After crude oil, natural gas is the United States second biggest fuel

Agree with D. Option A is almost correct except for one error "..States second.." D corrects that error with a possessive form.

Answer: D

(A) After crude oil, natural gas is the United States second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
** D is better: Natural gas, second biggest fuel source after crude oil.. IS PREFERRED... Also, it should be United States' second with possessive form... OUT!**

(B) Natural gas, after crude oil the United States second biggest fuel source, supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
** Natural gas supplied from North America... IS NOT AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE.. OUT! **

(C) Being supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, natural gas, the United States second biggest fuel source after crude oil.
** In its simple form, the sentence is ... Natural gas, the US second biggest fuel source... IS NOT AN INDEPENDENT CLAUSE... OUT!**

(D) Natural gas, the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil, is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
** CORRECT! Natural gas is correctly modified as second biggest fuel source. "IS SUPPLIED" is the correct verb form. **

(E) Natural gas is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, being the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil.
** being the US' second biggest should modify Natural Gas and by touch rule, it is modifying North America... Hence, this is OUT! **

A changes the meaning of the sentence. It says that "natural gas...supplied something" rather it should be "natural gas is supplied".

Correct me if I am wrong.

(A) After crude oil, natural gas is the United States’ second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
Natural Gas can't be the DOer here. We need a VERB here. A is incorrect.

(B) Natural gas, after crude oil the United States’ second biggest fuel source, supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
Again, Natural Gas is not the DOer, NG did not supply almost exclusively smth. It IS supplied.
Moreover, "after crude oil the US' second biggest fuel source" - this is so wrong.

(C) Being supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, natural gas, the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil.
where is the verb here?
being... - noun ing-modifier describes NG
then we have subject - NG
then one more noun modifier.

(D) Natural gas, the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil, is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.
Looks good to me

(E) Natural gas is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, being the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil.
comma+ing modifier is a clause modifier. It is correctly used if the noun modifier is either presenting additional information or providing reasoning.
i'm not sure about first option, but for sure it is not the second usage of ing-modifier. Taking into consideration that we have "being" here, I tend to see whether there is other, a more clear answer. Since D is better than E, E is therefore incorrect.

I think there is a verb 'is' in A, also natural gas doesn't look like a doer in A. It's only that the subordinate clause 'the United States’ second biggest fuel source' is included in the primary clause in A.

GMATNinja GMATNinja2 ... please resolve the doubt between A an D , not able to get a concrete solution

Let's look at parallelism in A? What is on the left of 'and' is an IC and what is on the right is just a phrase containing a past participle. This is not parallel.

One can miss subject in the second arm of a parallel structure if the subject of the first arm can act as the subject of the second arm as well. However, one cannot miss both the subject and verb and still keep things parallel. Therefore, D is the correct choice.
If we can develop an intuition for grammar such as fragments, run-ons, redundancy, and obviously wrong idioms, then we can eliminate 60% of the wrong choices and even more sometimes. That I reckon is a solid entry point and launch pad in SC.

(A) After crude oil, natural gas is the United States’ second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.

If we take the second part of the sentence:

After crude oil, natural gas is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North Ameria

It is total nonsense as it says - After crude oil is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, Natural gas is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North Ameria

How can two things be exclusive to a single reserve?

hence Option A is incorrect

Q.) After crude oil, natural gas is the United States’ second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.

Answer:-
SUBJECT- 'Natural Gas'
VERB- supplied

A. in option A we don't have any working verb .
RULE:- There should be at least one working verb in an Independent clause. Working verb refers to the form of verb
FOR Example- 1.Cat sitting by chairs. wrong
sitting should be accompanies by is/was etc.

CORRECT- cat is sitting by the chairs

EXAMPLE 2- Drinking water supplied by municipal corporation. wrong

supplied should be accompanies by is/was/ etc.

correct - Drinking water is supplied by municipal corporation.

Also ,we have a parallelism error in option A .


B. in case of the noun modifier the modifier should be placed closest to the noun. so option B has the placement error.

C. There is no verb in this option and the option unnecessarily uses being which differentiates with the original meaning of sentence

E. again we have the placement error , and the here it is wrongly modifying with the usage of "comma plus ing-" and is modifying the entire first clause.


so therefore ,
D is the correct answer


please feel free to correct me if I am wrong!
hope this helps!

After crude oil, natural gas is the United States second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.


(A) After crude oil, natural gas is the United States second biggest fuel source and supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.

(B) Natural gas, after crude oil the United States second biggest fuel source, supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.

(C) Being supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, natural gas, the United States second biggest fuel source after crude oil. [no verb for natural gas]

(D) Natural gas, the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil, is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America.

(E) Natural gas is supplied almost exclusively from reserves in North America, being the United States’ second biggest fuel source after crude oil.