1000 SC #618

[help23]

618. School integration plans that involve busing between suburban and central-city areas have contributed, according to a recent study, to significant increases in housing integration, which, in turn, reduces any future need for busing.
(A) significant increases in housing integration, which, in turn, reduces
(B) significant integration increases in housing, which, in turn, reduces
(C) increase housing integration significantly, which, in turn, reduces
(D) increase housing integration significantly, in turn reducing
(E) significantly increase housing integration, which, in turn, reduce

Can someone please explain why the answer is a instead of c?

[dbernst]

Help 23, I can explain why C is incorrect; more difficult is the justification of A as a correct answer choice (though it is undoubtedly the best of the available options).

By focusing on the "core" of the sentence (Subject - Verb - Object), the sentence states that school integration plans have contributed [b]to[/b] significant increases in housing integration.

The noun "increases" is the object of the verb phrase "have contributed to"; it is necessary to contribute to something (i.e. a noun). Answer choice C incorrectly utilizes the verb "increase" as a direct object of the verb.

The (slight) problem that I have with A is that, to me, it logically seems that the increases in housing integration would reduce the need for busing, rather than the housing integration itself. However, grammatical correctness always trumps clarity, and A is grammatically correct!

Hope that helps.
-dan

[vscidd]

In this case, would the sentence be more appropriate(from a GMAT standpoint),if it used the noun 'increase' instead of 'increases' in A? Would that be incorrect because it is singular?

[RonPurewal]

In this case, would the sentence be more appropriate(from a GMAT standpoint),if it used the noun 'increase' instead of 'increases' in A? Would that be incorrect because it is singular?

that would probably be better, actually, as long as you put the appropriate article before "increase". i.e., it would have to say "a significant increase", not just "significant increase".
i'm not sure whether you are a native speaker of english; this (the use of articles) is the sort of thing that would be quite obvious to native speakers, but that is very difficult to teach to non-native speakers. fortunately, from what we've seen, the gmat won't directly test you on the use of articles.

the gmat is actually a stickler for these sorts of things -- since there was only one increase mentioned in the sentence, it's technically wrong to say "increases" (plural), so, yes, your version is better.

[sambhavverman]

i believe this to be a question of parallelism...
if one notices carefully ... he will find that according to parallelism 'significant' and not 'significantly' should be used.....
thats my answer ...