Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply

The answer choices are very vague and distort the meaning of the sentence.

In option A, what does "it" refer to? The inability of the French or an adequate supply system? -> Eliminated

In B, the use of "being" is incorrect. It says that the French was the main cause but actually it is the ability that was the main cause -> Eliminated

In C, "to be unable to" is awkward and idiomatically incorrect-> Eliminated

In E, "French" in "French inability" is an ambiguous adjective. Idiomatically, it's "inability to" and not "inability of"-> Eliminated

[D] has the correct construction as well as meaning. D should be the correct answer.

IMO, ANS IS D

(A) Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it: ‘IT’ IS INCORRECT, WE NEED TO REFER TO A FULL CLAUSE AND NOT ANY NOUN.
(B) The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon: SUBJECT ‘FRENCH’ + PREDICATE ‘WAS A MAJOR CAUSE’ : MEANING CHANGE
(C) For the French under Napoleon, to be unable to organize an adequate supply system: AWKWARD SUBJECT, COULD BE MUCH MORE CLEARER.
(D) The inability of the French under Napoleon to organize an adequate supply system: CORRECT, CLEAR AND CONCISE
(E) The French inability under Napoleon of organizing an adequate supply system.: FRENCH SHOULD BE IN POSSESSIVE FORM.

Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it was a major cause of the failure of their invasion of Russia.

(A) Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it - "it" has no referent
(B) The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon - here if we remove the redundant part then we have... The French.......was a major cause
(C) For the French under Napoleon, to be unable to organize an adequate supply system - awkward construction
(D) The inability of the French under Napoleon to organize an adequate supply system -The inability....was.... - correct structure
(E) The French inability under Napoleon of organizing an adequate supply system. - awkward construction

Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it was a major cause of the failure of their invasion of Russia.

(A) Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it
(B) The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon
(C) For the French under Napoleon, to be unable to organize an adequate supply system
(D) The inability of the French under Napoleon to organize an adequate supply system
(E) The French inability under Napoleon of organizing an adequate supply system.

Focus on the part not underlined: "was a major cause" ... "their invasion"
What was a major cause? (D), "The inability of French to organize an adequate supply system"
In (A), it appears that "it" the pronoun is referring to the whole clause. However "it" can only refer to a noun. Eliminate
(B), being ... is describing "The French" and "The French" was not a major cause. Eliminate
(C), I cannot really make sense of this writing. "to be unable to ... was a cause?"
(E), "The French inability" is wrong. This means there are different types of nation's inability. Also, because "French" is now adjective, "their" has nothing to refer to

Ans: (D)

Official Explanation:

In choice A, it has no logical noun referent; to make complete sense, a noun phrase such as this inability would have to replace it as the subject of was. B also lacks a noun or construction that can be a subject for was. The infinitive to be unable in C wrongly suggests a permanent or general condition rather than a specific instance of failure. In choice E, French inability ... of organizing is badly worded: inability requires to organize, and the inability itself was not French -it was in this historical circumstance a characteristic of the French. Choice D, the best answer, provides idiomatic phrasing and a proper grammatical subject for was

Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it was a major cause of the failure of their invasion of Russia.

(A) Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it

that "it" could only refer to the "supply system", but that doesn't make any sense

(B) The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon

being is awkward. In addition, where it places the "under Napoleon" makes it sound like the inability was because of Napoleon's control/reign. Changed the meaning

(C) For the French under Napoleon, to be unable to organize an adequate supply system

"to ... is to ..." should be correct

(D) The inability of the French under Napoleon to organize an adequate supply system

Correct

(E) The French inability under Napoleon of organizing an adequate supply system.

correct idiom would be: inability of sb to do sth. In addition, it also makes it sound like the inability was because of Napoleon's control/reign. Changed the meaning

Also, B and E use: The French inability ....
"inability" is a noun and so, "French" is acting as an "adjective". This is wrong usage, since "French" is not an attribute/characteristic of "inability" (remember Adjectives define attribute/characteristic of nouns). In other words, there is no such thing as "French inability", "Indian inability", "German inability" etc.

Hi VeritasKarishma GMATNinja EducationAisle, can you please validate if my line of reasoning to eliminate option choices were correct on this one. Your help would be much appreciated.

(A) Under Napoleon the French were not able to organize an adequate supply system, and it - it jumps out from this one, and there is no clear antecedent for it, to me "it" seems to reach back to "not able to organize an adequate system" but given its not a noun/noun phrase we can eliminate this

(B) The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon Though I have yet not come across any official SC question in which usage of being was correct, I tried to think of other reason to eliminate this one, and I eliminated this because to me this option means

The French being unable to organize an adequate supply system under Napoleon was a major cause of the failure of their invasion of Russia. Let me know if this is correct, or the issue is something else


(C) For the French under Napoleon, to be unable to organize an adequate supply system I eliminated this because the phrase "For the French Under Napolean" seemed to implies that there are two category of French one under Napoleon and another not, but that seemed illogical. Let me know if this is correct, or the issue is something else

(D) The inability of the French under Napoleon to organize an adequate supply system This seemed fine, there are no issues in this

(E) The French inability under Napoleon of organizing an adequate supply system. to organize seemed better idiom than of organizing, so I eliminated E. Please let me know if this is correct, or the issue is something else

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