towerSpider wrote:With only five percent of the world's population, United States citizens consume 28 percent of its nonrenewabld resources, drive more than one-third of its automobiles, and use 21 times more water per capita than Europeans do.

A. With
B. As
C. Being
D. Despite having
E. Although accounting for

Correct answer is E. WHY IS D NOT THE CORRECT ANSWER? WHATS WRONG IN IT?

D is not correct because "despite having" refers to the united states and not the citizens

Nice, 5abi - that's exactly it. If you look at the underlined portion,, it's part of a modifier that must modify "US citizens". The US citizens don't possess the population - they're a part of it.

This one comes down to Modifier strategy in many ways. When the underlined portion of a sentence is, is part of, or touches a phrase that begins the sentence and is set off by a comma:

____________________, dakljfdjasklfdsalkfdsja

or

Tljlksfadsjfldkjfdsjsa, ________________________

or

fdlkjljaslfjdsaklfjlkjfa, asdlkfjdsakjfdslajf

There's an almost certain chance that you're going to need to determine if the modifier matches the noun it modifies. Get in the habit of noting these situations, and often you'll eliminate multiple answers before you've read the second half of the sentence.

Also, in terms of meaning, a "contrast" element should be included in the sentence.

Therefore, only (D) and (E) suit this criteria. Discard (D) for the reasons explained above.