The earth's resources are being wasted so significantly by corporate i

(D) for me. Took 02:19.

The extra time was spent searching for more concrete error in a less acceptable answer choice(A), but I couldn't. I know GMAT prefers active voice over passive, but I never have and never will be 100% sold to eliminate an answer choice just because it used a passive voice. Active and Passive voices both exists in English language and if the choices are grammatically correct, it is not just to choose one over other. Some say it's due to straightforwardness of Active that is preferred over Passive. But, I never feel confident with eliminating an answer choice solely on that basis. Other similar error-type that I struggle eliminating is "grammatically correct redundancy". More on that some other time.

Coming back to this question, I do not see much issue with the sentence written as it is. Usage of Being in (A) is seemingly correct and conveys the meaning clearly. "or probably even an impossible one" in (B) sort of distorts the intended meaning and thus can be put into the bin for that reason. In (C), idiomatically, "to such a large degree that replenishing" is inferior to " so significantly that replenishing..." in (D). Thus, you can put that into bin as well. (D) looks the best among all, it has proper idiomatic usage of "so X that Y", so that kind of makes this answer choice better than the others, though I highly doubt that this alone would ever be the "only differentiating factor" in an official OG question (especially the new crop of OG questions). GMAC would give you one more concrete meaning-error or modifier error to couple with an idiom to choose or reject an answer choice. Just an idiomatic error would probably not be the only differentiating factor (in my opinion). (E) is wrong for wrong modifier placement at the start, "Replenishing the earth's resources will be a difficult..", who's the doer of this action? Incorrect.

So, between (A) and (D), I will choose (D) because it is a more accepted sentence in the GMAT world. Though, (A) does the job just as fine. I feel bad for the injustice and dislike GMAT community gives to this benign word, "Being". But, it is what it is here.

I have heard that in the idiom ''So X that Y'' ,X has to be adjective, but here it is an adverb (significantly). Thus I selected Option C. Why Option C is wrong ''to such a large degree that...'' seems grammatically correct to me. Is usage of ''such that'' always wrong or unidiomatic?

Thank You
Vighnesh

Hi VIGHNESHKAMATH,
In So X that Y construction, X has to be the cause and Y has to be the effect. That's all one needs to keep in mind.

(C) as you have said is indeed grammatically correct but is it conveying a sensible meaning? No.
The first part, "Industries are wasting resources to such a large degree.."
As, the author wants to depict an ongoing action, "to such a large degree" is not the best choice of words here. But. (D) does that quite nicely here.

In SC, it is not always black and white, you have to choose the best among the five choices given. And (D) here is that best among the five.

Hope it helps.