Pests had destroyed grape, celery, chili pepper crops, sugar beet and walnut in the region, but in the 1880s, more effective pest-control methods saved the citrus industry.

Pests had destroyed grape, celery, chili pepper crops, sugar beet and walnut in the region, but in the 1880s, more effective pest-control methods saved the citrus industry.

Pests had destroyed grape, celery, chili pepper, sugar beet and walnut crops in the region, but in the 1880s, more effective pest-control methods saved the citrus industry.

Pests had destroyed grape, celery, chili pepper, sugar beet and walnut crops in the region, but more effective pest-control methods that were introduced in the 1880s saved the citrus industry.

In the 1880s, pests destroyed grape, celery, chili pepper, sugar beet and walnut crops in the region and more effective pest-control methods saved the citrus industry.

In the 1880s, more effective pest-control methods saved the citrus industry from what was destroying grape, celery, chili pepper, sugar beet and walnut crops in the region.


Source : MGMAT CAT - 3

Could you please explain between B and C..
I checked the explanation... it says the adverbial phrase in 1880s does not modify "saved the citrus industry." in C...

Could you please explain this structure....
also it says ... "that is a problem in C" ...as it refers to the methods ??

I'm sorry it has taken us long to get to your question.

This is a tricky one - tough question! The first issue has to do with when the citrus industry was saved. In the original sentence, it says "in the 1880s, methods saved the industry" - that is, the industry was saved in the 1880s. When were the methods created? Maybe during the 1880s, or the 1870s, or the 1600s - who knows? I don't know when they were created - only when they were used to "save the industry."

In choice C, it says "methods (that were introduced in the 1880s) saved the industry" or subject (noun modifier) verb object. Now the sentence tells us only that some methods were introduced in the 1880s (remember noun modifiers tell us something about the noun they're connected to). We have no idea when the industry was saved - sometime after when the methods were introduced, obviously, but who knows when?

Really picky and annoying, huh? But, then, that's what we expect from 700+ questions... :)

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Stacey, in questions such as this, would I be able to use original sentence to get the meaning of the sentence? Answer B is clearly based on the meaning reflected in the original sentence, whereas C changes the meaning.

ahistegt, when two choices are grammatically acceptable and differ only in meaning:

(1) If one choice has a slightly "wacky" meaning (or such a misinterpretation is possible), reject it in favor of the choice with the more conventional, clear, or bland meaning.
For example, OG #65: If you read critically, you'll see that the original sentence has a funny meaning. You must change the meaning to correct this ambiguity.

(2) If both choices have feasible meanings, default to the one that more closely aligns with the meaning of the original sentence.
For example, OG Verbal Guide #37: (B) and (E) both have the right verb tenses and differ only in the placement of "last year," which affects the meaning. What happened last year? The correct choice agrees with the original sentence on that answer.

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Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT