1000 sc #405

boxes inside is redundant.
If is a box, you have to pack things "inside" always right?

405. In the face of widespread concern about environmental waste, compact disc manufacturers are attempting to find a replacement for the disposable plastic box in which they package their product.

(A) the disposable plastic box in which they
(B) the disposable plastic box where they
(C) a disposable plastic box in which to
(D) disposable plastic boxes inside which they
(E) the disposable plastic boxes in which to

C; use of the word a is wrong
E; "in which to"; again faulty
B; "where they"; converys wrong meaning
D; wrong

Original sentence is the best

magical cook wrote:405. In the face of widespread concern about environmental waste, compact disc manufacturers are attempting to find a replacement for the disposable plastic box in which they package their product.
(A) the disposable plastic box in which they
(B) the disposable plastic box where they
(C) a disposable plastic box in which to
(D) disposable plastic boxes inside which they
(E) the disposable plastic boxes in which to

The correct answer is A) but why D) is wrong?

D is wrong because it's not parallel.

In the non-underlined part, we see that the manufacturers are trying to find "a replacement", which is singular, and "disposable plastic boxes", which is plural, does not match.

If the non-underlined part had said "replacements", then (d) would have been fine.

can somebody please EXPLAIN what is wrong with option C ?

why ia a ... wrong and the ....correct ??

even a > signifies singular.

andy123 wrote:can somebody please EXPLAIN what is wrong with option C ?

why ia a ... wrong and the ....correct ??

even a > signifies singular.

Here are our 3 tasks (in order of importance) in sentence correction:

1) fix grammatical errors;
2) preserve the intended meaning of the original sentence; and
3) make the sentence "pretty" (i.e. fix style issues).

There's nothing gramatically wrong with (c); however, changing the definite article "the" to the indefinite article "a" completely changes the meaning of the sentence.

In the original sentence, "the" indicates that we're talking about a specific box, one that's already in use.

In (c), we're just talking about "a" hypothetical box.

Thanx!! Stuart; but your explanation for the option d is still a bit confusing. The thing is that, when you say that you are trying to find a replacement for the disposable boxes, you mean that there is one small key that will change all the boxes. Maybe pattern, design, size , shape , color etc.
So logically 'a replacement' will be for all the boxes right.
So what is the problem with D

answer A is correct, as "a replacement" singular matches with "the box"

405. In the face of widespread concern about environmental waste, compact disc manufacturers are attempting to find a replacement for the disposable plastic box in which they package their product.
(A) the disposable plastic box in which they
(B) the disposable plastic box where they
(C) a disposable plastic box in which to
(D) disposable plastic boxes inside which they
(E) the disposable plastic boxes in which to

A) is correct plastic box(singular) is in synch with "package their product"(singular)
D) is wrong because option talks about boxes (plural)while the last part of the sentence reads "package their product(singular) and not not products.

I hope it will be helpful.

Regards,
Anshu Nadir