Especially in the early months farmers may need to find resourceful

Question

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Especially in the early months, farmers may need to find resourceful ways, such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients,  that ensure their harvests are large  and more consistent than they would be otherwise.

A) that ensure their harvests are large

B) to ensure their harvests are larger

C) thus ensuring their harvests are larger

D) so that the harvests are larger

E) of ensuring their harvests are large

generis · Answer

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winterschool · Answer

Especially in the early months, farmers may need to find resourceful ways, such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients, that ensure their harvests are large and more consistent than they would be otherwise.

A)  that  ensure their harvests are  large   Inorrect

large must be larger - ..more.......than....; ................larger...........than............

B)  to ensure their harvests are larger   Correct

C)  thus  ensuring their harvests are  larger   Incorrect

thus uses wrong
 
D)  so that  the harvests are larger  Incorrect

so that uses wrong

E)  of ensuring  their harvests are  large   Incorrect

Edited -missed 'than' ; correct answer B

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (B) . It took me 01:43.

We can eliminate (AE) rather quickly because of their use of "large" instead of "larger". To be consistent with "more consistent than", "larger" should be used.

"such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients," can be removed without changing the correct answer choice.

So, we have to choose among (BCD). 
(B) farmers may need to find resourceful ways to ensure their harvests are larger and more consistent than they would be otherwise.
(C) farmers may need to find resourceful ways, thus ensuring their harvests are larger and more consistent than they would be otherwise.
(D) farmers may need to find resourceful ways so that the harvests are larger and more consistent than they would be otherwise.

In (B), infinitive "to ensure" clearly describes the goal / purpose of "finding resourceful ways". 
In (C), "thus" indicates that simply finding resourceful ways can always result in larger harvests. Not very plausible. 
In (D), the switch from "their harvests" to "the harvests" should be okay, but "so that" also incorrectly indicate the inevitability of larger harvest thanks to resourceful ways.

Ultimately, it is still a hard call. I finally choose (B) also because it is the most natural way and there is no strong reason against it.

PyjamaScientist · Answer

looks like the best choice to me. It took me  01:20  mins.

Especially in the early months, farmers may need to find resourceful ways, such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients,  that ensure their harvests are large  and more consistent than they would be otherwise.

A) that ensure their harvests are large 
That seems to modify additional nutrients. 
  B) to ensure their harvests are larger  
First part of the sentence presents a plan to be undertaken by the farmers whose intention is made clear by "to ensure their harvests ..". This seems like the logical continuation of the sentence.
 C) thus ensuring their harvests are larger 
comma + ensuring is an action modifier, it is incorrectly showing the result of the previous action. The action has not taken place yet, so the usage of verb-ing modifier to depict the result of the preceding action is incorrect.
 D) so that the harvests are larger 
This option has got me a bit perplexed. "So that" is a description of WHY something is to be done. 
Especially in the early months, farmers may need to find resourceful ways , such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients,   so that the harvests are larger  and more consistent than they would be otherwise.
But, meaning wise, this sounds off to me. It presents some kind of certainty to the desired event if the aforementioned steps are taken. And between B and D, I will mark B.
 E) of ensuring their harvests are large  larger should be used instead of large to be consistent with "more than".

sumitkrocks · Answer

I pick (D)

A) That correctly refers to resourceful ways but large and more consistent are not parallel .- Eliminate 
 
B) IMO there is a need to add "That" after infinitive as what follows is a clause.

C) Sentence: Farmers may need to find resourceful ways, thus ensuring their harvests are larger and more consistent than they would be otherwise

Issue of "missing that" still exists. 
Use of present participle can be acceptable

D) Sentence : Farmers may need to find resourceful ways, so that the harvests are larger and more consistent than they would be otherwise

We do not have infinitive and "so that" expresses the purpose

E) of ensuring their harvests are large
Parallelism is missing as discussed in A

Mangs1297 · Answer

Especially in the early months, farmers may need to find resourceful ways, such as planting a diversity of crops or feeding the soil additional nutrients, that ensure their harvests are large and more consistent than they would be otherwise.

A) that ensure their harvests are large - Use of large is incorrect. It should be larger.

B) to ensure their harvests are larger - Correct

C) thus ensuring their harvests are larger - Use of thus is incorrct.

D) so that the harvests are larger - So that usage is incorrect here.

E) of ensuring their harvests are large - - Use of large is incorrect. It should be larger.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A) that ensure their harvests are large
large isn't conveying the right meaning

B) to ensure their harvests are larger
The meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

C) thus ensuring their harvests are larger
thus isn't conveying the right meaning therefore out

D) so that the harvests are larger
so isn't the right usage and gives us the meaning as though the nutrients is becoming larger

E) of ensuring their harvests are large
large isn't the right usage therefore out

Therefore IMO B

aarkay87 · Answer

A: It is better to have a comparative adjective ‘larger’ at the end of UL to make an explicit comparison

B: Infinitive construction will SHOW the purpose of this action, so clearly better than (C)

C: 
1) Present participle construction is grammatically correct, but this structure will ONLY indicate the result and not the intent.
2) Similarly, The need to find resourceful ways itself won't ensure a large and consistent harvest. so construction in (B) seems more logical.

D: ‘The harvests’ will in general include all the harvests, better to have ‘their harvests’ in this context

E: same as A

chowdhurysakib71 · Answer

Isn’t 'their' in B is ambiguous? It can refer both crops or farmer.

Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

chowdhurysakib71  , welcome to SC Butler.

Interesting question. 
Unless pronoun ambiguity is outrageously confusing, I urge aspirants to assess pronoun ambiguity at the end of analysis.

In other words, I would not eliminate an option on the first pass for possible pronoun ambiguity. 
(Slam dunk ambiguity? Yes, eliminate the option.)

Let's say that we have analyzed all five options and are stuck between Option B and one other option.

Is the word "crops" as logical an antecedent for "their" as is the word "farmers"?
In other words, are  crops  and  farmers  equally logical antecedents for  their ?

The pronoun is  their , possessive.

Can crops possess harvests?
Do harvests "belong" to crops?
→ Correct: Georgia peach trees are prized for their consistently succulent fruit.

Or do the crops themselves produce harvests?

Food for thought.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Especially in the early months farmers may need to find resourceful

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Especially in the early months farmers may need to find resourceful

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