Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package

Question

Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package, a goal of a number of members of Congress,  has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House .

(A) has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(B) has not reduced the amount of bickering between Demographic and Republican members of the House

(C) has not made a significant reduction in the amount of bickering that exists between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(D) have not significantly reduced the amount of bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(E) have not been significant in the reduction of the bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

This is a  SC Butler Question

Check the links to other Butler Projects: 
 
   Data Sufficiency Butler 
   Problem Solving Butler  
   Critical Reasoning Butler  
   Reading Comprehension Butler  
   Integrated Reasoning Butler

imtiaz91 · Answer

I would choose option (C) for the most accurate and clear statement:

(C) has not made a significant reduction in the amount of bickering that exists between the Democratic and Republican members of the House.

Option (C) effectively conveys the idea that the efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package have not had a significant impact in reducing the bickering between the Democratic and Republican members of the House. It maintains the original meaning of the sentence while expressing the lack of substantial progress in a concise manner.

FlyingMAK · Answer

Efforts is plural. We would require a plural verb, so the options would be D or E.

I picked D because of the placement of the adverbial modifier

Posted from my mobile device

solvewithsourabh · Answer

Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package, a goal of a number of members of Congress,  has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House .

(A) has not resulted in less bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(B) has not reduced the amount of bickering between Demographic and Republican members of the House

(C) has not made a significant reduction in the amount of bickering that exists between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(D) have not significantly reduced the amount of bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

(E) have not been significant in the reduction of the bickering between the Demographic and Republican members of the House

Here is my try 
Subject: efforts (plural)
Verb: have (plural)

Eliminated A B C right away
Between D & E

'have not' v/s 'have not been'
I don't know how is one of them more appropriate that the other?

Pl help if anyone knows the basic reasoning behind the same.

Another split is - reduced the amount of bickering vs reduction of the bickering

I think that 'reduced the amount of bickering' is wordy 
So went with option E

Posted from my mobile device

Oppenheimer1945 · Answer

Efforts (plural) to gain ..."have" . ABC eliminated.

"amount of bickering" is wrong. 
hence D eliminated.

Go with E

thelastskybender · Answer

I think option E is wrong because it changes the meaning by breaking cause-effect relationship between 'efforts' and 'reduction of the bickering'.

Karan0912 · Answer

Good job with eliminating A,B and C.
E is wrong because it changes the meaning. It says efforts have not been significant...the sentence doesn't intend to say whether efforts have been significant or not. It says efforts have not led to significant reduction in bickering. Hope it clarifies.

solvewithsourabh · Answer

i think i got your point karan.

"significant" is a modifier here and the entity it should modify is "reduced (reduction)" and not "efforts".
this makes much more sense i guess.

thanks

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation :

The main verb of this sentence is  has not resulted , and its subject is  Efforts . Because  Efforts  is not underlined, it is correct, which means that the verb  has not resulted  must be conjugated in the plural to match the plural quantity of  Efforts . Eliminate  (A), (B),  and  (C)  because these choices all contain the helping verb  has .

Choice (D)  conjugates the verb correctly with the phrase  have not significantly  reduced and follows the verb with a direct object the  amount of bickering .

Choice (E)  conjugates the helping verb  have  correctly but introduces a passive construction with the phrase  have not been significant . The correct answer is  (D) .

Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package

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

Efforts to gain bipartisan support for an economic stimulus package

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