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

(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

(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

(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

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"
_________________

Nik...
Score Big
time is Less WORK is more

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

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.

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

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.
_________________

Thanks,
Ashish
EducationAisle, Bangalore

Sentence Correction Nirvana available on Amazon.in and Flipkart

Now! Preview the entire Grammar Section of Sentence Correction Nirvana at pothi.com

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.

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.

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

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".
_________________

Aryama Dutta Saikia
Jamboree Education Pvt. Ltd.