aragonn wrote:
By 1918, advances in tractor technology had led to increased yield, efficiency of labor, profit per square acre, and reduced the amount of time in which fields were planted.
A:profit per square acre, and reduced the amount of time
B:profit per square acre, and had reduced the amount of time
C:profit per square acre, and a reduction in the amount of time
D:and profit per square acre, but the amount of time was reduced
E:and profit per square acre while reducing the amount of time
Question Explanation:
Since the underlined portion of the sentence contains the conjunction and, check whether the items before and after the conjunction are joined correctly. In this case, profit per square acre and reduced the amount of time are joined with and, but profit per square acre should actually be joined using and to yield and efficiency of labor from earlier in the sentence (since all are increased) while the amount of time should be treated separately since it is reduced. This is a clauses and connectors error, so eliminate choice A and look for any obvious repeaters. Choices B and C are obvious repeaters since they also begin with profit per square acre (without and), so eliminate choices B and C. Now evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for reasons to eliminate each.
Choice D correctly connects profit per square acre with yield and efficiency of labor using and but introduces a parallel construction error since amount of time was reduced is not parallel to increased, so eliminate choice D. Choice E correctly connects profit per square acre with yield and efficiency of labor using and and introduces no new errors, so keep choice E.
Alternatively, if it is difficult to spot the grammar rule the sentence is testing, another strategy is to identify an error from the answers by looking for either a 2/3 split or differences among the answer choices. Because three of the answer choices begin with profit per square acre and two of them begin with and profit per square acre, this difference is an indication to look for clauses and connector errors.
Choice A: No. Profit per square acre is not correctly joined to the sentence using and. Clauses & Connectors.
Choice B: No. Profit per square acre is not correctly joined to the sentence using and. Clauses & Connectors.
Choice C: No. Profit per square acre is not correctly joined to the sentence using and. Clauses & Connectors.
Choice D: No. Amount of time was reduced is not parallel to increased. Parallel Construction.
Choice E: Correct.
The correct answer is choice E.