Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package

[quote="Bunuel"]Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package, a goal of a number of members of Congress, has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House.

(A) has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(B) has not reduced the amount of bickering between Demographic and Republican members of the House

(C) has not made a significant reduction in the amount of bickering that exists between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(D) have not significantly reduced the amount of bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(E) have not been significant in the reduction of the bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

Here is my try
Subject: efforts (plural)
Verb: have (plural)

Eliminated A B C right away
Between D & E

'have not' v/s 'have not been'
I don't know how is one of them more appropriate that the other?

Pl help if anyone knows the basic reasoning behind the same.

Another split is - reduced the amount of bickering vs reduction of the bickering

I think that 'reduced the amount of bickering' is wordy
So went with option E

Posted from my mobile device

Efforts (plural) to gain ..."have" . ABC eliminated.


"amount of bickering" is wrong.
hence D eliminated.

Go with E

I think option E is wrong because it changes the meaning by breaking cause-effect relationship between 'efforts' and 'reduction of the bickering'.

Good job with eliminating A,B and C.
E is wrong because it changes the meaning. It says efforts have not been significant...the sentence doesn't intend to say whether efforts have been significant or not. It says efforts have not led to significant reduction in bickering. Hope it clarifies.

i think i got your point karan.

"significant" is a modifier here and the entity it should modify is "reduced (reduction)" and not "efforts".
this makes much more sense i guess.

thanks

Official Explanation :

The main verb of this sentence is has not resulted, and its subject is Efforts. Because Efforts is not underlined, it is correct, which means that the verb has not resulted must be conjugated in the plural to match the plural quantity of Efforts. Eliminate (A), (B), and (C) because these choices all contain the helping verb has.

Choice (D) conjugates the verb correctly with the phrase have not significantly reduced and follows the verb with a direct object the amount of bickering.

Choice (E) conjugates the helping verb have correctly but introduces a passive construction with the phrase have not been significant. The correct answer is (D).