Bunuel wrote:
Although American fast food restaurants once used only domestic beef, the hamburgers produced by companies like McDonald's are now made using a variety of beef sources,
sometimes from America and sometimes they come ---as a consequence of there simply not being enough domestic lean cattle beef to satisfy demand --- from countries like Australia and New Zealand.
(A) sometimes from America and sometimes they come
(B) sometimes from America and sometimes
(C) that come sometimes from America or sometimes
(D) from America sometimes, or sometimes they come
(E) from America sometimes, or sometimes coming
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
Correct Answer: B
This sentence uses a compound modifying phrase to describe the variety of beef sources. The pieces of this modifying phrase must be coordinate: that is, in "x and y" or "x or y", the x and y must be grammatically parallel. It is easiest to evaluate this modifying phrase through the use of the Slash and Burn strategy, which allows us to temporarily remove the irrelevant phrase set off by dashes. Then the modifying phrase becomes:
A: sometimes from America and sometimes they come from countries...(x is a prepositional phrase and y is a clause)
B: sometimes from America and sometimes from countries... (x and y are both prepositional phrases)
C: that come sometimes from America or sometimes from countries... (x and y are both prepositional phrases that modify the newly created relative clause 'that come')
D: from America sometimes, or sometimes they come from countries... (x is a prepositional phrase and y is a clause)
E: from America sometimes, or sometimes coming from countries... (x is a prepositional phrase and y is a participial phrase)
All choices where x and y are not grammatically parallel can be eliminated (A, D, E). Further, in this case, both parts of the modifying phrase are simultaneously true, and so the correct conjunction is 'and'. Answer choices that use 'or' can be eliminated (C, D, E). Only answer choice B is both semantically and grammatically correct.