Important question: A lot of things being tested...
Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.
A. the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
B. the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
C. that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to
D. in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing is due to residential and industrial development and to changes in
E. in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing
This sentence is basically a subject verb agreement case... Many might also mistaken this question as a comparison problem. From that perspective itself the options D and E will get cancelled off then and there. In the end it comes down to option A and Option B. But still here are the options explained. 'Like' is used for comparing only nouns and not verbs.
Option A: 'the sandpipers' a plural subject; 'vanishing in the northeastern United States' is the modifier that is modifying 'the sandpipers'. Now the verb used is 'is' and hence the subject does not agree with the verb.
Option C: starting from 'that' which is simply wrong. A clause 'that' marks the beginning and modifies the preceding Noun. Does not make any sense...
Option D: 'Like' is used to compare two nouns and sandpiper's vanishing is not a noun, it is a verb as it includes an action or a verb. A bit difficult to find as it is a noun form but not a noun in itself. Wrong things being compared here. 'in the North American' is also wrongly placed as it starts off a comparison which is wrong.
Option E: same as D and also not a sentence in itself.
Option B: good comparison as well as meets the subject verb agreement. Hence B.
Hope this helped...
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