Sentence Correction

bupbebeo wrote:In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

Please give me right answer and explanation in details

I am happy to help. If we scan vertically through the options, then we notice a clear 3:2 split between company's (singular) and companies' (plural). Firstly, we need the plural "companies'" since, in the non underlined portion, we are talking of multiple companies. This eliminates A and D.

Among B, C, and E - B and C have got "using.. and profiting" in parallel, whereas E has "to pay.. and to profit" put in parallel. Aside from the fact that there isn't a significant enough difference to distinguish between B and C - the "by" in option B is purely stylistic - the original meaning of the sentence is that these wealthy investors who borrow millions of dollars are hoping for 2 things when they buy companies - a) to pay off the debt, and b) to profit richly later. We want to preserve this logic in the correct option. In other words, we need to put "to pay.." and "to profit" in parallel. This eliminates B and C.

Hence, E is the correct answer.

Please let me know if anything doesn't make sense.