Doubt

[gauravgundal]

The flood of home foreclosures that followed the large economic recession in 2008 caused housing prices to drop precipitously, which lead to the writing down of mortgage backed securities, and, to fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral.

A) which lead to the writing down of mortgage backed securities, and, to fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
B) which led to the write downs of mortgage backed securities and fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
C) which lead to the write down of mortgage backed securities and the fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
D) leading to write downs of mortgage backed securities and fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
E) leading to write downs of mortgage backed securities and, fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral


Expert's opinion : I got the correct answer for above question,but my query here is in option c if we neglect the part (which lead to) what is wrong with the rest part of the sentence.Is it that the part (write down of mortgage backed ... and .. fears ...) should not be preceded by "The" article and if so why the article should be neglected.

[mmon]

The flood of home foreclosures that followed the large economic recession in 2008 caused housing prices to drop precipitously, which lead to the writing down of mortgage backed securities, and, to fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral.

A) which lead to the writing down of mortgage backed securities, and, to fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
B) which led to the write downs of mortgage backed securities and fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
C) which lead to the write down of mortgage backed securities and the fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
D) leading to write downs of mortgage backed securities and fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral
E) leading to write downs of mortgage backed securities and, fears of a Great Depression-like downward spiral


Expert's opinion : I got the correct answer for above question,but my query here is in option c if we neglect the part (which lead to) what is wrong with the rest part of the sentence.Is it that the part (write down of mortgage backed ... and .. fears ...) should not be preceded by "The" article and if so why the article should be neglected.

I guess still you can use the article "the". worng is in the parallelism - should be "write downs" and "fears"!

[sumanr84]

IMO:D

Rule : Never use 'which' to refer to an entire clause. In those cases prefer ' Present Participle -Ing'

OA: ?

[mmslf75]

@Gaurav

to answer ur question on "THE"
it's not the usage of THE that is at issue here

Read on for more


It's a 3:2 split

Game is between :

WHICH(non restrictive clause) vs -ING (adverbial modifier)

WHICH is used to refer to noun preceding comma or the subject of the noun preceding the comma

The box of nails, which IS RED in color
HERE, ---- which refers to BOX, also note verb IS. IS clearly indicates that WHICH should refer to subject of the noun(nails)
The box of nails, which ARE RED in color
HERE, ---- which refers to NAILS, also note the verb ARE. ARE clearly indicates that WHICH refers to stuff before the comma

Thus, in X of Y, WHICH type sentence structure

WHICH refers to X or Y , depends on the context


-ING comma setup functions as an adverbial modifier

it states more about the action of the preceding clause


What is the source of the question and what's the OA ?

must be [spoiler]D[/spoiler]

[gmatmachoman]

IMO D