A march 2000 Census Bureau survey showed--Verbal Review 2018

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prabsahi: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 53; Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:50 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 6 times

by prabsahi » Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:57 am

A March 2000 Census Bureau survey showed that Mexico accounted for more than a quarter of all foreign-born residents of the United States, the largest share for any country to contribute since 1890, when about 30 percent of the country's foreign-born population was from Germany.
A. the largest share for any country to contribute
B. the largest share that any country has contributed
C. which makes it the largest share for any country to contribute
D. having the largest share to be contributed by any country
E. having the largest share to have been contributed by any country

Experts I am not clear about the elimination of option D and E.

Here is my line of thought.

A. to contribute was weird ..and present perfect because of since 1890 is missing(so ignored)
B.Looks good.
C.which --refers to US so ignore
D,E
Occurrence of having..needs to be looked more carefully
having the largest share to have been contributed by any country
How does VERBing,Clause impact here. Totally not clear ..
Also are there any other reasons to eiminate.

If you want to fly,you have to give up the things that weighs you down!

PS

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Verbal Reasoning | Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:57 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:53 pm

A present participle (VERBing) after a comma is assumed to modify the entire clause before it.

Sometimes it gives information about how/why:
I ran 15 kilometers, gasping for breath the entire time.
Here, "gasping" is modifying how "I ran."

It can also show cause and effect:
She turned around suddenly, knocking the glass onto the floor.
"Knocking" is showing the effect of "she turned around."

The "having the largest share..." in the above example seems to be modifying the clause "... a survey showed..." This doesn't make sense.

The answer must be B.

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Akrita@Jamboree: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 47; Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:08 pm

by Akrita@Jamboree » Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:13 am

prabsahi wrote:A March 2000 Census Bureau survey showed that Mexico accounted for more than a quarter of all foreign-born residents of the United States, the largest share for any country to contribute since 1890, when about 30 percent of the country's foreign-born population was from Germany.
A. the largest share for any country to contribute
B. the largest share that any country has contributed
C. which makes it the largest share for any country to contribute
D. having the largest share to be contributed by any country
E. having the largest share to have been contributed by any country

Experts I am not clear about the elimination of option D and E.

Here is my line of thought.

A. to contribute was weird ..and present perfect because of since 1890 is missing(so ignored)
B.Looks good.
C.which --refers to US so ignore
D,E
Occurrence of having..needs to be looked more carefully
having the largest share to have been contributed by any country
How does VERBing,Clause impact here. Totally not clear ..
Also are there any other reasons to eiminate.

I am happy to help.

In general, "having" is extremely avoidable on the GMAT and is very rarely correct. Out of the 140 Official Guide 2018 SC questions, only 1 (Question 720) has a "having" in it. Therefore, in general, when you can find a better answer, then any other option containing a "having" should raise some red flags, and you should be looking to actively eliminate that/those option(s).

With that being said, let us take a closer look at D and E to see what's going on. In both D and E, "having the largest share..." is an "-ing" modifier placed next to the noun "United States". So it looks like that the United States is having the largest share..., which makes for a nonsensical construction. It is Mexico, not the United States, that has the largest share (25%) to be contributing to US foreign-born residents since 1890. Additionally, "to be contributed" (Option D) and "to have been contributed" (Option E) are horrendously passive and avoidable.

Hope this helps - let me know in case anything doesn't make sense.

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