Sentence Correction

[akash singhal]

Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail, the failure rate for businesses in the Amish community hovers around 5 percent.

A. Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail
B. Unlike mainstream American businesses, in which the failure rate is more than half
C. Unlike mainstream American businesses, where more than half of them fail
D. While the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is more than half
E. While more than half of mainstream American businesses fail

IMO E

Please explain the reasoning..

[src_saurav]

Answer is D for me. As the passage is looking for rate and not number of businesses.

[binit]

E seems to be the best.

A, B, C all compares businesses with the failure rate

In D, the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is ungrammatical.

E is error free, I think.

~Binit.

[akash singhal]

E seems to be the best.

A, B, C all compares businesses with the failure rate

In D, the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is ungrammatical.

E is error free, I think.

~Binit.[/quote

Not Clear why eliminate D

[binit]

E seems to be the best.

A, B, C all compares businesses with the failure rate

In D, the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is ungrammatical.

E is error free, I think.

~Binit.[/quote

Not Clear why eliminate D

Hi,

D says, While the rate of __ is more than half

Now that __ should be filled by a Noun / Noun Phrase (rate of what? -> noun)

D offers mainstream American businesses failing , which is NOT a correct noun / noun phrase.

failing mainstream American businesses could be a correct noun phrase (though doesn't look good here).

failure of mainstream American businesses could be a much better choice if we want to correct D.

Hope that helps.

~Binit.