Bunuel wrote:
The Epsilon Corporation,
having 14 divisions each with at least 100 full-time employees, exemplify the kind of complexity that frustrate the consultants trying to help them.
A. having 14 divisions each with at least 100 full-time employees, exemplify the kind of complexity that frustrate the consultants trying to help them
B. having 14 divisions each with at least 100 full-time employees, exemplifies the kind of complexity that frustrates the consultants which are trying to help them
C. composed of 14 divisions, each of which has at least 100 full-time employees, exemplifies the kind of complexity that frustrates the consultants trying to help it
D. composed of 14 divisions, each of which has at least 100 full-time employees, exemplifies the kind of complexity that frustrate the consultants that would try to help them
E. composed of 14 divisions, each of which has at least 100 full-time employees, exemplify the kind of complexity that frustrates the consultants trying to help it
Magoosh Official Explanation:
First of all, the split at the beginning, "having" vs. "composed of" is not important: both are correct ways to express this idea.
Split #1: good old Subject-Verb agreement! The subject is "Epsilon Corporation", a singular collective noun. Yes, many people work for this place, but the corporation is singular. This is a singular subject, so it needs the singular verb: "exemplifies." Choices (A) & (E) have the plural verb, "exemplify," which is incorrect. In fact, this is a favorite GMAT trick: singular subject (a collective noun), and then some kind of modifier that makes clear this subject has a bazillion parts or members, and then the verb; folks get confused by all the plurals in the modifier, and they fall for the trap of choosing the plural verb. The subject "Epsilon Corporation" is singular, and so needs the singular verb "exemplifies" --- only choices (B) & (C) & (D) have this correct.
Split #2: the pronoun at the end of the sentence. Every pronoun must have a clear antecedent. Who are the consultants trying to help? They are trying to help Epsilon Corporation. Again, this noun is singular ---- it is composed of many parts, but it is singular. Therefore, we need the singular pronoun "it", not the plural "them." Choices (A) & (B) & (D) make the mistake of using the plural pronoun for the singular collective noun. Only (C) & (E) correctly use the singular pronoun.
Because of these two splits,
(C) is the only possible answer.