Unlike traditional bullet-proof vests, which can prevent

Please give insight into all the option and how to POE for this one. I need to understand whether my thought process was correct or not.

Hello, ATSA. In the interest of assisting you and the community, I will provide my thoughts below.

The original sentence contains two errors that can be used for elimination. First, unlike at the beginning of the sentence cues a like-to-like comparison. Even if the two elements are unlike each other, they must still be of the same type. The heart of this comparison is vests and designs, which are not the same. (Do not be fooled by modifiers: follow nouns in this type of comparison.) Then, where seems to refer to the United States, a location, rather than to bullet-proof vests that are designed there. It is nonsensical to suggest that bullets bounce off the United States, but the grammar leads us to such an interpretation.

The comparison error above is preserved in this option, so there is no need to go further.

Now, the comparison is between vests and the United States, and apparel and a country are not like elements.


Notice that there is now a proper vest-to-vest comparison. The modifier that follows correctly refers to vests, and the main clause says that these vests are being developed somewhere. I know that some people are uncomfortable with being, but a change in verb tense to something such as are developing does not make sense: vests are being developed, not sprouting out of the ground or assembling themselves in a lab. In short, everything checks out in this option.

The easy target is where, which should refer to a location, although in casual parlance it can pass for in which. However, do not overlook the meaning issue inherent in the entire parenthetical—where bullets bounce off makes it sound as if the new vests have already been developed, but the next part of the sentence says otherwise. So, even though this option may seem close to the correct one, it also presents two major problems, one grammar-based and the other having to do with logical predication. The meaning of the sentence should be as clear as possible.

Perhaps the question makes more sense now. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew