According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

A. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria

B. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not as much their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

C. it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog that they are being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

D. it is not so much that the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria so much

Source: GMAT Prep

E. it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog to be bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria

i'm not an expert, but i'll give it a shot:

a. i believe this is correct.
b. incorrect because 'their' is ambiguous. the idiom 'as much...as' is followed by an incomplete idiom 'much as...'
c. incorrect because they is ambiguous as it should refer to dog rather than breeds. the beginning portion skews the meaning such that it now says that genetic irregularities are are not the cause.
d. incorrect because 'their' is ambiguous. 'is their being bred' is awkward and unidiomatic.
e. the beginning portion skews the meaning such that it now says that genetic irregularities are are not the cause.

hi - there's no need to clutter this page up with an image file of a problem if you've posted the full text of the problem. please restrict the posting of image files to threads about math problems with diagrams or complex formulas that don't translate well into normal typed characters. thank you.

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a is correct because it's the only choice combining proper parallelism with correct grammar. the cause is not so much that x as that y.
b: previous poster is correct about 'their', but a much more obvious problem is bad parallelism. the cause is not so much their x as that y.
c: lots of things
- the beginning 'it' doesn't have a proper antecedent
- as the previous poster points out, 'it is not so much the cause...' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned doesn't really cause the mentioned effect
- you don't use 'much' twice; the proper construction is 'not so much ... as'
d: mostly the same things that are wrong with c, plus even more (go ahead and reply if you don't see anything wrong with d)
e: a couple of things
- as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect
- 'breeds of dog to be bred for looks' seems to imply dogs meant to be bred for looks (analogy: on the table are the five packages to be shipped)

oh yeah, by the way: the principal reason that 'being' is acceptable here is because it is essential for the verb 'bred' which is used in the passive voice. you can't construct the passive voice without some form of the verb 'to be'.

in problems using 'being' in a non-passive voice construction, the answer choices with 'being' are usually wrong.

In option "B" as mentioned below:-
B. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not as much their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

What is the rule to help us quickly narrow down that "their" is an antecedent for "dog"and not "breeds"? Is it based on semantic or based on rule. Pls can you clarify?

it isn't.

if 'their' is to have an antecedent, that antecedent must be plural, because 'their' is plural. this sort of agreement is ironclad and admits no exceptions.

strictly speaking, there's a bit of a problem because there are two possible plural antecedents: 'irregularities' and 'breeds'. of course, only the latter makes any sense, but you shouldn't use 'sense' to narrow down gmat problems.

choice b also has another major issue: namely, the double use of 'as much'. that's unacceptable as well.