broall wrote:
Adding necessarily more fertilizers to soil lowers its ability to absorb nutrients, a condition that may result in reduction of crop yield.
A. Adding necessarily more fertilizers to soil lowers its ability to absorb nutrients, a condition that may result in reduction of crop yield.
B. Adding more fertilizers to soil than necessity lowers soil’s ability to absorb nutrients, resulting in reduced crop yield condition.
C. What lowers soil’s ability to absorb nutrients is adding more fertilizers to soil than necessary which results in a condition of reduction of crop yield.
D. Adding unnecessary fertilizers to soil lowering its ability to absorb nutrients may result in reduced crop yield condition.
E. Adding more than necessary fertilizers to soil lowers its ability to absorb nutrients, a condition that may result in reduced crop yield.
While the GMAT doesn’t test style, any official SC question written by GMAC has passed several rounds of analysis and has been heavily scrutinized. The issue with E is the lack of the article “the” before the noun phrase “necessary fertilizers.” Even after one fixes that error, the meaning conveyed by version E is still problematic (though E is certainly better than the other 4 options).
I would venture a guess that the Intended correct answer E is:
“Adding more than THE necessary fertilizers to soil lowers its ability to absorb nutrients, a condition that may result in reduced crop yield.”
By omitting the article, the meaning suggested by sentence E is one in which “necessary fertilizers” are some kind of unique types of fertilizers. The meaning that there is a level of fertilizer deemed “necessary” is not clearly conveyed by E.
Instead, the meaning that the answer choice seems to be conveying is that adding more than these types of fertilizers (“necessary fertilizers”) results in the condition stated in the sentence.
It’s as if a person were fertilizing his or her lawn and asks a spouse to please pick up “necessary fertilizers” at Home Depot. The immediate question becomes the following: what exactly are “necessary fertilizers”?
Accordingly, even if the correct article were inserted, the style would still be a bit awkward. Typically, one would say “more fertilizer than is necessary,” as in most circumstances an AMOUNT of fertilizer is added to the ground. From a meaning perspective, labeling this amount “necessary fertilizers” suggests that there are several fertilizers that are understood as “necessary fertilizers,” and adding anything other than these specific fertilizers may lead to the condition in the sentence.
Although problematic in its own right, answer E provides the closest thing to a correct answer if you read the missing article “the” into the version.
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