Bunuel
Among the sports played primarily by women in the United States is field hockey, which is one of the most popular men's sports in South Asia, and volleyball, the sport of many male athletes in Europe and South America.
(A) Among the sports played primarily by women in the United States is field hockey, which is one of
(B) In the United States, among the sports played primarily by women are field hockey, one of
(C) Played in the United States primarily by women, field hockey is among
(D) Sports played primarily by women in the United States, including field hockey, one of
(E) One of the sports played in the United States primarily by women is field hockey, among
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
This sentence is intended to highlight a contrast: in the United States, field hockey and volleyball are primarily women's sports, but, in other areas of the world, they are heavily contested by men. To convey this message effectively, the sentence must employ several grammatical elements properly.
First, modifiers must be carefully placed. For instance, the construction played primarily by women in the United States, present in the original prompt, suggests the interpretation that women in the United States constitute most of the participants in these sports—an illogical interpretation, given the immediately following facts. The sentence must therefore be rearranged to clarify the idea that in the United States these are primarily women's sports, but elsewhere they are not.
Second, field hockey… and volleyball is a compound noun. Therefore, if this noun is the subject of a verb in the sentence, that verb must be plural.
Finally, field hockey and volleyball are both followed by descriptive modifiers; ideally, those modifiers should be expressed in forms that are as similar as possible.
(A) The singular verb is does not agree with the plural noun field hockey… and volleyball. Additionally, the modifiers describing field hockey and volleyball (which is one of… and the sport of…) are not expressed in similar forms. Finally, the modifier in the United States appears to describe women, thus illogically implying that American women make up most of the world's field hockey and volleyball players.
(B) CORRECT. In this sentence, the modifier In the United States is clearly placed so as to modify the entire following clause, clarifying the idea that the status of field hockey and volleyball as women's sports is a phenomenon limited to the United States (and not illogically implying that American women constitute most of the world's field hockey and volleyball players). The plural subject field hockey… and volleyball is correctly paired with the plural verb are. Finally, the modifiers following field hockey and volleyball are both appositive modifiers, strengthening the cohesiveness of that parallel structure.
(C) This choice creates the complete clause field hockey is among the most popular men's sports in South Asia. As a result, the element following "and"—consisting only of volleyball and a modifier—is not parallel to anything, and the resulting construction is a run-on sentence. In addition, the modifier Played in the United States primarily by women, which is intended to describe both sports, appears to describe only field hockey.
(D) The modifier in the United States appears to describe women, thus illogically implying that American women make up most of the world's field hockey and volleyball players. Additionally, this choice creates a sentence fragment. The noun sports is followed only by modifiers; there is no main verb.
(E) The singular verb is does not agree with the plural noun field hockey… and volleyball. Additionally, this choice illogically describes field hockey and volleyball as "one of the sports...", but these are in fact two different sports.