The city has proposed a number of water treatment and conservation pro

Simply because is the right answer

Jokes aside, Sir you are a good student glad to help you.

Well even though this is not a super tough question, you can learn a lot from this one: how to attack a question (easy or difficult), how to disentagle a possible pitfall, and so forth

Remember : the best strategy is as soos as you read along the way the entire question (is important to read the WHOLE question as it is) to spot the error already from the forst underlined words. So let go and analize the single answer choices:

A) the cost of which raises water bills high enough so that

the cost of which raises.........even though you do not see an error , is easy to figure out thet is awkward and sound weird. moreover, which you know that 99% of the time is used to refer to its antecedent in the form: X,which......favourite gmat construction

B) at a cost raising water bills so high that

make a lonmg story short: similar to the previous one

C) at a cost which raises water bills high enough so

ditto

E) whose cost will raise water bills high enough so that

whose cost (the cost itself) raise water bills ?? a cost raise the bill ?? well this is fine until now: the cost of both things mentioned earlier in the first part of the sentence. good.

high enough : is weird, wordy really bad as construction....this is main issue with E. It seems that that refers to enough,and this to the bills and this is nonsensical, eventually

D) whose cost will raise water bills so high that

first part as in E but the second part is fine: there is that and that is used for restrictive clause



In E you have high enough so that: wrong

In D you have so high that: right

Do not esitate to ask if something is unclear

Actually in C, which is modifying costs.

Apart from other errors, a reason to quickly eliminate C is that it does not use a comma before which. When which is used as a classical relative pronoun (as is the case here), there must be a comma before which.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses a framework to determine what which modifies, its application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email-id, I can send you the corresponding section.

PrakharGMAT
The intent is to say that the costs are excessively high. Whereas, ‘high enough’ means that the costs are high sufficiently. It can be seen that there is a paradox in-built in the phrase ‘high enough’.

Sense of the sentence when using high enough:
The water bills may NOT be excessively high, but they are high enough so as to raise alarm.
There is a level of cost that raises alarm - the bills are at least above that level.

Sense of the sentence when using so high:
The water bill is excessively high - so high that they raise alarm.
There is a level of cost that raises alarm - the bills are so high that they are above that level.

The blue highlighted portions depict the paradox.

"My pen" and "pen of mine" mean the same.

Thus....yes, the construction you posted above makes sense.... :

whose cost: project's cost
cost of which: cost of project.

However it would be preferable to say "cost of which" rather than "of which cost".

daagh sayantanc2k
Can you please brief what's wrong in B ?
I was unable to differentiate between B and D in meaning.

The city has proposed a number of water treatment and conservation projects the cost of which raises water bills high enough so that even environmentalists are beginning to raise alarms.

(A) the cost of which raises water bills high enough so that- incorrect; since the city has only proposed the projects -- and these projects might not actually happen -- the sentence cannot say that their cost raises water bills (in the present); usage of so that is to denote a purpose-- incorrect here
(B) at a cost raising water bills so high that - incorrect; a present participle (such as RAISING) implies an action happening at the same time as the main action (Has proposed). Since the city has only PROPOSED the projects -- and these projects might not actually happen -- the sentence cannot say that their cost is raising water bills (in the present)
(C) at a cost which raises water bills high enough so- same as A; usage of high enough is illogical as if it is used for a threshold
(D) whose cost will raise water bills so high that- Correct
(E) whose cost will raise water bills high enough so that- idiom issue; enough so that

Answer D

'who' and 'whom' can refer only to people, 'whose' can refer to ANYTHING.

This question is based on Idiomatic Usage and Construction.

Option A is wordy. Furthermore, the phrase “high enough” does not go along with the phrase “so that”. The latter implies a consequence but the adjective ‘enough’ in the former phrase does not convey the magnitude of the situation. The adjective 'enough' conveys the idea that the costs are raised to the extent enough to raise alarms. But the intended meaning is that the costs are so high that they may bring consequences, so the environmentalists are raising alarms. So, Option A can be eliminated.

In Option B, the participle phrase “raising water bills so high” seems to modify the city’s proposal. Since this meaning is illogical, Option B can be eliminated.

Option C is also wordy. Additionally, the phrase ‘high enough so’ does not convey the intended meaning. So, Option C can be eliminated.

Option D is concise and the use of the possessive pronoun correctly relates ‘the cost’ to ‘the projects’. The phrase “so high that” also correctly conveys the cause-effect relationship between ‘raising the water bills’ and ‘the environmentalists sounding alarms’. So, Option D is correct.

In Option E, the error of meaning and usage that is present in Options A and C has been repeated. The use of the adjective ‘enough’ does not convey the intended meaning. So, Option E can be eliminated.

Therefore, D is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Please, advise, how does "raising" in option B modify the proposal and why is it wrong?

I'm confused why it's okay to use the the future tense "will raise" in option D preceding the present tense "are beginning".

Thank you for your help.

I actually marked option B in my GMAT Prep tests. But as i can now give it more of a thought, my solution is:

(A) the cost of which raises water bills high enough so that
There is following errors with this:
1. as of given, there is only a proposal for a number of water treatment and conservation projects , it means these project does not exist and so it can't raise the cost in present tense. It should be in future tense.
2. high enough so that is not right

(B) at a cost raising water bills so high that
this is wrong because present participle raising seems to raise cost in present. which is not the intended meaning.

(C) at a cost which raises water bills high enough so
which raisesseems to raise cost in present.
high enough so is wrong

(D) whose cost will raise water bills so high that
correct use of whose, which can refer both to humans and things.
correct use of future tense
correct use of so high that

(E) whose cost will raise water bills high enough so that
wrong uses of high enough so that

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