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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 25 Jun 2020, 15:32
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Harsh2111s
Nihit
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
GMATNinja MentorTutoring VeritasKarishma egmat
How option C is parallel ?
I tried in below manner but not able to identify.

1.With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than (doubling its size) and more than (bringing its western border)- Doesn't make sense.
2.With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the United States bringing its western border-Also doesn't make sense.
Please help
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Hello, Harsh2111s. I will highlight the parallel elements in the correct sentence below:

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

If you want to test the parallel elements, you can remove either from the sentence, along with and, and keep the other:

1) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size. √
The meaning is clear—the purchase more than doubled the size of the United States—and the grammar works.

2) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean. √
Once again, the meaning is clear—the purchase brought the western border of the United States close to the Pacific Ocean—and the grammar is fine.

In short, we have pinpointed our parallel elements, the two -ing phrases. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Thank you for tagging me.

- Andrew
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 22 Aug 2020, 12:36
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Harsh2111s
Nihit
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
GMATNinja MentorTutoring VeritasKarishma egmat
How option C is parallel ?
I tried in below manner but not able to identify.

1.With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than (doubling its size) and more than (bringing its western border)- Doesn't make sense.
2.With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 the United States bringing its western border-Also doesn't make sense.
Please help
Hello, Harsh2111s. I will highlight the parallel elements in the correct sentence below:

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

If you want to test the parallel elements, you can remove either from the sentence, along with and, and keep the other:

1) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size. √
The meaning is clear—the purchase more than doubled the size of the United States—and the grammar works.

2) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean. √
Once again, the meaning is clear—the purchase brought the western border of the United States close to the Pacific Ocean—and the grammar is fine.

In short, we have pinpointed our parallel elements, the two -ing phrases. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Thank you for tagging me.

- Andrew
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But what's the main difference between (C) and (E)? Acquiring in (E) seems work fine.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 22 Aug 2020, 12:45
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Quote:
But what's the main difference between (C) and (E)? Acquiring in (E) seems work fine.
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Hello lakshya14,
Option E
Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing

Look at bolded portion closely.
Don't you think, there is some redundancy here.
acquiring and bought are same thing, thus no need to repeat.

Hope this helps:)
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 22 Aug 2020, 16:35
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lakshya14
But what's the main difference between (C) and (E)? Acquiring in (E) seems work fine.
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Hello, lakshya14. I agree with what Harsh2111s has written above. I would also like to point out the problematic it in the full sentence:

Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

To what does the highlighted it refer? It cannot be the plural 828,000 square miles, so it must be the singular the Louisiana Purchase instead. But that does not make much sense: the United States bought the Louisiana Purchase? No, the country bought the land, and choice (C) clarifies the matter by stating that the United States acquired 828,000 square miles. Choice (C) is correct, while (E) is an easy elimination.

I hope that helps. Even at the end of a busy day and a busy week, I will always take the time to reply to queries about my own posts. I appreciate your question.

- Andrew
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 18 Nov 2020, 01:18
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(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought -- "which" incorrectly modifies acre. Eliminate.

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought -- "brought" is not parallel to "doubling". Both of these are effects of the Louisiana purchase.

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing -- Fixes the error in B.

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing -- "bringing borders closer" is not an effect of "doubling" but of the acquisition and hence needs to be parallel to "doubling". Therefore, "and bringing" is needed.

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing -- Passive voice first of all. Weird construct. "for about four cents an acre" should have been in the present participle.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 22 Feb 2021, 21:46
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GMATNinja, egmat

Can you please explain why option D is wrong? And doesn't "with the Louisiana Purchase" in option c change meaning?

Thank you
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 28 Feb 2021, 03:16
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daivik18
GMATNinja, egmat

Can you please explain why option D is wrong? And doesn't "with the Louisiana Purchase" in option c change meaning?

Thank you
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Hi Daivik

Option (D) does not have any outright grammatical error. However, it is just extremely awkwardly worded. The big problem are the two modifiers placed back-to-back. This is not grammatically incorrect but makes it hard to understand the meaning.

As such, such complicated structures can be avoided when we have a significantly better answer option (C). Always remember, our job is to select the ,best answer option and not any option without an error. Sentence correction is not just a test of grammar but also sentence construction and comprehension.

It is not clear what you mean by "change meaning" in option (C) - how does it change the meaning?

Hope this helps.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 15 Mar 2021, 14:27
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daivik18
GMATNinja, egmat

Can you please explain why option D is wrong? And doesn't "with the Louisiana Purchase" in option c change meaning?

