As the global trade expanded, China and Russia were the two countries that created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico.

A) Russia were the two countries that created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico
B) Russia were the two countries and created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico did
C) Russia, the two countries creating open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico
D) Russia, the two countries that created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico did
E) Russia were the two countries that created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico did

In this sentence the comparison needs to be absolutely clear.
China and Russia were the two countries that created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico.
This sentence can have two interpretations.
1. China and russia created the fta with us before mexico and brazil created the fta with usa.
2. China and russia created the fta with usa before they created the fta with mexico and brazil.
The intended meaning is the first one.
So a did has to be added to convey the meaning without any ambiguity.
A. Comparison error
B. And created distorts the sentence and creates false parallelism.
C. China and russia does not have a verb. Fragment. Comparison error as well.
D. Same as C. No verb.
E. Correct
Great question

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This question is based on Construction and Comparison.

Options C and D are only sentence fragments. There is a verb missing in both these options to complete the idea of the subject ”China and Russia”. As it stands, Option C is made up of two phrases with the subject in between.
Option D is made up of a phrase and a dependent clause with the subject in between.
Since they are incomplete, Options C and D can be eliminated.

The construction of Option B is different. The other options contain a modifier after the subject “China and Russia”. However, the conjunction ‘and’ in this option converts the modifier into an independent clause. This construction causes a lack of parallelism – China and Russia were the two countries and created open border free trade agreements with US before Brazil and Mexico did.
For one thing, the first clause is incomplete because the definite article ‘the’ makes it necessary to have a modifier to clarify what the two countries were. For example, “China and Russia were the two countries that paved the way” would make sense.
For another, the verbs ‘were’ and ‘created’ are not parallel to each other in this sentence as the idea conveyed by the two verbs is different – ‘were’ implies a state of existence and ‘created’ implies an action. So, Option B can be eliminated.

Options A and E are identical except for the comparison. The comparison is incomplete in Option A because of the missing verb at the end of the sentence. Without the verb, the meaning is not conveyed accurately. Option A implies that the two countries created open border free trade agreements with US before they did so with Brazil and Mexico.

However, the intended meaning is that the two countries created the agreements with the US before Brazil and Mexico did so. This meaning is conveyed by Option E. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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