Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing

Question

Municipal governments are beginning to confront  the growing pension liabilities; this leads  local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs and limiting services.

A) the growing pension liabilities; this leads

B) their growing pension liabilities; leading
 
C) the growth in their pension liabilities, which leads
 
D) their growing pension liabilities, leading

E) their growing pension liabilities, that leads

daagh · Accepted Answer

The present participle  leading  that is used after a comma in Chocie D is an adverbial modifier that modifies the entire previous clause or specifically the verb of the Municipals namely  beginning to confront.

A is wrong because there is no specie noun that the bare demonstrative pronoun this can fall back on. 
B is using a semicolon to join an aloof phrase, a grave grammar mistake 
C changes the meaning. The municipals are confronting the liabilities and not the growth of their liabilities. In addition  liabilities, which, leads , has SV problem. 
D okay 
E. liabilities, that leads: comma and SV agreement are two problems.

skovinsky · Answer

Hi,

I'm happy to talk about the sentence in general, but rather than just posting questions you'll get more specific help if you include what about the sentence has you baffled.

In the original sentence, "the growing pension liabilities" cannot stand by itself - there's no context that tells us what "the" means. So, we scan the choices looking for a fix.

B, C, D and E all offer alternatives; C is overly wordy, so let's narrow it down to B, D and E.

Scanning B, D and E, we see that we have 3 different options:

B has "; leading", D has ", leading" and E has ", that leads".

The semicolon in B turns the last part of the sentence into a fragment - eliminate B.

D now reads: "Municipal governments are beginning to confront  , leading local politicians throughout the country to become  ." Looks good!

The "that" in E creates a number of problems: first, it doesn't have a clear reference; second, "that" almost never follows a comma, since it provides restrictive information that needs to be part of the same clause as its referent; and third, even if "that" does refer back to "their growing pension liabilities", "leads" is singular and we need a plural verb - if you spot any of those issues, eliminate E.

Choose D!

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

The original sentence utilizes a semicolon, the proper use of which has two requirements: First, the clauses before and after the semicolon must be able to function as independent sentences and second, the clauses must be closely related in terms of subject matter. In the original sentence, the second clause refers back to the first clause, both requirements are satisfied, and the semicolon is used properly. However, the GMAT doesn't permit the use of  this  as a  Pronoun  (without a noun following), since this by itself has no clear antecedent. The author wants to refer to the entire action of the first clause (the fact that municipal governments are confronting these liabilities), but this cannot do so.

Additionally,  the growing pension liabilities  in the first part of the sentence is incorrect in its use of the article the, as the pension liabilities were not referenced earlier in the sentence. Finally, the verb form in the second clause is not  Parallel  to the verb form in the first clause  (beginning... leads) . Though the lack of parallelism is grammatically permissible between two independent clauses, a better construction is available.

(A)  This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B)  Here, the plural pronoun their is used correctly, referring to the plural antecedent  municipal governments.  However, the second clause  leading local politicians ... does not function as an independent sentence, making the use of the semicolon improper.

(C)   Which  is used improperly in this choice. The intention of the author is to have the entire action of the first clause act as the subject of  leads , not just the  pension liabilities.  Which cannot refer to the entire action prior. Moreover, the verbs are not parallel (beginning... leads). As a result, the second part of the sentence is incorrect, as the use of a comma instead of a semicolon means that both verbs now appear in the same sentence.

(D)  CORRECT.   The form  leading  indicates that the whole action of the first part of the sentence is what is leading in the second part of the sentence. Moreover, the plural pronoun  their  is properly used to refer to the plural antecedent  municipal governments.

(E)   That  is used improperly This answer choice is incorrect because the verbs are not parallel  (beginning... leads) . As a result the second part of the sentence is incorrect, as the use of a comma instead of a semicolon means that both verbs now appear in the same sentence.

Answer: D

crick20002002 · Answer

Plugging in E in the original sentence :

Municipal governments are beginning to confront  their growing pension liabilities, that leads  local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs and limiting services.

that  preceded by comma modifies the noun before it => here  that  is modifying "pension liabilities", which is plural. However "leads" is a singular verb. Hence there is Subject - Verb agreement error => Eliminate E.

