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

Question

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

(B) at a cost raising water bills so high that

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

(D) whose cost will raise water bills so high that

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

I am not clear as to why "whose" can be used as a pronoun for projects.

daagh · Accepted Answer

Grammar Point: Only ‘ Who ’ can be used for humans. ‘ Who ’ cannot be used for anything or any other than humans. However, ‘ whose ’ can be used for humans as well as for other lower animates such as cattle, birds, or so on. ‘ Whose ’ can also be used for inanimate ones like tables and projects. This is because there is no other word than ‘ whose ’ that can replace it, while still carrying the possessive meaning. Can you think of any such word?

Somebody said  costs  is the real subject. Nay; it is the projects which are actually the object of the main clause that becomes the subject of the subordinate clause and gets represented by a relative possessive pronoun ‘whose,’ to avoid the repetition of saying “ projects ’”.

pqhai · Answer

Hello goodyear2013.

Good question. B and C are tempting but they are incorrect because they simply change the intended meaning.

Structure of B/C is:  The city has proposed X at cost . B and C convey the idea that the city has paid for some services, i.e., marketing, advertising, printing flyer,... TO PROPOSE its projects. The cost here is the  cost of the city's action - proposing, not the true cost of the projects .

For example:  Your bicycle is broken. Mike will help you  fix  your bicycle  at cost . There is no free service.
It means you pay for Mike's service, not for your bicycle.

The idea is the same in this question. Both D and E use "whose" to modify "projects", but D wins because it uses a correct idiom "so X that Y'.

Hope it helps.

carcass · Answer

Simply because is the right answer :-D

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

EducationAisle · Answer

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.

daagh · Answer

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’.

sayantanc2k · Answer

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.

sayantanc2k · Answer

"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".

teaserbae · Answer

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

Skywalker18 · Answer

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.

Jsound996 · Answer

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

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.

LILICHKA · Answer

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

ef1988 · Answer

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.

SALAKSHYA · Answer

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 raises seems 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

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

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

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

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

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards