Mission Critical modifiers... Experts plz help!!!

[rajatvmittal]

Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, [u]significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of[/u] more than $100 billion a year.
(A) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of
(B) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already cost business
(C) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, already with business costs of
(D) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costing business
(E) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costs business

In the original sentence what is 'Which' referring to? Is it the effects or the abuse and drug? In another words, should the middleman ('of' construction in the present case)be eliminate to find what is the modifier referring to? Or is it the immediately preceding noun that is modified?

Take some examples: - I borrowed the knife of Jim, who was my neighbour.

Here as per this source 'who' modifies knife, in the prepositional phrase knife of Jim, and hence this sentence is incorrect.

But after a few pages I found a contradiction in this sentence :-

I want to gain experience in finance, which is lacking in my current job.

Now here too "experience in finance" is a prepositional phrase linking 2 nouns. But as per the source "which" is modifying finance here, and hence this sentence is incorrect.

Source: - https://www.beatthegmat.com/when-relativ ... 26462.html}

[GmatKiss]

Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of more than $100 billion a year.

(A) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of
(B) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already cost business
(C) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, already with business costs of
(D) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costing business
(E) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costs business

Please underline the part of the question under study.

[GmatKiss]

Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of more than $100 billion a year.

(A) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of
(B) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already cost business
(C) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, already with business costs of
(D) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costing business
(E) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costs business

IMO: B

[rajatvmittal]

HI

Thanks for the reply. But here what i want to understand more about the mission critical modifier (as defined in Manhattan SC).

Experts please take some time to reply.

Many Thanks

[vikram4689]

Hi Rajat,
I did not understand the terms that you mentioned in your first post. However you may ask any question on modifiers. Although the answer is provided by GmatKiss I will explain it..

Meaning is important - understand the sentence
Now,
Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of more than $100 billion a year

This sentence has 2 modifiers
1. significantly compounding the effects .... (mentioning the effect of clause "executive...workers")
2. which already .... (modifying "abuse")

[rajatvmittal]

Hi vikram

I have modified my question.

Thanks

[GMATGuruNY]

Executives and federal officials say that the use of crack and cocaine is growing rapidly among workers, significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of more than $100 billion a year.
(A) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already are a cost to business of
(B) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, which already cost business
(C) significantly compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, already with business costs of
(D) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costing business
(E) significant in compounding the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and already costs business

In the original sentence what is 'Which' referring to? Is it the effects or the abuse and drug? In another words, should the middleman ('of' construction in the present case)be eliminate to find what is the modifier referring to? Or is it the immediately preceding noun that is modified?

Take some examples: - I borrowed the knife of Jim, who was my neighbour.

Here as per this source 'who' modifies knife, in the prepositional phrase knife of Jim, and hence this sentence is incorrect.

But after a few pages I found a contradiction in this sentence :-

I want to gain experience in finance, which is lacking in my current job.

Now here too "experience in finance" is a prepositional phrase linking 2 nouns. But as per the source "which" is modifying finance here, and hence this sentence is incorrect.

Source: - https://www.beatthegmat.com/when-relativ ... 26462.html}

I posted an explanation here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/help-to-crack-t93368.html

In the correct answer B, the plural verb cost makes it clear that the antecedent of which is the closest preceding PLURAL noun: effects.

Generally, when which does not refer to closest preceding noun, the verb will make the situation clear. Check my post here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/publishing-d ... 99353.html

[rajatvmittal]

Thanks GMAT guruNY. Really appreciate!

But I need to clarify one more thing related to this topic.

Verb in the modifier guides what should be the subject of the pronoun - which. But when both the noun before the prepositional phrase and the noun in the prepositional phrase are singular (or plural), then how should verb in the modifier be used?

See the below sentence: -
I want to gain experience in finance, which is lacking in my current job.

what is which referring to, as both the experience and finance are singular, and 'is' is also singular.

Please gimme some sunshine on this.

Thanks

Rajat

[vikram4689]

I think i was sleeping while writing my last post. Correcting myself "which" refers to "effects". Below i have summarized the rules for "which" :
1. "Which" MUST come after a comma unless it is used in conjunction with a preposition e.g "in which", "during which".
2. "Which" modifies closest noun BUT it can refer to farther noun (subject of preposition) rather than(object of preposition) if prepositional modifier is vital modifier.

So i original ques. "which" will refer to "effects" and hence B is correct. Option A changes the meaning. Also, CORRECT Answer is evident from the plural verb which Mitch mentioned. I guess RULE 2 would be handy when we cannot identify the correct antecedent using VERB. Following are some examples:

1. The dam on nile river, which has length of 1000 meters, is the biggest in the world. CORRECT, "which" makes sense with "dam" and "on nile" is vital modifier
2. I want to gain experience in finance, which is lacking in my current job - I guess this sentence is correct as which refers to noun phrase "experience in finance" only. Although one can say "experience in finance" is lacking in my current job, It would not make sense to say "finance is lacking in my current job"
P.S. when i said "which" refer to farther noun, i intended whole "noun phrase" as in this e.g.
3. I borrowed the knife of Jim, who was my neighbour - It is CORRECT, "who" refers to Jim as "who" CANNOT refer to non-living knife.