Over the Next Few Years, Increasing Demands on the Chattahoochee River, Which Flows into the Apalachicola River

Question: Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size, less distinctive, and less in demand.

(A) which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
(B) and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller,
(C) and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size,
(D) robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller,
(E) robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size,

Answer: D
Explanation: GMAT Sentence Correction includes determining possible errors in the original sentence and then finding the accurate answer option that fixes it. Sentence Correction questions intend to examine a well-formed sentence as grammatical, clear, and concise.

To solve this question, we need to use the following rule:

Concept: Meaning + Modifiers + Pronouns + Verb Forms + Parallelism + Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refers to the noun just before the comma.
• Any part of the sentence linked by a conjunction (for example, "and") must be parallel.
• Two parts of the sentence must be joined by a conjunction.
• The sentence introduction comprises present participle ("verb+ing"- example- “making” and “robbing”) after a comma depicts a cause-effect relationship.

(A) which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
The sentence has the following errors:

1. It is not clear from the meaning, “which would rob…”. This part of the sentence needs to modify the preceding clause.
2. “rob” and “to make” in this sentence are not parallel.
3. “make them decrease in size” is not shown in a standard way.
4. The adjectives for ‘oysters’ — less distinctive and less in demand. However, the correct form will be “make them smaller”, and not “decrease their size”.

(B) and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller,
The sentence has the following errors:

1. In option B “it” cannot refer to the entire clause.
2. There are only two elements in the list: “rob” and “make”. They need to be joined by “and”, not by a comma.

(C) and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size,
The sentence has the following errors:

1. In option C “alter the saline content of A bay” and “rob the oysters of their flavor” have been presented as parallel elements.
2. In option C “rob the oysters of their flavor” is part of the main clause while “making them…” is a verb-ing modifier. This is modifying the clause.
3. “make them decrease in size” is not shown in a standard way..

(D) robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller,
-All the errors are rectified in option D. All the effects on the oysters are represented in a parallel form which is “robbing” and “making”. Both these words are verb-ing modifiers. Hence option D is the correct answer.

(E) robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size,
The sentence has the following errors:

1. “make them decrease in size” is not shown in a standard way..

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