The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on he

I believe D is wrong because it measn the owner himself carried the waste heat through the duct pipes.

The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter by putting all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment, then installing two fans and a duct that carried waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.


(A) then installing two fans and a duct that carried - keeps parallelism fine. --- by putting...., then installing..fans and duct...

(B) then he installing two fans and a duct that carried-this one should be past tnense

(C) then two fans were installed with a duct that carried- passive, not relevant for GMAT

(D) installing two fans, and then carrying through a duct-position of DUCT changes the meaning or doesnt give any meaning. since waste goes through duct

(E) installing two fans, and a duct carrying - again parallelism is broken

A. is fine

Even though you want explanations only, i'll clarify that my choice is A.

Now for my reasoning...

Upon first glance I'd eliminate choice B and C.
(B) "then he installing two fans" is awkward
(C) "then two fans were installed" is past tense. The sentence should describe what the owner did to save the $600--by putting X...installing Y...

Eliminate (D) for the last part of the clause: "...carrying through a duct waste heat..."? Should be "carried".

Between A and E now.

Eliminate (E) because it is structured as a list but the last part of the list doesn't work. Putting...,installing...,and a duct? Nope.

Left with A. A tells us he saved dough by putting in x and installing n and m that carried waste heat...

Sentence A provides us with a correctly placed restrictive clause for m (aka a duct).

Btwn A and E for me. I choose A.

B is akward no need for he.
C: isnt || with "putting"
D: sounded to me like the owner is carrying "it" through the duct, just seemed akward to me.
E: no good explanation for this one, I just chose A

A is the best of all evils.
It would be clear if we have an 'and' before then to make it a complete sentence...right now I think its a sentence fragment.

He saved money on heat by X(putting...),then Y(installing two fans and a duct...)....and ??

Prefer A over D for the reason stated above.

[quote="Vlad77"]799. The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter by putting all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment, then installing two fans and a duct that carried waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.
(A) then installing two fans and a duct that carried
Implies that Two fans and a duct together carried waste heat

(B) then he installing two fans and a duct that carried
Grammatically incorrect. "then he installing"

(C) then two fans were installed with a duct that carried
Fans were NOT installed with a duct. Incorrect.

(D) installing two fans, and then carrying through a duct
Seems RELATIVELY correct although it implies what tsaditya said.

(E) installing two fans, and a duct carrying

See reasoning below.

In A, B, C, E the construction is
"...putting X together, then installing Xand Y....."
We are missing an "AND" here before "then".

I agree with tsaditya that it seems as if the owner himself carried the heat but based on the reasoning above, I go with D

Guys!
Everything is fine with A, except "then".
I think it is not a correct SC problem. If we use then, we should also use first or initially etc...

"First" we did X, "then" Y and Z.

Any ideas?

I'll go with A as mentioned by other folks.

Clearly A. I don't know who is carrying through the duct in D.

Let me analyze A:

How many arms are there in the list?

Let us first say three

1. by putting - a present participle -, 2/ by installing – a present participle 3. And a duct – but duct is not a participle; it is a noun. So where is the parallelism?

Alternately, let us say there are only two.

1. by putting --2. by installing two fans and a duct. Ok so far so good. But if there are only two, then there should be the conjunction ‘and’ between the first and the second arm, namely, after compartment. But it is not there. Is that right?

For the same reason I rule out E.

D maintains the participle forms for all the three arms; although as tsadithya has pointed out, it weirdly suggests that the owner himself carried the waste heat. Still the best of the damn devils

Here is the Ron's explanation for this question:

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/100 ... t1733.html

He also suggested that "AND" be there in A. But D definitely doesn't make any sense.

Tricky one.
I found answer (A) by POE
(B) Incorrect - then he installing
(C) Incorrect - Passive
(D) Incorrect - fans and duct were installed
(E) Incorrect - incorrect placement of commas

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