Skills

[manik11]

Children attending poorer inner-city schools lack math, science, and technological skills to such a large degree as to make them almost unemployable in information- or technology-based industries.


A) lack math, science, and technological skills to such a large degree as to make them
B) lack math, science, and technological skills to a large enough degree that they will be
C) lack of math, science, and technological skills is so large as to be
D) are lacking so much in math, science, and technological skills as to be
E) are so lacking in math, science, and technological skills that it will be

OA : D
Source : Bell Curves

[fabiocafarelli]

This appears to be one of a number of questionable pieces of material that offer to help people to prepare for the GMAT. You say that your source gives option D as the correct answer, but it is defective. MUCH in this option is an indefinite pronoun, and like any pronoun (except expletive pronouns) it stands in for a noun. But here, SO MUCH what? The idea that the sentence is attempting to express is that certain children are lacking in certain skills, not that they are lacking some unnamed thing in those skills. (Nor does that second idea make much sense.)

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[ceilidh.erickson]

Fabiocafarelli is right - this is a really poorly-written question, as are many from this source, I'm afraid. It's also plagiary of an OG question. This is SC #118 in OG 12

Students in the metropolitan school district lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming ever more dependent on information-based industries.
(A) lack math skills to such a large degree as to make it difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming
(B) lack math skills to a large enough degree that they will be difficult to absorb into a city's economy that becomes
(C) lack of math skills is so large as to be difficult to absorb them into a city's economy that becomes
(D) are lacking so much in math skills as to be difficult to absorb into a city's economy becoming
(E) are so lacking in math skills that it will be difficult to absorb them into a city economy becoming