Author Susan Faludi contends that the appearance of studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women are evidence of a growing backlash towards the feminist movement.

Meaning of the original sentence:
1. Author Susan Faludi contends something
2. This something is studies
3. Studies that suggest an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women
4. This studies are are evidence of a growing backlash towards the feminist movement

Errors of the original sentence:
"the appearance" - singular - are - plural - doesn't agree in number. Eliminate (A).
Presence of "appearance" is also questionable, "appearance" itself literally cannot be an evidence, studies can.

POE

(A) and (C) can be eliminated because of SV agreement.

A. the appearance of studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women
C. because studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women has appeared, they

(D) can be eliminated because of "appearing to suggest", you suggest or not suggest.

D. studies appearing to suggest an overall decrease in mental and physical well-being of women

B. because of studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women have appeared, they
E. studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women

Between (B) and (E), (B) seems to be run-on sentence, IC,IC. Nevertheless (B) is too wordy in comparison with clear and concise (E)


(E) is the answer.
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A. the appearance of studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women -
''The appearance'' is singular while ''are'' at the beginning of non-underlined portion is plural
B. because of studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women have appeared, they -
''Because'' should be followed by a subject + verb, ''of'' used as a connecting word is incorrect
C. because studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women has appeared, they -
''studies'' is plural while ''has appeared'' is singular
D. studies appearing to suggest an overall decrease in mental and physical well-being of women
''appearing to suggest'' is redundant and changes the meaning of sentence
E. studies suggesting an overall decrease in the mental and physical well-being of women
correct

Official Explanation:

Since the underlined portion of the sentence contains the singular noun appearance followed by prepositional phrases, check whether this noun agrees with the rest of the sentence. The singular noun appearance does not agree with the plural verb are. This is a subject-verb agreement error, so eliminate choice A and look for any obvious repeaters. There are no obvious repeaters, so evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for reasons to eliminate each.

Choice B inserts the words because of, which leaves the pronoun they with no clear referent, so eliminate choice B. Choice C pairs the plural subject studies with the singular verb has, so eliminate choice C for a subject-verb agreement error. Choice D changes the wording from the appearance of studies suggesting to studies appearing to suggest, fundamentally changing the meaning of the sentence, so eliminate choice D. Choice E fixes the original subject-verb agreement error by pairing the plural noun studies with the plural verb are, and introduces no new errors, so keep choice E.

Choice A: No. The singular noun appearance does not agree with the plural verb are. Subject-Verb agreement.

Choice B: No. The pronoun they has no clear referent. Pronoun ambiguity.

Choice C: No. The plural noun studies does not agree with the singular verb has. Subject-Verb agreement.

Choice D: No. This choice changes studies suggesting to studies appearing to suggest. Changes meaning.

Choice E: Correct

The correct answer is choice E.
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