Sentence Correction

More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.

A) More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.
B) More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
C) More so than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
D) More than any of its competitors have, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
E) More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Can you please tell me what is your doubt?

The examples should use "such as" and not like. but here in all options we see "like" is used for examples for inaccessible locations. How and why is this SC not incorrect ? Is this construction acceptable on GMAT ?

It really can only be E, since this is the only option with the correct meaning and no grammatical errors. When referring to India and China either "like" or "such as" could be correct. It would probably be more correct to use such as to introduce a list of examples.

As the GMAT Tutor said, E is the only option with no other errors.
So, we have no choice but to go for the option E

prachi18oct wrote:More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.

A) More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.
B) More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
C) More so than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
D) More than any of its competitors have, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
E) More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Dear Mitch,

Here is the official explanation from Veritas.

"Answer E - The dominant decision point in this question is "and" vs. "to" in the back half of the sentence. Because of construction "bringing X from...", "to" is required to create a logical meaning, so the "and" choices (A, C, and D) are incorrect. Furthermore, the choices that include a verb ("has" or "have") in the beginning of the sentence in the modifier do not offer a direct verb for "has done what?", and so they are also incorrect. Choice E uses a proper modifier and the correct "to" connection, so it is correct."

According to the explanation above by Veritas, B is eliminated because choice include verb 'has' or 'have' without any any direct object. I think, there is ellipses which meaning is implied.
B) More than has stacked any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

1- Can you shed light on why choice B is incorrect ? Is 'has ' wrong'? does verb 'has stacked' wrong too?

2- When using 'any', does Any' take singular verb.? In some English forums, it is moot point. Every team has his point to use singular or plural verb?

Thanks

Mo2men wrote:1- Can you shed light on why choice B is incorrect ?

any of + PLURAL NOUN takes a PLURAL VERB.
Incorrect: Has any of the BOYS arrived?
Correct: HAVE any of the BOYS arrived?

B implies the following comparison:
More than has any of its competitors [staked], Dynacorp has staked.
The VERBed in red is omitted but implied.
Here, has staked (singular) does not agree with any of its competitors (plural).
Eliminate B.

Another issue:

Some verb forms consist of a helping verb + participle:
is running
have eaten
Here, is and have serve as helping verbs, while running and eaten serve as participles.
Rule: A participle may be omitted after a helping verb only if the participle appears earlier in the sentence.
In B, the omitted participle in red does not appear earlier in the sentence.
Eliminate B.

One final issue:

Whereas the verb in the original sentence (is staking) is in the present progressive tense, the verb in B (has staked) is in the present perfect tense.
Since the verb in the original sentence conveys a logical meaning, there is no justification for the change in tense in B.