Source : GMATPrep Default Exam Pack

Since the start of the space age, more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because the intentional discarding lens caps, packing material, fuel tanks, and payload covers.

(A) more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because

(B) orbits near Earth have become more and more littered, often from

(C) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from

(D) there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of

(E) there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with

Since the start of the space age, more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because the intentional discarding of lens caps, packing material, fuel tanks, and payload covers.

A. more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because
B. orbits near Earth have become more and more littered, often from
C. orbits near Earth become littered more and more, often resulting from
D. there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of
E. there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with

Usage of "Because"

Match was delayed because rain was pouring heavily.

So the construction of Because is :
1) Because -> Modifies a clause.
2) Because -> Takes a clause.

Difference between "Because of" and "Due to"

Delay in the match was due to heavy rain

So the construction of "Due to"
1) Due to modifies noun or noun phrase (here Delay)
2) Due to takes noun or noun phrase

Match was delayed because of heavy rain

So the construction of "Because of"
1) "Because of" modifies Clause
2) "Because of" takes noun or noun phrase

So in Option A) can be eliminated on the basis of that.

Present Perfect tense

Present perfect tense should be used when an event has occurred in the past and either the event or its effect is continuing till now.
"Since" is a dead give away that we have to use present perfect tense.

Hence option C) and option E) is eliminated

Meaning
D. there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of

There is no littering of orbits but we have littering of different objects in the orbits.

hence D) is eliminated.

Hence Option B) is correct
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A. more and more littering has occurred in orbits near Earth, often because "conj needs to follow a sentence"
B. orbits near Earth have become more and more littered, often from (holding)
C. orbits near Earth become littered more and more, often resulting from (tense wrong)
D. there have been more and more littering of orbits near Earth, often because of (there have been, awkward)
E. there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with (there had been, awkward, tense wrong)

A- creates run on
B-
C- usage of "since" implies continuity. Hence "have become" is required.
D & E- incorrect usage of "there"
There is used for two reasons:
i) to point to a location
II) to make an assertion

Hope that helps.
-s
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At the very least, there is a subject-verb disagreement issue in D. It should have been: there has been more and more littering of orbits near Earth....
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Choice A doesn't convey the right meaning. If I say that littering occurred 'because of' the intentional discarding of those items, that implies that the intentional discarding WASN'T the actual littering. Instead, it means that the intentional discarding set into motion a chain of events that LED to the littering.

For instance:
'The U.S. entered World War II because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.' -- Correct: the bombing was an event that then LED to the U.S. decision to enter the war, but did not constitute the war itself.

'The U.S. destroyed Hiroshima because of dropping a nuclear bomb.' -- Incorrect: this sentence wrongly implies that the dropping of the bomb LED to some future event in which the U.S. destroyed Hiroshima, rather than that the dropping of the bomb WAS the actual event that destroyed Hiroshima.

In #C there's no NOUN that serves as the focus of the modifier 'resulting from...' (an adjective-type modifier). It's intended to modify the general idea that the orbits have become littered, but there's no NOUN that signifies the littering.

#D has the same problem as #A ('because' is wrong).

ONE MORE IMPORTANT TAKE AWAY: RESULTING FROM

"resulting from" can only be used to describe nouns i.e. adjective modifiers. It can't be used as an adverbial modifier.

If you see comma + 'resulting from', you can eliminate it.

You can have it as an adjective modifier, without a comma - as in the following sentence:
The flooding resulting from the abnormally strong storms had left six inches of standing water in the street.
Note that the boldface is an adjective modifier, modifying 'flooding’. If something results from 'X', then 'X' happens FIRST. if you see comma + 'resulting from', you can eliminate it.

You can have it as an adjective modifier, without a comma - as in the following sentence:
The flooding resulting from the abnormally strong storms had left six inches of standing water in the street.
Note that the boldface is an adjective modifier, modifying 'flooding'.

...but its meaning clashes fundamentally with the usage of comma + __ing.
If something results from 'X', then 'X' happens FIRST.

Source: Ron Purewals Explanation.
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Dear zoezhuyan,

How are you, my friend? I'm happy to respond.

First of all, my friend, I am going to chastise you. You are in the very bad habit of entering a thread on one question and then posting an entirely different question and asking about that. This makes the threads very disorganized and it does a disservice to the other users of GMAT Club. You originally posted this question here, but this is the thread devoted specifically to the discussion of this GMAT Prep question. This is really where the discussion of this question should happen. GMAT Club has a certain organization and when students respect this organization, then GMAT Club can provide the highest value to all students.

I will say that while "because" is begins a full subordinate clause, a full [noun] + [verb] clause, the construction "because of" is a compound preposition, and the object of this will be either a noun or something playing the role of a noun (such as a gerund).

In the question you posted, (B) is the OA and is really the best answer by far. I would say the best reason to reject (C) is that it is too wordy, longer than it has to be. (B) is much more elegant. Also, the change in verb tense ("became") changes the meaning.

You wrote:
because "comma + participle phrase" can indicate causal relationship, if "comma + participle phrase" suggests a cause, then it will be placed in front of the main clause, if "comma + participle phrase" suggests a effect, then it will be placed at the ending of the sentence.
I don't fully agree. That is too dogmatic. You are trying to be too mathematical with language. These are, at best, general tendencies, not black & white strict rules. Yes, these are often true, but not always true. They cannot be applied to all cases, irrespective of content.

I would say that having a "resulting from" phrase at the beginning of the sentence would sound extremely awkward. This is a phrase that "belongs" after the main clause.

My friend, here's the problem. You are trying to learn grammar the way one would learn mathematics. You are trying to learn all the rules, as if there were some complete set of rules. This course of action will NOT result in SC mastery. This is an extremely left-brain approach, and SC mastery involves right-brains skills as well. The very best way to develop a sense of how "resulting from" would be used is not to apply some abstract rule. The best way is to read extensively, and when you see this in your reading, you will have a sense of how it is used in the living language. You have to read to build the intuition for how English is used. No memorizing of rules can replace that hard-won intuition.

Does all this make sense?

Have a very good day, my friend.
Mike
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Experts, could you please tag the difficulty level of this question.

The sentence begins with "Since the start of space age." This tells us that the problem has occurred at an indefinite time in the past, and may continue into the present and future. This requires us to use the present perfect tense (i.e., has occurred, have occurred, have become, etc. ).

Since we need the past perfect tense here, we can ELIMINATE C and E
C) orbits near Earth became littered more and more, often resulting from
E) there had been littering more and more of orbits near Earth, often with

The agent of a COMMA + VERBing modifier must be the nearest preceding SUBJECT.
In C, resulting seems to refer to orbits -- the nearest preceding subject -- implying that ORBITS are RESULTING from the intentional discarding of lens caps.
This meaning is nonsensical.
Eliminate C.

because + of must be followed by a NOUN or NOUN PHRASE.
because + NO of must be followed by a COMPLETE CLAUSE.
In A, because + NO of is not followed by a complete clause.
Eliminate A.

In D, have been (plural) does not agree with littering (singular).
Eliminate D.

In E, had been littering (past perfect) implies an action completed IN THE PAST, while since the start of the space age implies an action still happening IN THE PRESENT.
Since the two usages contradict each other, eliminate E.

The correct answer is B.
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