In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000

This question is based on Construction.

In Option A, the pronouns ‘which’ and ‘that’ refer to “acre”; the meaning thus conveyed is that an acre more than doubled the country’s size and brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean. Since this meaning is illogical, Option A can be ruled out.

The construction of Option B is awkward and it is not clear what the United States acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. The pronoun ‘it’ in this option refers to the United States, conveying the meaning that the US brought the western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean. So, Option B can be eliminated.

The modifier “With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803” sets the context. The modifier at the end of the option “more than doubling its size and bringing..” describes the result of the acquisition of miles by the United States. So, C is the best of all the options.

The modifier “for about four cents an acre” is misplaced. It should have been placed after “square miles”. There should have been a conjunction between the modifiers at the end of the option. So, Option D can be eliminated.

The pronoun ‘it’ is ambiguous in this option; there is no logical antecedent for the pronoun as the United States had bought 828,000 square miles and the pronoun ‘it’ cannot refer to ‘miles’. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

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

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.

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.

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.

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".

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

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 not parallel
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 :-

It in underline sentence & its in non-underline sentence don't agree with each other. That's the main problem.

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

GMATNinja Why (C) use "more than doubling" since the event is in the past? Why both (A) and (D) is incorrect?

"Doubling" is an "-ing" modifier -- otherwise known as a participle -- and since it's NOT a verb, it has no tense, and can be used to modify something in the past. For example, "Following in my father's footsteps, I became a teacher." Similarly, "doubling" (or "more than doubling" can be used to modify the past action ("acquired 828,000 square miles"). See the previous topic of the week on "-ing" words for more on this: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 39780.html

As for choice (A) and (D), refer to the explanations below:

for choice (D): https://gmatclub.com/forum/advanced-sc- ... l#p1533879
for choice (A): https://gmatclub.com/forum/advanced-sc- ... l#p1521831

Please review the previous posts in this thread before posting additional questions!

I still want to know whether "acquiring..." in choice E is incorrect.

I think that in the pattern
doing phrase, main clause

the action of "doing" happen a little before the action of the main clause. if this is correct, then choice E is wrong because the action of "buying" happen before the action of "acquiring" .

and in the pattern
main clause, doing phrase,

the action in main clause happen a little before the action in doing phrase

is my thinking correct?

"Acquiring" is a little bit tricky in this case. You'll want to think of "acquiring" as a modifier, not a verb (for more on the various uses of "-ing" words, check out this thread if you haven't already seen it). And in most GMAT questions, the principal issue is whether the "-ing" modifier can logically modify the subject of the clause that follows.

And in that sense, "acquiring" is OK in (E): the United States acquired the 828,000 square miles of territory, so that aspect of it seems fine.

But more broadly, I'm not sure that the construction makes a whole lot of sense in (E). "Acquiring" and "bought" are basically the same thing here, since the acquisition was a purchase. So why the heck would we use "acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase..." as a phrase that modifies "the United States bought..."? At minimum, that seems unnecessarily wordy, and it's arguably completely redundant.

It also sounds like you might have the impression that the "-ing" modifier ("acquiring", in this case) has to "occur" before the next action in the sentence ("bought"), and that simply isn't true. "Acquiring" is a modifier, not a verb -- and there's no reason why the modifier would (somehow) "happen" before the clause.

I hope this helps!

Hi victory47, generally in this kind of a construct, the actions concurrent / continuous (and not discrete).

Perhaps you might be confusing this with another typical construct (having + past participle), which does establish a time sequence of the nature that you have mentioned. So, the sentence needs to be:

Having acquired 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States....

In this construct indeed, the action of acquiring happened before the action of the main clause.

As the sentence implies, the purchase / acquisition of the land resulted in the doubling of the size, so there is a direct cause and effect relationship. We must use ‘verb-ing’ for the effect. So the two words should be ‘doubling’ and bringing. This eliminates A and B.

C. Correct

D. As there are two effects, there must be the word ‘and’ between them … so ‘and bringing’ should be used. Moreover the sentence is extremely awkward.

E. The word ‘Louisiana’ in ‘the Louisiana Purchase of 1803’ functions as an adjective. The pronoun ‘it’ mistakenly refers to the adjective ‘Louisiana’. As pronouns can refer back only to nouns, this choice is wrong.

GMATNinja MentorTutoring VeritasKarishma egmat
How option C is parallel ?
I tried in below manner but not able to identify.

1.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 more than (bringing its western border)- Doesn't make sense.
2.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 With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the United States bringing its western border-Also doesn't make sense.
Please help