Thank you
Show more
Crack Verbal is absolutely right -- there's no grammatical error in (D). The issue is that the placement of the modifiers creates a confusing meaning, because it's hard to see how these modifiers are supposed to function. To see why the construction in (D) is less than ideal, consider an example:

    On Thursdays, Tim takes Olivia and Lila to the gym to teach them Hakeem Olajuwon's post moves, shedding light on the intricacies of the Dream Shake while imbuing his daughters with the confidence to destroy David Robinson in the playoffs.

Notice that there are four modifiers here, and it's clear what each of these modifiers is describing. "On Thursdays" tells us when the main action is happening; "to teach them," tells us why Tim takes Olivia and Lila to the gym; and "shedding light...while imbuing" modifies the entire main clause, giving us a consequence of Tim's lessons.

Now watch what happens if we jumble and stack the modifiers in a new version:

    Tim, to teach them Hakeem Olajuwon's post moves, on Thursdays, takes Olivia and Lila to the gym shedding light on the intricacies of the Dream Shake, imbuing his daughters with the confidence to destroy David Robinson in the playoffs.


In this version, we more or less have the same four modifiers as the original sentence, but this one is more confusing. The subject "Tim," is separated from the main verb, "takes" by multiple modifiers. Is "on Thursdays" modifying when Tim is teaching the post-moves or when he takes Olivia and Lila to the gym? Both? Is "shedding light" modifying the gym? Is "imbuing his daughters" modifying the "Dream Shake?" There's no grammar error here, and if you read the entire sentence multiple times, you can probably figure out what's going on, but this version is clearly inferior to the first one.

We have the same type of modifier-confusion in (D). Take another look:

Quote:
The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.
Show more
Is "in the Louisiana Purchase" modifying "The United States," as if there's one America in this purchase, and a different America in other purchases? What is "for about four cents an acre" describing? Again, multiple reads will allow you to figure out what the sentence is attempting to convey, but because the subject, "The United States," is separated from the main verb, "acquired," and all the modifiers are jumbled, it takes more work to unravel the meaning.

Contrast this with (C), in which the main clause, "the United States acquired 828,000 square miles," is intact and logically bracketed by all its modifiers. So while (D) isn't fundamentally wrong, (C) is clearer and better.

I hope that helps!
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 25 Mar 2021, 04:11
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Thank you very much Crack Verbal and GMATNinja for your explanation. It is very helpful.

Crack Verbal, I misinterpreted usage of "with" in option C and so thought it changes meaning.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 27 Jul 2021, 08:45
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Hi bb GMATNinja Bunuel ! Help needed!

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

Doesn't "it's" refer to the United States and an acre? 'An acre' is also singular and a lot closer to 'it's' than the 'United States' is.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 13 Aug 2021, 07:43
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Nerdy01
Hi bb GMATNinja Bunuel ! Help needed!

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

Doesn't "it's" refer to the United States and an acre? 'An acre' is also singular and a lot closer to 'it's' than the 'United States' is.
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When you see a pronoun, instead of just assuming that the closest noun is the antecedent, you want to ask yourself whether there's a logical antecedent somewhere in the vicinity. If there is, the pronoun isn't a definite error.

So if the first noun you evaluated as a potential antecedent was "acre," you'd ask yourself, "would it make sense for an acre to double its own size?" And the answer is "no." So you'd keep looking for your antecedent.

The next singular noun you'd see, as your eyes drifted to the left, would be "the United States." This time, the noun makes perfect sense. The U.S. acquired more land, and, as a result, "it" doubled in size. Great! The pronoun is okay. On to other issues.

(Note also, that "it" is part of an "-ing" modifier that follows a comma and a clause. The "-ing" modifiers in these constructions generally modify the entire previous clause, so it's good to be mindful about what the subject of that clause is. In this case, "the United States" is the subject, so it makes perfect sense for the ensuing modifier to be giving us additional information about the U.S. in light of its land acquisition.)

I hope that helps!
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 13 Aug 2021, 10:50
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Nihit
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.
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(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought
The only reason for this option to be eleminated was the misuse of which and more than double tense other than that it was okay however out

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought
This gives us a meaning as though the United States was the land that was acquired which is way outside the circle of meaning

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing
This is the intende meaning therefore let us hang on to it

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing
The unnecessary addition of several commas distorts the meaning and dependent clauses should not be seperated through commas hence out

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
This brings in a confusion whether the ludhiana purchase was brought or the land was acquired therefore out

Therefore IMO C
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 13 Aug 2021, 21:31
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regarding choice E
comma+doing show an action simultaneous with or preceding the main clause action.
-leaving the car unlock, I go to the store. preceding action
- thinking about gmat sc, I run into the wall. simultaneous action

acquiring can not happen simultaneously and precede the main action. in fact, acquiring happen after buying. so, "acquiring" in choice E is wrong.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 02 Dec 2021, 09:34
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Post subject: Re: In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 Posted: May 24, 2017 9:36 pm
Nihit wrote:
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.

