chopra

congrats buddy, great score.

ya it is E Already discussed a no. of times. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/53166-fruit-growing.html http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/16143-vs-like.html

congrats would like to hear the steps you took to improve your score.

The problem with traveled here is same as that problem we have with and in B & C i.e it places the underlined clause at the same level as that of main clause. Consider the following: Frederick Douglass served as a recruiting agent, traveled through the North to exhort Black men to join the Union army. The use of traveled here places it at the same level as that of served as a recruting agent. Whereas actually the underlined part is trying to say how Frederick Douglass served as recruting agent. So here we need participle traveling to refer back to the main clause. Hope this clears the things.

IMO E We cannot start the underlined part with and here because that would place the underlined clause at the same level as that of main clause. So here the underlined part should start with traveling. Between D and E, D is not parallel.

Agree with philospher57, comma before by is not correct in C.

I agree with you that some collective nouns can act as both in singular as well as in plural form. But such collective nouns are singular when they act in a collective fashion or in represent one group. Same nouns can be plural if members of collective noun acts as individuals. e.g Singular: A majority of shareholders wants the merger. Plural:The shareholders are always fighting among themselves. Here in the question we have Napolean army entered russia , so here we are considering army as a collective body and therefore it can't take plural pronoun. Also if you notice the rest of the sentence, the usage of it confirms that army here is singular.

IMO E A,B- which is refering to check's authenticity. C- by is not required here. D- including X,Y & Z. Here X,Y & Z should be parallel as is the case in E. In D watch is not parallel with comapring & viewing.

I picked E on the first go. Reason: Potential for causing doesn't sound right to me, but after going through the links i am confused between D & E. I think we can't go any further on this because both Erin and 800Bob have opposite views on this one. Anyways thanks smudge for the links.

E it is

Agree it's A

IMO C improvement in life expectancy for children after the 50 percent mortality rate............... is awkward. It seems that improvement in life expectancy happened because 50 percent mortality rate was reached and not because of end of colonial period. It should have been improvement in life expectancy for children after the colonial period as in C.

E it is

Agree C

discussed here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/14885-good-one-ppl.html It says that because of is used as an adverb, so it cannot modify noun economy's strength. Whereas due to is used as an adjective and so is the correct usage here.