Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/garden/05appraisal.html

Even in the best of times, it’s hard for individuals to objectively value their homes, which often reflect their sense of self and personal style. Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance. But by using online resources, investigating neighborhood trends, consulting real estate experts and perhaps even asking the opinions of brutally honest friends, homeowners can arrive at a reasonably accurate appraisal even in these uncertain times.

General Market Inactivity



First glance

The beginning part of each answer choice changes significantly. This problem doesn’t contain any great clues to be picked up on the first glance. Possibly the large differences at the beginning signal a problem with the overall sentence structure.

Issues

(1) Modifier: comma which

This sentence has a rare inverted structure; inverted sentences are quite hard to read and generally sound very awkward. Look for something more concrete to tackle: a comma-which modifier should refer to the closest main noun before the comma.

The original sentence indicates that paralysis is what has provided little in the way of guidance.

It would make the most sense to say that general market inactivity is offering little in the way of guidance, but the noun paralysis is closer to the comma-which modifier. Eliminate answers (A) and (E) for this comma which error.

(2) Sentence Structure

The significant changes at the beginning of the answers were the first signal that sentence structure could be an issue. The weird inverted sentence structure in the original is your second clue: check the sentence structure of these answers!

Answer (B) is a run-on, or comma splice: There is inactivity, lately it has provided. Answer (E) is a fragment: Making things more difficult is that lately inactivity. The subject inactivity is missing a verb. Eliminate answers (B) and (E).

Answer (C) is tricky. In the original sentence, the opener Making things even more difficult was part of an inverted sentence structure, in which the subject appears after the verb. A more conventional sentence might read: General market inactivity has been making things even more difficult. The verb (has been making) must appear between the subject (general market inactivity) and the description (things even more difficult). In answer (C), the description and the subject are adjacent: Making things even more difficult general market inactivity has provided. This word order is acceptable only if the description is turned into a modifier and separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma: Making things even more difficult, general market inactivity... If you spot this, you can eliminate answer (C).

(3) Modifier: lately

While examining these other issues, you may have noticed that the word lately keeps jumping around the sentence. Lately is an adverb. What happened lately?

Lately could go with more difficult: making things more difficult lately. It can’t go just with inactivity, which is a noun. Adjectives modify nouns; you’d need to say something like recent market inactivity. Eliminate answer (A). (Note: the placement of lately in this choice creates another issue: when you are stating a contrast in the form general market inactivity, if not (general market) paralysis, it is preferable not to place other words in between the contrasted elements. It’s best to say X, if not Y, where X and Y are parallel terms.)

Answers (B) and (C) move lately near the verb provided. So this general market inactivity has only lately or recently had the effect of providing little in the way of guidance? Why didn’t it have that effect before? It would make more sense to apply lately to making things more difficult. Eliminate answers (B) and (C).

In answer (E), lately should apply to the subject and verb pairing after the word that. In this case, the verb itself doesn’t exist; this is a sentence fragment, so the adverb lately has no verb or action to modify. Eliminate (E).

The Correct Answer

Correct answer (D) removes the which modifier error and properly places lately next to making things even more difficult.