(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C)With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D)The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E)Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing


I still want to know whether "acquiring..." in choice E is incorrect.

I think that in the pattern
doing phrase, main clause

the action of "doing" happen a little before the action of the main clause. if this is correct, then choice E is wrong because the action of "buying" happen before the action of "acquiring" .

and in the pattern
main clause, doing phrase,

the action in main clause happen a little before the action in doing phrase

is my thinking correct?

"Acquiring" is a little bit tricky in this case. You'll want to think of "acquiring" as a modifier, not a verb (for more on the various uses of "-ing" words, check out this thread if you haven't already seen it). And in most GMAT questions, the principal issue is whether the "-ing" modifier can logically modify the subject of the clause that follows.

And in that sense, "acquiring" is OK in (E): the United States acquired the 828,000 square miles of territory, so that aspect of it seems fine.

But more broadly, I'm not sure that the construction makes a whole lot of sense in (E). "Acquiring" and "bought" are basically the same thing here, since the acquisition was a purchase. So why the heck would we use "acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase..." as a phrase that modifies "the United States bought..."? At minimum, that seems unnecessarily wordy, and it's arguably completely redundant.

It also sounds like you might have the impression that the "-ing" modifier ("acquiring", in this case) has to "occur" before the next action in the sentence ("bought"), and that simply isn't true. "Acquiring" is a modifier, not a verb -- and there's no reason why the modifier would (somehow) "happen" before the clause.

I hope this helps!
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another prob in E is - 'it' does not have any antecedent. Louisiana is adjective and not a noun.
Dear Charles- am i right in saying so?
rgds//
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 05 Feb 2022, 14:10
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Nihit
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.


(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing
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Hi KarishmaB ryanstarr! Can you help me out with this question? Thank you! :please:
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 05 Feb 2022, 15:56
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Nihit
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.


(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing

Hi KarishmaB ryanstarr! Can you help me out with this question? Thank you! :please:
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Happy to!

The first thing to try to master in SC is identification: if you learn all the major grammar rules but don't know how to tell when those rules are being tested, the rules won't be particularly useful. The things to notice about this question are the abundance of commas, the which vs. , -ing split, and especially the fact that phrases are changing position in the answer choices. These features point to a Modifiers question.

In the world of Modifiers, wh- words (such as which, who, sometimes where, and others) are a gift, because they follow a pretty regular, reliable rule: grammatically, they modify the noun or noun phrase that immediately precedes them. In this case, for instance, the which in (A) would grammatically modify acre or four cents an acre. But that's only half the battle. We also need to consider what the modifier should be modifying in terms of its intended meaning. This modifier should is describing something that more than doubled the country's size, so it probably doesn't make sense for it to be grammatically linked to acre or four cents an acre. So (A) is out.

The other major topics being tested in this question is Parallelism, which can be observed especially in the split after the and that shows up toward the end of the answer choices. Let's go answer by answer through just that part of the remaining options:
    (B) more than doubling ... and it brought <-- bad parallelism: eliminate
    (C) more than doubling ... and bringing <-- good parallelism
    (D) more than doubling ... bringing <-- no parallelism in this case because there's no and
    (E) more than doubling ... and bringing <-- good parallelism

At this point, we're left with answers (C), (D), and (E). Because (C) and (E) are structured similarly at the end, it's worth comparing them to (D). Is (D) right to do away with the parallel structure that's in all of the other answer choices? Essentially, no. While it seems as though it should technically be okay to string together two , -ing adverbial modifiers one after the other, it's basically never done in a correct answer. Essentially, there's a good meaning reason for it here: both the doubling of the United States' size and the bringing of its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean are consequences of the United States' acquiring the 828,000 square miles. However, the way (D) is structured, bringing ends up modifying the part that starts with doubling, as this kind of , -ing modifier tends to latch on to the nearest verb, verbal, or clause. Moreover, (D) has another improper string of modifiers earlier on (in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired). In this case too both modifiers should be describing acquired, and they could be placed better to reflect that (for instance, on either side of acquired). Eliminate (D).

