1 C best choice

There are at least two problems with option D:

1. The order of the following fragment is very awkward: "The US.... for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles" It would be much better English to simplify this to "The US.... acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre"

2. The trailing modifiers ("more than doubling the country's size, bringing...") should be "more than doubling the country's size and bringing...".

This whole sentence is very awkward due to the attempt to chain multiple modifiers together using commas instead of rearranging the fragments to flow more clearly and using conjunctions to join them more naturally.

There is a verb in D - it is acquired.

oh yeah , my bad. Lets see what's the problem in D

D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

Both parts in blue are modifier. Its one is awkward back to back adverbial prepositional modifiers where 1st is modified by 2nd but 1st does not have any VERB ,Louisiana Purchase of 1803- is a Noun and it does not make sense for this noun to be modifier by 2nd prep ph. . Also, 2nd one clearly lacks AND before bringing

We mostly avoid Prep Phrase started with 'WITH'. However, GMAC can surprise you.

A. In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought
Which incorrectly modifies 'an acre'
B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought
Back to back modifies = WORDY
C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing
Correct as is .... With X, the US did Y
D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing
Back to back
E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
Changes the meaning: By acquiring, the US bought it.... WORNG

Hello maggie.

E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing........

Choice E has 2 problems:

1. Modifier problem: grammatically, [Verb-ING modifier + Comma] modifies the preceding clause. "more than doubling....and bringing" should modify the action, say "acquiring 828,000 square miles", but it does not do so. In fact, the Verb-ING modifier, in E, further explains action - bought it for about 4 cents per acre. That does not make sense. The action - bought for 4 cents per acre - did not help the U.S. double its size.

2. Redundant problem. Why we need to use verb "bought" while "acquire" also implies buying something. Option D, however, is very concise.

Hope it helps.

A. In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought
which and that - do not have clear antecedents.
in the purchase - suspicious

B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing
with - mm, nice, sounds better
doubling and bringing - parallel, no errors
good choice!

D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing
with this choice, the sentence does not have a verb.

E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
meaning is changed, IT does not have a clear antecedent.

C is the answer because :
[With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803,] -> Is a modifier
[the United States] ->Is a Subject
[acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre]-> verb & action
[more than doubling its size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.] -> Modifier telling us IN WHAT MANNER or WHAT WAS THE IMPACT
Precise & correct meaning

The original sentence is intended to give information about the purchase of land which resulted in the increase of territory and other benefits.

Choice A
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

Which refers to four cents an acre instead which should refer to acquisition of square miles. Moreover which and that are not parallel

Choice B

B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

The sentence's main subject is the United States. It refers to the square miles, the acquisition or the Unites States? Not clear. Moreover, the opening of the sentence is weak. The reason is that the appositive" in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803" is not a modifier but a preposition phrase. Remember that a modifier can be an adjective, adverb or a verb but not a preposition phrase. So it does not modify or add any value to the opening dependent clause- "For about four cents an acre the United States acquired". Not a good choice for GMAT.

C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

It seems to be a good choice so far- Remove the opening phrase and read the sentence

the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing ..... Looks good. A mistake that can be committed in this choice is if we consider "the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre" as an appositive. The opening of the sentence does not contain a subject and verb, it is a phrase, therefore, we should not consider the sentence in inverted commas as an appositive.

D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

This choice is dubious at first glance. The reason is obvious

The United States- Subject Noun
in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803- Preposition Phrase
for about four cents an acre- Preposition phrase
acquired 828,000 square miles - contains a verb - acquired

As in choice B the subject noun should normally be modified after a comma and then a verb can come after the modifier. In this case there are two prepositional phrases between the subject and the verb. So this choice is incorrect

E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing

Two errors- The usage of "it" is ambiguous. It creates redundancy & meaning error. When the land is already acquired you cannot buy it. I.E. in this case you either buy or you simply acquire .

The second reason is that the subject is not clear - Acquiring is a gerund- if a sentence starts with a gerund, the gerund is considered as the subject. However, United states should be the main subject and acquired should be the main verb. In this case the main verb is doubling(gerund). Therefore, this choice is incorrect.

A. 'which' modifies a noun and cannot introduce the results of a clause
'that' as a demonstrative adjective cannot be used in such an ambiguous way, without a noun attached to it, on GMAT

B. 'doubling' is here a present participle, which modifies the verb+ subject in the previous sentence. 'it brought' is a new clause, so it is not structurally parallel to 'doubling', and also 'it brought' needs a comma before 'and' because it starts a new independent
clause

C. Correct!

D. The placement of first two modifiers is awkward.
The last two modifiers are wrongly separated by comma rather than by and, confusing the reader that what they each modify

E. 'it' in this sentence refers to 'Louisiana'. But in the last part of the sentence 'its' refers to the 'the United States', hence this usage of pronouns is ambiguous.

Also, perhaps, since 'Louisiana' is used as a noun adjective, it cannot play the role of an antecedent for 'it'
Furthermore, perhaps, since 'Louisiana Purchase', written with capital letters in this question, forms a single, compound proper noun, and 'it' might refer to the whole 'Louisiana Purchase', which is not the intended antecedent.

doing show an action simultaneously with action in main clause.

aquiring can not happen simultaneously with bought.no logic here.
US bought and acquire. this is logic.

this is main mistake in E.

experts, pls help us in this point . thank you

regarding E

US bought and then acquire. this order is logic

acquire can not happen simultaneously with bought. this order of time is not logic.

doing in the pattern

doing+comma+main clause and main clause+ comma+ doing

have two relation with action in main clause

time relation: doing show an action simultaneously with action in main clause
meaning relation, doing show the following meaning relation"

reason of main clause
result of main clause
method of main clause
context of main clause.

expert, pls, help us with this.

thank you

Not clear with the question - My take on the query:

- Verbing , Clause = Simultaeneous activity.

- Clause, Verbing = Cause and Effect.


In this sentence, Purchasing Louisiana, America acquired certain miles, doubling the size and bringing the western border close to pacific ocean.

One major problem with E - There is no clear antecendant for the pronoun "It".
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Meaning of the sentence is important key here- USA acquired 828,000 square miles for four cents during Louisiana purchase in 1803. This purchase resulted in doubling country's size and bringing western border within reach of pacific ocean.

A. In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought 'Which' refers to 'acre' (the closest noun) 'and' is followed by complete sentence, so it should be preceded with','
B. For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought Weird sentence structure. 'and' is followed by complete sentence, so it should be preceded with','
C. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing correct choice. 'more than doubling its size and bringing' correctly modifies USA
D. The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing parallelism is lacking between doubling and bringing.
E. Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing. 'it' refers to what?

C is the answer
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