Finally reaching a decision on an issue that has long been politically charged in the Pacific Northwest, politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend to protect the fish.


A. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend

B. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended

C. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan for protecting wild salmon and other endangered fish, and instead they proposed a series of smaller steps, intending

D. an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish was postponed by politicians, who instead proposed a series of smaller steps, intending

E. an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish has been postponed by politicians, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended

B is my answer.

A. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend This is just nuts
B. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended.
C. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan for protecting wild salmon and other endangered fish, and instead they proposed a series of smaller steps, intending. 2nd place...I believe it's just idiomatic to say an ambitious plan "to protect"; the other differences from B aren't as suspicious to me except that they are wordier.
D. an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish was postponed by politicians, who instead proposed a series of smaller steps, intending. Politicians reached the decision
E. an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish has been postponed by politicians, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended. Politicians reached the decision
_________________

But per the original sentence politicians are the ones who intend.

Finally reaching a decision on an issue that has long been politically charged in the Pacific Northwest, politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend to protect the fish.

A. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, instead of which they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend
B. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan to protect wild salmon and other endangered fish, proposing instead a series of smaller steps intended.
C. politicians decided to postpone by at least five years an ambitious plan for protecting wild salmon and other endangered fish, and instead they proposed a series of smaller steps, intending.

I don't see any other problem with (C) except 'for protecting'.

Per the original sentence also 'they proposed a series of smaller steps, by which they intend'

Also in (C),

they proposed a series of smaller steps, intending.

Verb-Ing correctly modifies previous clause and makes sense with the subject of the preceding clause.

Any suggestions?

"Finally reaching a decision, politicians decided" is redundant. Hence none of the options seem correct.

This is primarily a modifier question. The original structure of the sentence is as follows:
Finally reaching a decision..., politicians decided to do X, instead of which they proposed Y, by which they intend to do Z.
The last modifier, "instead of ..." is incorrect.
A better structure would be, "Finally reaching a decision..., politicians decided to do X, proposing instead Y intended to do Z.
Choice (B) fixes it with the correct structure.
Choice (C) is incorrect because it introduces "and instead", which is less precise and inconsistent with the author's original intent.
Choice (D) and (E) both suffer from an error in the first modifier, suggesting that "an ambitious plan" is what finally reached a decision.
_________________

Amazing discussions above,

would just like to add what I felt while dumping up this(C) answer:
Orignal sentence: politicians decided to postpone a plan by at least five years and proposed a series of smaller steps by which they intended to protect the fish

Original sentence says that politicians proposed small steps and THROUGH THESE SMALL STEPS they intended to protect the fish

Why is Option C wrong:

Here the meaning changes subtly - It says that politicians proposed a series of small steps, intending to..

Well, as per definition of verb-ing modifier-
verb-ing modifier preceded by a comma modifies the preceding clause, it presents either additional information or the result of the preceding clause by associating itself with the subject and the verb of the preceding clause. The verb-ing modifier preceded by a comma has to modify the subject and the verb together.
So option C directly says that Politicians intended to but as per the original sentence Politicians intended through the plan and not on their own and thus C is wrong.

Hope it helps someone reading the explanations.

Regards,
Rishav

Thanks for the explanation!
Athough C is wrong for the reason pointed: intending seems to modify both preceding actions, can this be re-used elsewhere as I chose C thinking that "decided" and "proposed" are parallel.

Moreover, [color=#ff0000]proposing in B seems to modify the postponment by politicians which is not correct and intending in C correctly only modifies the preceding clause instead of the two preceding caluses as pointed by you and thereby rendering this option incorrect!

I ignored the idiom part for protecting which eventually is not correct as I could zero in more issues in B.

Kindly, assist.
[/color]

Can anyone please explain the grammer rule related to using
'ing' form after comma?
Since after comma in option B the word is proposing,so it is modifying the entire clause?
I got confused in this question because of the 'ing' modifier.

Posted from my mobile device

GMATNinja Since you mentioned the VERB-ing COULD be performing one of A or B, I want to ask have you come across any official questions where VERB-ing is performing a function other than A or B? Can we conveniently assume that in most of the cases the function will either be A or B?