Sentence Correction

KapTeacherEli wrote:

kaulnikhil wrote:The J.C.Penney chain of retail stores broke with its conservative cash-and-carry policy during its 1958 reorganization for deciding to sell on credit.

A. during its 1958 reorganization for deciding to sell
B. for the decision at its 1958 reorganization to sell
C. when it was reorganized in 1958 for its decision to sell
D. in deciding during its reorganization in 1958 to sell
E. by deciding at its reorganization in 1958 on the selling of

Hi, I was asked over the weekend to check this problem--sorry I'm just getting to it now!

(A) has a modification error; the phrase 'for deciding to sell' appears to modify 'reorganization', implying that the reorganization's purpose was to decide to sell on credit--this doesn't make much sense. We can eliminate (A), as well the tempting (C) for repeating that error.

From there, idiom errors take down the remaining two incorrect answers. (B) indicates that J.C Penny "broke with its...policy FOR the decision," which in addition to being awkward indicates that the decision was the reason for breaking with tradition--rather than the break in tradition itself. (E) just gets 'deciding' wrong; "Deciding... on the selling of..." isn't the right idiom here.

Though (D) has an awkward-sounding gerund in it's midst, the sentence we have is grammatically correct and its meaning is unambiguous and logical. For that reason, (D) is the correct answer.

paes wrote:Thanks Meyer.

But I am not convince why A is wrong.

in A : "for deciding to sell" is an adverbial modifier.
So It can modify to J.C Penney also.

See one example from the OG :
A baby emerges from the darkness of the womb with a rudimentary sense of vision

here 'with a rudimentary sense of vision' is modifying to baby, not to womb.

Now if I compare A and D, A looks more clear than D.