Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga Wagons with High Wheels Capable of Crossing Rutted Roads

Question: Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.

1. They made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
2. They made Conestoga wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats and the nonroads of the prairie, and floor curved upwards on their ends so that they prevented
3. Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats and the nonroads of the prairie, and had a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
4. Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
5. Conestoga wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats and the nonroads of the prairie and floors floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented

“Developed by Pennsylvania's Palatine Germans about 1750, they made Conestoga wagons with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Parallelism, Comparison of two elements and Modifiers. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: D

Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Modifier
2. Pronoun

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the modified subject in this option “Conestoga wagons” should follow a modifier. The use of “with” suggests that the manufacturer uses high wheels as a tool to make wagons. Also, the use of “they” in the latter half seems awkward and redundant. So, Option A is correct.

Option B: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the modified subject “Conestoga wagons” should follow a modifier. Also, the use of “they” creates awkwardness in the latter half of the option. It has the same mistakes as option A. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because there is no proper sentence in this option. “Conestoga wagons” is the grammatical subject of this option but there is no main verb. “Had a floor” works just fine in the latter half but the use of “and” still messes it up. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Correct
This option is correct because the modifier used here is correct and this option also maintains the parallelism. “And” is followed by “a floor that was curved upward…” and that is a noun that is parallel to “high wheels”. So, Option D is correct.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because of the use of the phrase “floors curving upward at their ends so that it is prevented”. We don’t know what it refers to here. “Floors'' and “wagons” are plural and there is no other thing used here that can make sense with this pronoun. So, Option E is incorrect.

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