After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and ex

Question

After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and expenses entailed in owning a car,  a large amount of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels .

A. a large amount of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

B. a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering pollution, noise levels, and congestion

C. a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district and, in this way, lowered congestion, pollution, and noise levels

D. bicycles were chosen by a large number of consumers as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

E. consumers in large amounts chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and expenses entailed in owning a car,  a large amount of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels .

A. a large amount of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The article  amount of can  describe non-count nouns only whereas the noun  consumers  is a count noun.

What helps us identify this mistake is the following Stop Sign: much, (a) little, less, the amount of

B. a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering pollution, noise levels, and congestion

The article  amount of  can describe non-count nouns only whereas the noun  consumers  is a count noun. This answer choice corrects the original Parts of Speech error by replacing the article  amount of with number of .

C. a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district and, in this way, lowered congestion, pollution, and noise levels

Although this answer choice corrects the original Parts of Speech error by replacing the article  amount of  with  number of , it creates Redundancy with the wordy phrase  and in this way .

D. bicycles were chosen by a large number of consumers as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

Although this answer choice corrects the original Parts of Speech error by replacing the article  amount of  with  number of , it creates a Dangling Modifier. The sentence begins with a modifier:  After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and expenses entailed in owning a car . A modifier should be placed right next to the noun it describes. The only noun that this modifier can logically modify is  consumers . The noun  consumers , however, is quite far from the modifier that describes it. Therefore, it seems like  bicycles  are  searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and expenses entailed in owning a car .

What helps us identify this question as a Dangling Modifier question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A modifier, characterized by all of the following:
1. Verb+ing or Verb in 3rd form
2. Separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma
3. Appears at the very beginning of the sentence

Whenever you see this Stop Sign, focus on the modifier: check whether the noun right after the modifier is indeed the noun that the modifier describes. If it isn't - you've found your mistake.

E. consumers in large amounts chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect and repeats the original Parts of Speech error. The article  amount of  can describe non-count nouns only whereas the noun  consumers  is a count noun.

What helps us identify this mistake is the following Stop Sign: much, (a) little, less, the amount of

gvij2017 · Answer

amount+ consumers is wrong as amount is used for uncountable nouns. 
after searching......, bicycle.... is wrong with respect to use of modifiers. 
 
Between B and C, thus lowering is straight forward correct and better than "in this way" in choice C.

B is correct.

winterschool · Answer

After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and expenses entailed in owning a car, a large amount of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels.

A. a large  amount  of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels  Incorrect

consumers countable, so amount uses wrong

B.  a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering pollution, noise levels, and congestion   Correct

C. a large number of consumers chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district and, in this way,  lowered  congestion, pollution, and noise levels  Incorrect

parallelism error - ........chose ...........and ,......,....lowered.................

D.  bicycles were chosen by  a large number of consumers as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels  Incorrect

passive form, avoidable
previous clause modifies bicycles that is illogical

E. consumers in large  amounts  chose bicycles as a method of transport within the central business district, thus lowering congestion, pollution, and noise levels  Incorrect

consumers countable, so amount uses wrong

After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and ex

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

After searching for a practical substitute to the inconvenience and ex

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

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From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

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