Municipal governments are beginning to confront the growing pension liabilities; this leads local politicians throughout the country to become increasingly vocal about restraining costs and limiting services.

A] the growing pension liabilities; this leads

B] their growing pension liabilities; leading

C] the growth in their pension liabilities, which leads

D] their growing pension liabilities, leading

E] their growing pension liabilities, that leads


The OA is D.

[spoiler]Firstly the pronoun 'their' is required, as it will mean that the Municipal Governments' pension liabilities are being confronted.

SO the options A and C get canceled out.

Option B: When a semi-colon is used, it means that both the clauses are independent. but in option B, the second clause does not stand alone properly as it does refer back to the first clause. The second clause seems more to be a phrase or a modifier...


Option E: use of 'that' specifically modifies the word liabilities, and hence this changes the meaning of the sentence. It means that the liabilities leads to the country to become increasingly vocal to about restraining costs and limiting services.


Option D is the best out of all the 5 options.[/spoiler]


My question here is that, in the option A, lets discuss the option A, in detail. Let us say that the option A was;

their growing pension liabilities; this leads

This means the 'their' pronoun error is met, hence the option is compared to option D now,


According to me still the option D is correct as in option A, in the second clause the pronoun 'this' represents the entire first clause, which is not the correct option.

A modifier should be used to modify the entire first activity and not the pronoun 'this'.

This was my question. First change option A and then compare it with option D. Let us discuss now...