Although staff at one fast-food chain, in an effort to encourage child

THE PROMPT

The worst part about this question is that it is probably based on fact.

Meaning? Company staff wanted to create a vegetable that tasted like bubblegum; they did so, but the children who tried the creation found its flavor confusing.

• "the food" refers to something that has been created, and a "vegetable taste [flavor]" is not a food
→ we need a vegetable THAT tastes like something
• even if you miss the meaning problem, the singular vegetable is not in agreement with the plural verb taste
Eliminate A
• same meaning problem as that in A
-- the staff created a food that children actually tried. That food must have been a vegetable.
The vegetable tasted like bubblegum. (Gah.)
-- . . . create A vegetable tastes????
-- if you read this sentence (incorrectly) as meaning that the staff wanted to create a flavor, then A [singular article] does not match TASTES [plural]
Eliminate B

• unclear
It sounds as if the author says that the target vegetable is "like bubblegum" and that some unspecified flavor is being created for this food
• we need the sentence to make it clear that that flavor is like the flavor of bubblegum
Eliminate C
• well, now meaning is correct
• this option is grammatical
KEEP D

• meaning is correct in this version, too
• compare D and E

• Both (D) and (E) confirm that people experienced the taste of the vegetable as that of bubblegum

D: .. . create a vegetable that has a taste like bubblegum
E: .. . create a vegetable that tastes like bubblegum

Option E is crisper and shorter.
The verb tastes has more "punch" than the verb has.
Option E uses two words whereas D uses four.
Eliminate D.

The best answer is E

NOTES

zhanbo , yes. Although debate exists, if you're asking me, the word should be healthier.
That said,
1) I cannot rewrite copyrighted materials that I did not author, as I explained yesterday;and
2) In order to flag the issue that is not tested, I would have to write the sentence immediately below.

Although staff at one fast-food chain, in an effort to encourage children to eat healthier [sic], proposed that the company create a vegetable taste like bubblegum, the company’s chief executive officer ultimately reported that children who had tried the food expressed confusion about its flavor.
[sic] is editor-speak that means, "I am intentionally leaving this incorrectly written word as it is in the original."

I suspect that we would spend a lot of time talking about that strange [sic] thing in the middle of the prompt.
Maybe not.

COMMENTS

It's been awhile since I've seen a few of you. Good to see you!

These answers ranger from good to excellent. Nice work.