Official Solution:
The process to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector that were undertaken in Nigeria bore results faster when compared to East African states in the last 30 years, which caused cereal production to increase by 125% and cultivated land by 70%.
A. The process to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector that were undertaken in Nigeria bore results faster when compared to East African states in the last 30 years, which caused cereal production to increase by 125% and cultivated land by 70%.
B. The process to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector undertaken in Nigeria bore results faster when compared with the process applied in East African states in the last 30 years and had caused cereal production and cultivated land to increase by 125% and 70% respectively.
C. When it was compared with that undertaken by East African states in the last 30 years, the process to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector that were undertaken in Nigeria and that bore results faster were causing cereal production to increase by 125% and cultivated land by 70%.
D. Compared with that undertaken by East African states in the last 30 years, the process to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector that was undertaken in Nigeria bore results fast, causing an increase in cereal production by 125% and in cultivated land by 70%.
E. In the last 30 years, Nigeria, compared with East African states, had a process of mobilizing all stakeholders in the agrifood sector that were undertaken to faster results, since it caused cereal production to increase by 125% and cultivated land by 70%.
A. The plural verb
“were undertaken” does not comply with the singular subject
“The process”.
Wrong idiom: with
“compared to (or with)” the comparative form of adjective must not be used (redundancy). Moreover The usage of
“when” before
“compared” is idiomatically incorrect.
“Compared to X, Y is fast”: Correct
“Compared to X, Y is faster”: Wrong
“Y is faster than X”: Correct
“When compared to X, Y is fast.”: Wrong
The relative clause
“which caused….” wrongly refers to the noun phrase
“30 years”, whereas it should refer to the noun
“Process”. Use of present participle modifier
“causing…” eliminates the mistake.
B. Wrong idiom: the idiomatic usage of
“compared..” is explained in option A.
Use of past perfect
“had caused” is wrong: Past perfect is used to refer to an action which happens prior to another action in the past (simple past).
C. The verb
“were undertaken'' does not match with the singular subject
“The process”.
The part
“When it was compared with” is unnecessarily wordy. Only
“Compared with” conveys the same meaning in a more precise manner.
D. CORRECT. Singular verb
“was undertaken” is used with the singular subject
“the process”.
Correct idiom: “Compared with X, Y is fast”. Comparative adjectives must not be used with
“compared..” to avoid redundancy.
Present participle modifier
“causing…” correctly refers to the entire preceding clause
“the process bore results fast”.
The word
“fast” can be used as an adverb or an adjective - here it is used as an adverb to modify the verb
“bore”.
The pronoun
“that” is correctly used twice. The first
"that" refers to
"the process to mobilize". It creates a copy of the noun it refers to. The usage is similar to the following sentence:
My car is bigger than that of yours. The second
"that" also refers to
"the process to mobilize", but this pronoun replaces the antecedent directly. The usage is similar to the following sentence:
The car that you gifted me does not start.
Question may arise that the modifier
“that was undertaken” does not touch the modified noun
“the process”. However this construction is acceptable, an exception of the modifier touch rule: a vital modifier (in this case
“to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector”) falls between the modifier
“that” and the modified noun
“the process” - the modifier
“to mobilize all stakeholders in the agrifood sector” can be considered a vital modifier because it defines the noun
“process”.
E. This option changes the meaning of the sentence. This construction implies that only Nigeria undertook the process.
The verb
“were undertaken'' does not match with the singular subject
“The process”.
The conjunction
“since” introduces a wrong cause and effect relation. This construction implies that the action
“undertaken” was a result of the action
“cause”.
The construction
“were undertaken to faster results” does not make sense.
Answer: D
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