Crick

grbjha · Answer

Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities; this leads
local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs
and limiting services.
the growing pension liabilities; this leads
their growing pension liabilities; leading
the growth in their pension liabilities, which leads
their growing pension liabilities, leading
their growing pension liabilities, that leads
 Soln
 Meaning Analysis:
Cause & Effect 
 Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities->-> local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs and limiting services.

Error analysis :

Two clauses:
1)Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities
2)this leads local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs
and limiting services.

Here pronoun "This refer to Municipal governments , leads to be lead , even though its meaning is nonsensical .
Separation by semicolon says two IC . But intended meaning is 2nd clause is the effect og first one , so Verb+Ing Modified is reqd to show the effect .
 So it has two error Pronoun reference and use of ";".
POE:
a) is out because of pronoun error , Leads to lead and it does not say cause and effect meaning
B) is out because " use of verb +ing modifier after semicolon and secong clause is not IC , its fragment
c) is out as discussed in error analysis . it changes the intended meaning
D) Correct , precised intended meaning
E) Is out , use of Use and its refer to Municipal governments (plural subject) , so leads to be lead .
 It also changes the intended meaning of author.
HENCE IMO:D
C

grbjha · Answer

Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities; this leads
local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs
and limiting services.
the growing pension liabilities; this leads
their growing pension liabilities; leading
the growth in their pension liabilities, which leads
their growing pension liabilities, leading
their growing pension liabilities, that leads
 Soln
 Meaning Analysis:
Cause & Effect 
 Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities->-> local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs and limiting services.

Error analysis :

Two clauses:
1)Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities
2)this leads local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs
and limiting services.

Here pronoun "This refer to Municipal governments , leads to be lead , even though its meaning is nonsensical .
Separation by semicolon says two IC . But intended meaning is 2nd clause is the effect og first one , so Verb+Ing Modified is reqd to show the effect .
 So it has two error Pronoun reference and use of ";".
POE:
a) is out because of pronoun error , Leads to lead and it does not say cause and effect meaning
B) is out because " use of verb +ing modifier after semicolon and secong clause is not IC , its fragment
c) is out as discussed in error analysis . it changes the intended meaning
D) Correct , precised intended meaning
E) Is out , use of Use and its refer to Municipal governments (plural subject) , so leads to be lead .
 It also changes the intended meaning of author.
HENCE IMO:D

crashVcrush · Answer

Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities; this leads
local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs
and limiting services.
the growing pension liabilities; this leads
their growing pension liabilities; leading
the growth in their pension liabilities, which leads
their growing pension liabilities, leading
their growing pension liabilities, that leads

My understanding ,

lets make a split : A,C,E n B,D

A,C,E : Pension Liabilities (Plural ) & Leads (Singular) = SV disagreement = Eliminated

Of B n D :

B : the portion after semicolon ie ......Leading ............. is not an independent clause = Eliminated

Leading to D : Leading corectly modifies the preceeding clause.

asdfghjklasdfghj · Answer

Hi  daagh ,

could you help me out ? 
Is it generally wrong to have a comma before that ? Since normally we use comma just before "which" and not before "that" but I am unsure whether that is a rule

daagh · Answer

asdfghjklasdfghj

Yes. It is a rule. 'that' can never be non-restrictive.

aviejay · Answer

Hi Daagh,

Is the first part of the sentence correct? I have seen several comments saying that use of "the" in the first sentence is wrong. Can you please throw some light into this?

saarthakkhanna04 · Answer

Why is A wrong I was stuck between A and D

AjiteshArun · Answer

You can take option A out for multiple reasons:

the  growing pension liabilities;  this   leads

1. The  the  doesn't specify that each municipal government has a pension liability of its own. For example:
 Students are beginning to confront the debts. 
vs.
 Students are beginning to confront their debts.

The first one makes it sound as if there are some debts out there that students are beginning to confront, but it doesn't tell us whose debts we are discussing. The second one establishes that each student has a debt of his or her own.

2. The  this  is somewhat unclear. Exactly what is it referring to?

3. The use of the present tense  leads  is unexpected. Because the present tense is very often used to talk about things that are generally true or occur regularly,  this leads  makes it sound as if we are trying to point out how politicians  generally  react under such circumstances. This sentence is actually about something that is happening  right now .

Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing

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