The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in lo

Question

The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(A) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(B) Because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse, the rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than the rules are in national elections.

(C) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(D) Because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse than national elections, the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than national contributions.

(E) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

anilesh10 · Answer

fight is between D and E
but i will pick E
A- they is ambiguous
B- awkward structure
c- wrong comparison

Modestos · Answer

I ll say E as well. A B C are wrong due to the reasons stated above and D is redundant and has an awkward lack of connection between the 2 parts of the sentence

Doer01 · Answer

Hi,
 IMO E
Analysis: 
A has an ambiguous “they” after because. It could refer to either rules or elections.
B changes the meaning. It’s not the rules that involve money. The modifier in the beginning seems to do so. 
C has comparison error. Rules to national election. 
D comparison error. Twice. 
E corrects the modifier error and comparison error. In local elections to in national elections. Ambiguous they from original sentence is replaced with national elections. 
So option E it is.

Posted from my mobile device

emcheeks · Answer

The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(A) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

"they" is ambiguous since it could refer to either local elections or national elections.
 
(B) Because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse, the rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than the rules are in national elections.

it is the "local elections" which involve smaller money, not the "rules". 
 
(C) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

Here, "national elections" and "rules that govern political contributions" are parallel. so wrong. In addition, "they" is ambiguous.
 
(D) Because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse than national elections, the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than national contributions.

It changes the meaning. "govern political contributions in local elections" was changed to "govern local political contributions". and "national elections" was changed to "national contributions".
 
(E) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

Correct

vmadan10 · Answer

Hello Experts,

I am fairly new to SC questions and wished to know the reason Option D is wrong. I personally think it is because of a comma splice but I am not too sure, if you could throw some light on this it would be really helpful.

Thanks and Regards.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  vmadan10 . A comma splice occurs when there are two  independent  clauses joined by a comma, but with no conjunction between the clauses.  Because  at the head of answer (D) is a  dependent  clause indicator. As soon as you see  because  used in this way, you know you have to wait for the dependent clause to resolve before the main clause can begin. Grammatically speaking, option (D) is fine. It suffers, however, from a comparison error in the main clause:

the rules  that govern local political contributions  are less stringent than   national contributions

People speak this way all the time, but the GMAT™ is downright draconian about comparing like entities with like entities, and here, strictly speaking, rules are being compared to contributions. To correct the sentence, we would need to see a proper comparison marker:

the rules  that govern local political contributions  are less stringent than   those that govern  national contributions

Now, rules are being compared to rules. There are different variations that could appear in the latter part of the comparison, but I guarantee that all of them would have to put  rules  front and center. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

vmadan10 · Answer

MentorTutoring  Thanks for the explanation. The concept of a comma splice is clearer for me now. 
Thanks once again!

raunakd11 · Answer

Hello guys! Taking the conversation ahead, Eliminate Option B and D , the construction seems flawed and incorrect. Eliminate Option C as it fails to use 'than they are in' , which makes the readers' life easy. Eliminate Option A , it fails to specify who 'they' is referred to as, and that makes it ambiguous as well. Option E is the winner with perfect usage and no errors at all! Hit E Official Answer:- Option E Thanks! Regards, Raunak Damle

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in lo

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 rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in lo

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