1. Redundancy helps eliminate A and C. Decreasing downward is the phrase that portrays redundancy.
(A) During times of war, defense equipment manufacturing increases while car manufacturing
decreases downward in favor of military contracts.
(C) At times of war, defense equipment manufacturing increases in favor of military contracts while car manufacturing
decreases downward.
2. Understanding the statement: Defense manufacturing increases and consequentially car manufacturing decreases. There is a cause and effect here.
Use of while eliminates the cause and effect thought. B is eliminated
(B) In favor of military contracts during times of war, car manufacturing decreases
while defense equipment manufacturing increases.
3. D v/s E
(D) During times of war, car manufacturing decreases in favor of military contracts, increasing defense equipment manufacturing.
[b]No favor is done to anything. One thing happens and that leads to another. I know this reasoning would not be of much help. It would be great if someone were to point out the grammatical flaw in the statement. (As I write this, I have one more doubt about the statement - It would be great if someone could do something. Is the presence of
would and
could together in a statement correct?)
Hence the option I'd go with is (E) During times of war military contracts are favored, decreasing car manufacturing and increasing defense equipment manufacturing.