Sentence Correction

At the turn of the twentieth century, forest covering as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodating as many as 300,000 elephants, a third of them domesticated and performing various essential tasks.

A. covering as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodating as many as 300,000 elephants, a third of them
B. covering as much as 90 percent of Thailand accommodated as much as 300,000 elephants, and a third of them were
C. covered as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodated as much as 300,000 elephants, with a third
D. covered as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodated as many as 300,000 elephants, a third of them
E. covered as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodating as many as 300,000 elephants, with a third of them

OA: later

D?

Explanation: later.

30,000 elephants: countable, requires as many as. so, removed A,B,C.
With means together. Remove E.

In D, the modifier a third of them aptly modifies elephants.

D,the best.

A> Sentence structure error; Linking verb is missing.
B> Same sentence structure error; Also, elephants are countable. So we need "many". Also, there is pronoun reference error with "them"
C> Elephants are countable. So we need "many". However, the major problem child here is "with a third domesticated..". First of all, "with a third domesticated.." doesn't make any sense. If we assume that the construction is " with a third of them domesticated..", it is still wrong due to sentence structure. Any construction with format "preposition+noun+verb-ing/ed" is awkward.
D> Correct.
E> "covered" is correctly used here as we need verb. However, by using "accommodating", the answer tried to change gear to participial phrase, which causes parallelism issue. If you think that "accommodating" is properly used, then it is sentence structure error as mentioned in A. Additionally, an appositive is preferable than a prepositional phrase.

vishalj wrote:A> Sentence structure error; Linking verb is missing.
B> Same sentence structure error; Also, elephants are countable. So we need "many". Also, there is pronoun reference error with "them"
C> Elephants are countable. So we need "many". However, the major problem child here is "with a third domesticated..". First of all, "with a third domesticated.." doesn't make any sense. If we assume that the construction is " with a third of them domesticated..", it is still wrong due to sentence structure. Any construction with format "preposition+noun+verb-ing/ed" is awkward.
D> Correct.
E> "covered" is correctly used here as we need verb. However, by using "accommodating", the answer tried to change gear to participial phrase, which causes parallelism issue. If you think that "accommodating" is properly used, then it is sentence structure error as mentioned in A. Additionally, an appositive is preferable than a prepositional phrase.

Thanks.

OA is D.

IMO D

vishalj wrote:A> Sentence structure error; Linking verb is missing.
B> Same sentence structure error; Also, elephants are countable. So we need "many". Also, there is pronoun reference error with "them"
C> Elephants are countable. So we need "many". However, the major problem child here is "with a third domesticated..". First of all, "with a third domesticated.." doesn't make any sense. If we assume that the construction is " with a third of them domesticated..", it is still wrong due to sentence structure. Any construction with format "preposition+noun+verb-ing/ed" is awkward.
D> Correct.
E> "covered" is correctly used here as we need verb. However, by using "accommodating", the answer tried to change gear to participial phrase, which causes parallelism issue. If you think that "accommodating" is properly used, then it is sentence structure error as mentioned in A. Additionally, an appositive is preferable than a prepositional phrase.

D it is... but why have u eliminated A... is it because at the turn of 20th century requires the verb to be in past tense??