Maine will face a serious shortage of timber by the year 2000, the res

Question

Maine will face a serious shortage of timber by the year 2000, the result of a major infestation of spruce budworm,  that much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity , and a rapid expansion of the paper business.

(A) that much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity
(B) that coming to maturity of much of Maine's spruce and fir forests
(C) much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity
(D) Maine's spruce and fir forests, much of which is coming to maturity
(E) that maturity is coming to much of Maine's spruce and fir forests

manhasnoname · Accepted Answer

... the result of X, Y and Z. X, Y and Z should be paralllel, X and Z doesn't have "that" so Y shouldn't have "that". A B and E are gone.

Between C and D - C sounds better because "much of" is parallel to "major infestation of" and "rapid expansion of".

parker · Answer

Could you double-check the transcription and/or source of this question? The list as completed by C is not parallel (there is a tensed verb, "are"--the other items in the list do not contain verbs). The placement of the phrase "by the year 2000" is also not ideal, as that placement sets up the phrase following it to be a misplaced modifier.

144144 · Answer

Can we say  MUCH  of Maine's spruce and fir forests?
Shouldn't it be  many ?

crick20002002 · Answer

Are you sure it is an official GMAT problem ?

I was totally lost with the answer choices and only B looked somewhat plausible, given the current structure of the sentence.

Crick

dontbelievethetruth · Answer

It was a really old GMAT Prep, and perhaps this question was flawed to begin with. 
Thanks, 
DBTT

gautammalik · Answer

I also got 'B'. In fact the answer option 'B' can be improved by removing 'that'

tuanquang269 · Answer

What does "that" refer in this sentence?

metallicafan · Answer

Agree, only B seems plausible.

Mankodim · Answer

People, would appreciate more discussion on this. I don't see a problem with A to begin with.

Posted from my mobile device

shekhu · Answer

This sentence seems to be modified from this NY times article. The original sentence says,

"A serious shortage of timber by the year 2000 is in prospect in Maine, the most heavily forested state in the nation. The shortage, according to experts, has been caused by a major infestation of spruce budworm, the fact that much of Maine's spruce and fir forest is coming to maturity at the same time and a rapid expansion of the paper business in the 1960's and '70's"

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/24/nyre ... 33120.html

abhik1502 · Answer

thanks for sharing this !

This sentence is slightly different from one share. Out here underlined portion stats with "a fact that" , which makes it noun+noun modifier. ANd its parallel to other entity.

But in original sentence or rather say in option C, it was clause and as per parallelism rule a clause can't be parallel to phrase that is there as other two entity in this parallel list.

PRanjan1988 · Answer

Option C is in no way satisfying the parallelism.. How is that a correct option. ? The mentioned explanations are not satisfactory

shaarang · Answer

It's fairly straightforward when you correctly predict the structure of the final sentence.

Eg. I may have a bad headache tomorrow, the result of heavy drinking, late night partying and waking up early.

The awkward "that much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity" clause throws you off this trail.

A, B and E are out since "that" breaks flow and parallelism. D is out because it uses the singular "is" to describe "forests". C doesn't sound ideal but is an easy choice because others have very obvious mistakes.

faltan · Answer

how does using "that" violate the parallelism?

push12345 · Answer

I dont think this is good question to practice

If one removes part under comma the sentence should make sense, "the result of a major infestation of spruce budworm"

Thats why I choose choice having "that" because starting with much does not make a logical sentence.

GIve kudos if it helps

shaarang · Answer

"Hangovers are a result of heavy drinking" v/s "Hangovers are a result of that I have been drinking heavily"

Result of ... "much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity" fits a lot better than "that much of Maine's spruce and fir forests are coming to maturity"

Again, as has been pointed out, this isn't a great question and the answer itself, option C, isn't 100% grammatically correct. The others are just more wrong. I would've been much more comfortable had C been "much of Maine's spruce and fir forests  are  coming to maturity"

Mpuneet · Answer

A, B, and E are incorrect because they have ‘that’ referring to the spruce budworm. ‘That’ should not be used here. D is not properly constructed and does not maintain parallelism. C is parallel, ‘much of’ parallels ‘major infestation’ and ‘rapid expansion

sayan640 · Answer

@VeritasKarishma..Can you please explain as to what would be the correct answer ?

Posted from my mobile device

Formermember99 · Answer

I have an old paper test and found this question, and the answer in the key is B. Also, choice B reads " the  coming to maturity of much of Maine's spruce..." --

Maine will face a serious shortage of timber by the year 2000, the res

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Maine will face a serious shortage of timber by the year 2000, the res

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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My Rewards