The 2008 mortgage crisis is thought to have been caused in large part by lender behavior changes,
which, like the continuously eroding lending standards that saddled numerous borrowers with impossible payments and led to unsustainably high-risk loans, and the mortgage options that allowed homeowners to pay interest alone for a time, after which many unsuspecting borrowers found themselves unable to pay the increased bills that included payments on the principal.
A) which, like the continuously eroding lending standards that saddled numerous borrowers with impossible payments and led to unsustainably high-risk loans,
Two issues with this option:
i) There is no need to use "which" prior to stating an example.
ii) "like" is used to express similarity, whereas the sentence is clearly trying to give a specific example for which "such as" is the appropriate prefix.B) which, like the continuously eroding lending standards that saddled with impossible payments numerous borrowers led to unsustainably high-risk loans,
The same 2 issues as option (A). Additionally, "saddled with impossible payments numerous borrowers" is an awkward construction. The correct construction would be "saddled numerous borrowers with impossible payments" (the verb should be followed by the receiver of the action).C) like the unsustainably high-risk loans that, due to continuously eroding lending standards, saddled numerous borrowers with impossible payments,
i) The sentence uses "like" to provide the specific example of "unsustainably high-risk loans" to illustrate "lender behavior changes". This is incorrect for 2 reasons:
- "such as" is the correct phrase to prefix a specific example whereas "like" is used to simply denote similarity.
- The original sentence states "continuously eroding lending standards" as an example of "lender behavior changes" and hence this option represents a change of meaning.
ii) This option implies that "the borrowers were saddled with impossible payments" by "the high risk loans" because of "the continuously eroding lending standards". The original sentence states that "the borrowers were saddled with impossible payments" by "the continuously eroding lending standards" and resulted in "high risk loans". Very different meanings.D) such as the unsustainably high-risk loans that led to continuously eroding lending standards saddling numerous borrowers with impossible payments,
This option implies that the "unsustainably high-risk loans" caused the "continuously eroding lending standards", whereas the original sentence gives the opposite causality.
E) such as the continuously eroding lending standards that led to unsustainably high-risk loans, saddling numerous borrowers with impossible payments,
Correct _________________
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