joannabanana wrote:


I don't really understand the explanation of "3 won't work because there's no real subject for the verb". Isn't the clause after the second comma the subject? Can someone please give me a thorough explanation for how to tackle this kind of thing in the future?

I dont get the explanation 2... But I can tell you why 3 is incorrect..

This is because of the usage of "costing ", we can use gerund when verb is converted to noun - swimming is a great way to burn some calories..

secondly "costing " is incorrect , because "cost" can never be a continuous action.

I don't really understand your explanation. Can anyone else give some insight?

Also, I disagree with your statement that cost can never be a continous action: This car is costing me a lot of money because of the constant maintenance it requires.

In answer choices 1, 2, and 3 here, "resulting....." is a participial phrase set off by a comma at the end of the sentence. These are tricky adjectival modifiers, and they can often produce errors of ambiguity or distorted meaning. When a participial phrase is set off by a comma at the end of a sentence, it can go back to describe the subject of the previous clause. In this case, that subject is "cost." However, it's not just the COST that is resulting in the decreased cost of the welfare program; it's the fact that the cost of benefits has been dropping. This creates some ambiguity in meaning that is eliminated in choice 4.

You also want to be very suspicious of verbal+preposition pairs on the GMAT, because they often lead to wordy/awkward sentences. In choice 3, "resulting in the program costing" has an awkward participle+preposition+noun+participle structure that is much less preferable than the straightforward noun+verb structure in 4: "as a result the welfare program costs." Keep your eyes open for verbals on SC questions -- they will often clue you in to awkward style issues like this one.

Hope that helps!

Thank You Jen - This really helps !!!

If sometimes you are not sure, about the 1st part of the sentence

Look at the end


to implement than in 1973 , than what in 1973 ? , there is a missing reference - A ruled out.
to implement as in 1973 , as in What in 1973 ? , there is a missing reference
to implement than it did in 1973 ,
to implement than it did in 1973 ,
to implement than in 1973 , than what in 1973 ? , there is a missing reference - E ruled out.

The references whether verbal, or noun has to be linguistically equal - APPLE for APPLE , and ORANGE for ORANGE.

it did is correct - we can narrow down to C and D

antecedent of it is the welfare program

the welfare program now costs about 3 billion real dollars less than it did or than the welfare program costed in 1973

Refer : https://www.thefreedictionary.com/costed

Frequently, we never use the term - Costing.....refer to the technical tip shared by Jen.

Hence, D is the correct answer.

Hope this helps.....