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AbdurRakib wrote:
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018Practice QuestionSentence Correction
Question no. 293
Early administrative decisions in China’s Ming Dynasty eventually caused a drastic fall in tax revenues, a reduction in military preparedness,
the collapse of the currency system, and failed to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure.
(A) the collapse of the currency system, and failed
(B) the collapse of the currency system, and failing
(C) and the collapse of the currency system, also failed
(D) the collapse of the currency system, as well as failing
(E) and the collapse of the currency system, as well as a failure
Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Grammatical Construction• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• Semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
• Any elements joined by a conjunction ("as well as" in this case) must be parallel.
A: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "a drastic fall in tax revenues", "a reduction in military preparedness", "the collapse of the currency system" - all noun phrases - and "failed to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure" - a verb phrase; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.
B: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "a drastic fall in tax revenues", "a reduction in military preparedness", "the collapse of the currency system" - all noun phrases - and "failing to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure" - a verb phrase; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.
C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the "comma + conjunction ("also" in this case)" construction to join the independent clause "Early administrative decisions in China’s Ming Dynasty eventually caused...the currency system" and the dependent clause "failed to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure"; remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
D: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "a drastic fall in tax revenues", "a reduction in military preparedness", "the collapse of the currency system" - all noun phrases - and "failing to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure" - a verb phrase; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.
E: Correct. This answer choice correctly maintains parallelism among "a drastic fall in tax revenues", "a reduction in military preparedness", and "the collapse of the currency system". Further, Option E maintains parallelism between the noun phrases "a drastic fall in tax revenues, a reduction in military preparedness, and the collapse of the currency system" and "a failure to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure"; remember, two elements joined by a conjunction ("as well as" in this case) must be parallel. Additionally, Option E correctly uses a comma to join the independent clause "Early administrative decisions in China’s Ming Dynasty eventually caused...the currency system" and the dependent clause "as well as a failure to make sufficient investment in vital transportation infrastructure".
Hence, E is the best answer choice.Additional Note: Option E slightly alters the construction of the sentence by separating the final element of the list - "a failure..." - into an additive phrase, modifier phrases that add nouns onto another noun but are not part of the main subject of a sentence.
To understand the use of punctuation on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~9 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
According to your explanation if in C option, we replace also with and then it would be still wrong??? Experts Please guide me here....