Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

(A) Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

(B) Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,

(C) Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they

(D) Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

(E) Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

Consider options: B, C, and E.
Each of these sentences have "they" in it.
Option B:
A pronoun preceeded with a ',' always refers to the subject before the ','.
Therefore 'they' in "sports utility vechicles, they" refers to 'vechicles'.
But as per our original statement the author meant minivans to be cheaper.

So, eliminate option B.

Option C:
As already discussed for option B, a pronoun preceeded with a ',' always refers to the subject before the ',' .
Therefore 'they' in "have a lower cost, they" refers to 'lower cost' which according to autho should refer to minivans.

So, eliminate option C.

Option E:
Are you sure that 'they' in this statement is referring to 'minivans'? No, it may be referring to 'sports utility vechicles'.
There is an ambiguity as to whom 'they' is referring to.

Note that, in GMAT the option we choose shouldn't end up in ambiguity.

So, eliminate option E.

Now, we are left out only with options: A and D.

Consider option D :
Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers,................, cost less.
What if these minivans carry just 6 passengers ? Are they going to cost more ??? Ruled out since it has changed the meaning.

We are left with just one option. Whether you agree or don't agree the left out option will be the answer.
And, the correct answer is option: A.
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The problem with A) is "and" so sentence becomes X has A and B, C and D which is wrong

D clearly suggests that minivans which has same capacity as most SUVs cost less, B and C .... which is right.

No its no error.
As someone stated above, difference b/w A and D is:

A) compares a Minivan with 7 passengers on board.
D) compares a Minivan, which can seat as many as 7 passengers.

in D, the 7 passengers is just another characteristic, not part of the comparison.

B,c, E - has misplaced pronouns 'they'

Between A and D,

idiom compared should be X compared with Y, So "Minivans carry as many as seven passengers" cannot be compared with sport vehicles.

So D

Also A could be correct by introducing " relative pronoun" which by

Minivans which carry as many as seven passengers when compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, --> the correct way of using and is "...., and...."
B. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less, --> 'they' can refer to 'sport utility vehicles' or 'Minivans'
C. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they --> awkward
D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, --> 'carrying as many as seven passengers' is correctly modifying Minivans and 'cost less' is parallel with 'get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride'E. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they --> awkawrd

A.

D -> If you remove adjectival phrase that starts with carrying, the sentence becomes

Minivans compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,..

Here comma starts even before the list.. wrong choice?

A -> If you remove phrase that starts with compared, the sentence becomes

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and cost less,...

Here if you think of phrase 'compared with most sport utility vehicles' as an adverbial phrase modifying the sentence then 'and' before the phrase makes sense.

Actually, D is wrong, because the phrase "carrying as many as seven passengers" becomes a squinting modifier and it's not clear whether it should refer to "minivans" or "compared with most sport utility vehicles." Be careful with those flexible phrases...

B, if you delete those nasty long modifying phrases, doubles the subject ("Minivans they cost less...").

C splits to independent clauses with nothing but a comma (right before "they").

E has an odd juxtaposition. If you mentally delete the modifier about the carrying capacity, the first clause becomes "Minivans, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower." Hard to justify grammatically!
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Nicholas MOSES

GMAT/Academic Manager
c/o MBA Center Paris

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.
A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
B. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,
C. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they
D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
E. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

I will give it a try....Option B,C and E are ruled out
I Chose D while solving it under timed condition but I think A is the Answer.
So now Lets look at Sentence Structure of A

Clearly Subject is : Minivans
Verb: Consider Sentence Structure
" Compared with most sport utility vehicles,Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.
In this structure verbs are Carry and List of others verbs having structure V2,V3,v4 and v5

Here Compared with most sport utilitiy vehicles is a Verb-ed modifier and it is the placement of this modifier which creates a confusion.

Now let's look at Sentence Structure D
"Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

Carry is converted to Carrying (Verb-ing modifier). Verbing modifier after comma does one of the 2 things
1. present result of the preceding clause or
2. Present additional information about the clause.

In this sentence structure, we only have a Subject which is Minivans and not a complete clause and hence the placement of this modifier does not look appropriate.
Moreover this construction also changes the meaning of the sentence.
Note that Noun modifier should be close to the noun entity being modified. In this Sentence Structure, we have Noun, Modifier 1(verb-ing), Modifier 2(Verb-ed).
Modifier 2 could have been better placed

Clearly A looks better

Comments welcome!!
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The reason we are tested on sentence correction is to ensure that we are able to express ourselves clearly (in terms of meaning and grammar). This said, I have noticed that some of the hardest questions test us primarily on meaning. Anyways, let's analyze the sentence.


Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
This is the correct answer
D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
In general when an -ing modifier is preceded by a comma it either presents the result or describes the preceding clause. In this case we have a noun preceding the comma, thus the use of -ing results un-necessary.

I ruled out D for this reason.
Hope it helps.
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