Sentence Correction

With no natural predators and expanses of green suburban neighborhoods that allow no hunting, wildlife officials estimate the New Jersey deer population to have grown to exceed 175,000.

A. With no natural predators and expanses of green suburban neighborhoods that allow no hunting, wildlife officials estimate the New Jersey deer population to have

B. With no natural predators and with expanses of green suburban neighborhoods that donot allow hunting, wildlife officails' estimate of deer population in New Jersey has

C. With no natural predators and with expanses of green suburban neighborhoods where there is no hunting, the Deer Population in New Jersey, wildlife officials estimate, has

D. Without natural predators and no hunting allowed in expanses of green suburban neighborhoods, New Jersey has a deer population that wildlife officials estimate to have

E. Without natural predators and with expanses of green suburban neighbourhoods where there is no hunting, wildlife officials in New Jersey estimate a deer population that has

OA is C

Please help why E cannot be the answer.

Thanks
Vinni

E seems to change the meaning

E. Without natural predators and with expanses of green suburban neighbourhoods where there is no hunting, wildlife officials in New Jersey estimate a deer population that has

This seems to suggest that "wildlife officials" are without natural predators and with expanses of green suburban neighbourhoods where there is no hunting.

I understand that option E starts with a preposition "without" and in this case, this part of the sentence seems to describe something that appears immediately after this part of the sentence: "wildlife officials".

Can an expert tell us if this is the case with all the "prepositions" and can we remember this as a rule?

I am no expert. Still E says - wildlife officials IN NEW JERSEY estimate a deer population that has.
WE don't know whether officials are in NEW JERSEY. They can be anywhere and just done the job of estimation.
Without "A" and "B" should refer to New Jersey, I think.

Generally, an introductory prepositional modifier serves as an ADVERB modifying the VERB in the following clause.

E: Without natural predators, wildlife officials in New Jersey estimate.
Here, without natural predators seems to serve as an adverb modifying estimate, implying that wildlife officials ESTIMATE WITHOUT NATURAL PREDATORS.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate E.

OA: With no natural predators, the deer population in New Jersey has grown.
Here, with no natural predators serves as an adverb modifying has grown, correctly implying that the deer population HAS GROWN WITH NO NATURAL PREDATORS.

GMATGuruNY wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:23 am

Generally, an introductory prepositional modifier serves as an ADVERB modifying the VERB in the following clause.

E: Without natural predators, wildlife officials in New Jersey estimate.
Here, without natural predators seems to serve as an adverb modifying estimate, implying that wildlife officials ESTIMATE WITHOUT NATURAL PREDATORS.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate E.

OA: With no natural predators, the deer population in New Jersey has grown.
Here, with no natural predators serves as an adverb modifying has grown, correctly implying that the deer population HAS GROWN WITH NO NATURAL PREDATORS.

Hi @GMATGuruNY - If the introductory prepositional modifiers serve as an ADVERB modifying the VERB in the following clause,

Both
- option B (wildlife officials' estimate has grown)
- option C (deer population has grown)

are BOTH verbs that can be modified based on the introductory prepositional modifiers, correct ?

The introductory prepositional modifiers CANNOT modify the following verbs in Option A , D, E

option A - Wildlife officials estimate
Option D - New Jersey has a deer population
option E - Wildlife officials estimate

Can you confirm if my thinking is right on this ?

@GMATGuruNY or any expert -- can you please respond to above post please

Thank you !