Answer (C), by contrast, correctly places those two modifiers on either side of acquired, making it pretty promising. On the other hand, answer (E) turns the part with acquired into an opening modifier and so leaves the later modifiers doubling and bringing to modify bought. But it wasn't the buying for four cents an acre that doubled the United States' size or brought its western border within reach of the Pacific; rather, it was the acquisition of all the land that did so. Add to that the fact that (E) has a pronoun issue (it either refers improperly to 828,000 square miles and has an agreement issue or refers illogically to the Louisiana Purchase--you can't buy a purchase), and we must let it go, leaving (C) as the correct answer.

As a side note, I know this is kind of a haphazard way to move through the answer choices--modifiers to parallelism to modifiers with a pronoun thrown it at the end for funsies--but the truth is that modifier questions often feel chaotic because of their tendency to have words and phrases move around, so a certain measure of opportunism is beneficial. When the answers are pretty different from each other, it helps to latch onto anything that you happen to notice (such as the parallel structure at the end of most of the answers) and focus on just that aspect for a moment. Tough stuff!
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 06 Feb 2022, 22:55
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.


(A) In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, which more than doubled the country's size and that brought

(B) For about four cents an acre the United States acquired, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size and it brought

(C) With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing

(D) The United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, for about four cents an acre, acquired 828,000 square miles, more than doubling the country's size, bringing

(E) Acquiring 828,000 square miles in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States bought it for about four cents an acre, more than doubling the country's size and bringing

Hi KarishmaB ryanstarr! Can you help me out with this question? Thank you! :please:
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The intent of the sentence:

US acquired 828K square miles.
This had two effects - US's size more than doubled (say A) and its Western border came within reach of the Pacific Ocean (say B).

Now look at the sentence structures.
(A) ... US acquired 828K sq miles ..., which did A and that did B
(B) ... US acquired 828K sq miles ..., doing A and it did B
(C) .. US acquired 828K sq miles ..., doing A and doing B
(D) .. US acquired 828K sq miles ..., doing A, doing B
(E) ... US bought it for 4 cents an acre, doing A and doing B

Only (C) and (E) correctly place the two effects in parallel combined with an "and". They use comma + present participle at the end of the clause which is the structure we often use for cause-effect. All good.
But as per (E), doubling the size etc was the effect of buying for 4 cents an acre. That is not correct.
The clause it modifies should be "US acquired 828K sq miles" because that is what doubled the size etc. Hence (E) has inaccurate meaning.

(C) is correct.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 03 Dec 2022, 20:27
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KarishmaB and other experts,

Can you please explain what does - "With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803" in Option C modify? Additionally, doesn't it seem that it modify US and leads to an incoherent meaning that Along with US, Louisiana Purchase acquired 828K square miles?

Option C - With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 04 Dec 2022, 05:08
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Can you please explain what does - "With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803" in Option C modify? Additionally, doesn't it seem that it modify US and leads to an incoherent meaning that Along with US, Louisiana Purchase acquired 828K square miles?
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"With the Louisiana Purchase..." is a prepositional phrase (well, because it starts with a preposition with).

Generally, prepositional phrases at the beginning of a clause/sentence act as Adverbial modifiers. So, these modifiers modify the verb of the clause.

Here, this prepositional phrase modifies the verb acquired and answers the question how did the United States acquire 828,000 square miles.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this aspect of "prepositional phrases”. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.
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In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. the United States acquired 828.000 04 Dec 2022, 06:31
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KarishmaB and other experts,

Can you please explain what does - "With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803" in Option C modify? Additionally, doesn't it seem that it modify US and leads to an incoherent meaning that Along with US, Louisiana Purchase acquired 828K square miles?

Option C - With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired 828,000 square miles for about four cents an acre, more than doubling its size and bringing its western border within reach of the Pacific Ocean.
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Note that prepositional phrases can be adjectival modifiers or adverbial modifiers. In fact, it can even act as a noun sometimes. (such as, 'In the forest is where the lion lives.')

With hints of gold in his mane, the lion strolled through the forest. (Adjectival phrase; Describing the lion)
The lion walked with a limp. (Adverbial phrase; How did he walk?)

'With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803' is an adverbial modifier modifying how US 'acquired 828.000 square miles for about four cents an acre.'

This is similar to:
With her most recent win, she has bagged the top spot in International rankings.
How has she bagged the top spot? 'with her most recent win'

To begin with, most of us understand and accept these constructs of the language intuitively. Then, to improve our SC, we start learning these so-called 'rules of Grammar' and start questioning everything and taking the narrow, literal meaning of things. After much practice, we again realise that there really are no such rules and we again start accepting what we already knew to begin with!! Don't despair!! :)
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