Sentence Correction

The first detailed study of magpie attacks in Australia indicates that by the time they had reached adulthood, 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women born in the country have been attacked by the birds.

a.) by the time they had reached adulthood, 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women born in the country have been attacked by the birds.
b.) by the time they reach adulthood, 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women, who were born in the country, had been attacked by the birds
c.) by the time they reached adulthood, 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women born in the country had been attacked by the birds
d.) 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women that were born in the country were attacked by the birds by the time they reach adulthood
e.) 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women who were born in the country, by the time they reached adulthood had been attacked by the birds


my doubt: my concern is regarding option E. in option E what exactly is the prepositional phrase "by the time they reached adulthood" modifying as is in E?

will the following E be correct: The first detailed study of magpie attacks in Australia indicates that 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women who were born in the country, by the time they reached adulthood, had been attacked by the birds

will the following be correct: The first detailed study of magpie attacks in Australia indicates that 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women who were born in the country by the time they reached adulthood had been attacked by the birds

aditya8062 wrote:my doubt: my concern is regarding option E. in option E what exactly is the prepositional phrase "by the time they reached adulthood" modifying as is in E?

will the following E be correct: The first detailed study of magpie attacks in Australia indicates that 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women who were born in the country, by the time they reached adulthood, had been attacked by the birds

will the following be correct: The first detailed study of magpie attacks in Australia indicates that 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women who were born in the country by the time they reached adulthood had been attacked by the birds

E: women who WERE BORN in the country, by the time they reached adulthood HAD BEEN ATTACKED.
Grammatically, the portion in red could be serving to modify the PRECEDING VERB (indicating by what time the women were born) or the FOLLOWING VERB (indicating by what time the women had been attacked).
While the intended meaning clearly is that the women had been attacked by the time they reached adulthood, the grammatical structure does not make this intention clear.
No change in punctuation will solve this problem.
Eliminate E.

The OA solves this problem by converting the portion in red into an introductory modifier and transforming were born (verb) into born (adjective):
OA: By the time they reached adulthood, 98 percent of men and 75 percent of women born in the country HAD BEEN ATTACKED by the birds.
Generally, an introductory prepositional phrase serves as an adverb modifying the VERB IN THE FOLLOWING CLAUSE.
Here, it is crystal clear that the portion in red serves to modify had been attacked -- the verb in the following clause -- indicating by what time 98% of men and 75% of women HAD BEEN ATTACKED.