Official Solution:In most industries the rising cost of support services actually passes a great financial burden to customers; in the legal profession, for example, a recent change in procedure of court reporting forced many attorneys to hire additional support, which in turn raised their fees.A. forced many attorneys to hire additional support, which in turn raised their fees
B. has forced many attorneys in hiring additional support, which in turn has raised their fees
C. forced many attorneys in hiring additional support, and the result was a rise in their fees
D. has forced many attorneys to hire additional support, in turn raising their fees
E. has forced many attorneys on hiring additional support, in turn causing a rise in their fees
There are two issues in the question.
Issue 1: Use of “which” vs present participle “-ing”: “Which” is used to refer to a noun, whereas present participle “-ing” is used to refer to a clause.
Issue 2: “Force (someone) to (do something)” is the correct usage here. The usages “force…in” and “force…on” convey meanings that are not suitable here.
A. Wrong because of issue 1: The relative pronoun “which” must have a noun as antecedent - here “which” wrongly refers to the noun “assistants”.
B. Wrong because of issue 1: Same as A.
Wrong because of issue 2: “Force…in” is a wrong idiom here bearing a different meaning.
C. Wrong because of issue 2: same as above.
The part “....and the result was a raise in their fees” is wordy.
D. Correct. Both the issues have been correctly addressed.
E. Wrong. “Force…on” is a wrong idiom here bearing a different meaning. The part “in turn causing a raise in their fees” is wordy - a present participle modifier is used to indicate an effect and hence use of “causing” is redundant.
Answer: D