The demand for airplane mechanics is expected to grow about ten percent a year in the next decade, largely because new federal rules calling for major modifications to older planes and because the airlines are adding hundreds of new jets.

(A) new federal rules calling for major modifications to older planes
(B) new federal rules, which call for major modifications to older planes
(C) new federal rules call for major modifications to older planes
(D) major modifications to older planes called for by new federal rules
(E) major modifications to older planes are called for according to new federal rules

C.

Sounded the best, but the phrase "new federal rules calling" doesn't make much sense.

ajit257,

First off, Kudos to you for asking about a question that you got right! Too often we stop studying a question simply because we got it right, even if we didn't really master it.

Now: This question has a bunch of errors and common misconceptions, so I want to help break it down:

1. First issue: "because...calling for" (participles vs. verbs)

"New federal rules call for modifications to planes." --> This is correct. "New federal rules" is the subject, and "call" is the verb.

"New federal rules calling for modifications to planes were enacted by the FAA." --> This is also correct. Here, the subject is 'new federal rules" and "were enacted" is the predicate. The middleman "calling for modifications to planes" modifies the rules, and thus "calling" is a participle, not a verb.

What we have in this example is:

"New federal rules calling for modification...and..." --> This construction in A is incorrect. There would have to be a verb after "planes" for this to be OK, and there isn't.

2. Second issue: "new federal rules, which call for..." (modifiers)

The construction: "noun - comma - which" could be OK (for example: "The house on the left, which is blue, is huge.") since the noun modifier beginning with "which" correctly describes the noun preceding the comma. Again, as above, you would need a verb after "planes." Here, unfortunately, you don't have a verb for this subject.

3. "called for by" / "called for according to" (active vs passive voice)

In D and E, we have the passive voice: "modifications CALLED for BY" and "ARE CALLED FOR ACCORDING TO."

It's important to note that no SC answer choice will be wrong simply on the basis of passive vs. active verbs. Although we tend to prefer the active voice (many of your future Business school professors will point this out regularly), there is no rule that says "passive voice is wrong."

So D and E are wrong, but not necessarily because they are in passive voice. I'm happy to give this one away, but I'd rather see you smart folks out in cyber world solve this.

What's the most clear grammatical reason D and E are wrong?

Brett

Call for - make necessary or demand

I think D and E are very awkward. Option D seems to convey as though "major modification" is needed for "Older planes called for by new federal rules", it doesn't say that modification is made necessary or called for, rather it is modifying 'plane', leading to the meaning 'major modification to the older planes that are made necessary by federal rule. So, it's the older planes, here, that are made necessary, not the modification to the older planes. This leads to alter the meaning of the sentence. Moreover, even it has a grammatical mistake because 'called' here needs 'are' before 'called' to complete the sentence for proper sense, otherwise the sentence gives a wrong as if 'modification' is demanding or making something necessary.
E -- 'BY' could be a better use than 'according to' and the sentence is a bit wordy and very clumsy


(D) major modifications to older planes called for
by new federal rules
(E) major modifications to older planes are called
for according to new federal rules