The explosion in the cost of college and the rise in access to technol

Hi aaba,

Thanks for your question. Let's tackle this one problem at a time, and see if we can narrow it down to the correct answer.

The first big difference I noticed between the answers is how they begin: has/have. To make sure the subject and verb agree, let's determine what the subject is from the original sentence:

The explosion in the cost of college and the rise in access to technology has persuaded industrious high school students they should attempt to develop and market teenage friendly items that are not found in mainstream retail outlets.

The subject is two different things, so we know it's a plural subject that needs a plural verb to match: have. So let's rule out answers A, B, & C because they use the singular "has."

Now we're left with answers D & E. Here are the main differences between both answers in bold:

D: have persuaded industrious high school students to attempt to develop and market teenage friendly items

E: have persuaded industrious high school students to attempt and develop and market items that are friendly to teenagers

The first problem I see with answer E is the phrase "to attempt and develop." This suggests that high school students should attempt one thing and develop another. This isn't really true - the attempt IS to develop items, so the phrase "to attempt to develop" makes more sense.

Second, the phrase "items that are friendly to teenagers" doesn't work logically - it's saying the items themselves will be friendly to teenagers, not that they are easy to use. Saying "teenage friendly items" is clearer to readers because it shows that the items are made for teenagers, not that they will somehow be their friends.

Based on both subject-verb agreement and clarity, it's clear that D is the correct answer.