All of the carbon-emissions permits were supposed to be sold

Question

All of the carbon-emissions permits were supposed to be sold at auction, but the bill's authors ended up giving away 85 percent of them free at the outset of the  program, which won votes, but that some environmental advocates said  undercut the program's integrity.

A. program, which won votes, but that some environmental advocates said
B. program, thereby winning votes; however, some environmental advocates said this
C. program that won votes but that some environmental advocates said
D. program to win votes, however this was said by some environmental advocates to
E. program, and it won votes, of which some environmental advocates said

Marcab · Answer

"This" has no referrent in most of the options and by the way, Gmat doesn't likes "this". In E, what is "it" referring to? "it" will always standby for the noun but here it stands for "ended up giving away 85 percent of them". Thats incorrect.
In D, the meaning has entirely changed by using infinitive construction, implying an "intention".
In A, which modifies "program". It was NOT the program that won votes.
Logically speaking, since "but that" is being used, therefore a "that" phrase is needed for parallelism.
+1 C.
Hope that helps.

P.S. Always do mention the source of the question. It helps us to know the credibility of the question.

chesstitans · Answer

what is the answer for this question?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Marcab , since the program isn't what won votes, the answer can't be C, either. "That" is a noun modifier, and so would modify "program."

B is the only plausible answer here.

chesstitans · Answer

"thereby winning votes" is a grammar issue that will be tested in gmat?

abhimahna · Answer

Hi  chesstitans  ,

"thereby winning votes" is specifying the result of the action. Hence, there is nothing wrong with this.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

chesstitans , I'm not sure what you mean about the grammar of "thereby winning votes." One of the main advantages of B over the other choices is that it makes it clear *who* is winning the votes--the bill's authors. The use of an adverbial modifier ("thereby winning votes") allows us to skip over the intervening nouns and show the result of the author's action. There's nothing special about this particular phrase that you need to memorize--it's simply a difference between noun modifiers and adverbial modifiers.

chesstitans · Answer

thank you, both you and the guy named  abhimahna  are helpful. 
So, "thereby" is also an adverb that follows a commas, and then another adverb.
I guess the main structure is S does to Y, doing

VerbalBot · Answer

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All of the carbon-emissions permits were supposed to be sold

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All of the carbon-emissions permits were supposed to be sold

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