* "During" vs. "At the time of"

[anabbasi]

During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 down to its nadir in 1933.

(A) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 down to its nadir in 1933.
(B) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933.
(C) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell by almost fifty percent from its 1929 peak down to its 1933 nadir.
(D) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929, by nearly fifty percent, to it nadir in 1933.
(E) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933 by nearly fifty percent.

What is guideline to follow while selecting b/w "During" vs" At the time of"

[mikrodj]

uhm I think you're looking at the bad split. I'm not sure that there is a difference between during and At the time of, so that you can eliminate choices using that difference.

What I do when I'm not sure about a split in a sentence is to look for another splits/grammatical errors in the choices.

A,C contain redundant fell down

the placement of "by nearly fifty percent" is much better in B than in D or E. Also D contains the modifier set off commas, indicating that is non-essential.

so B wins.

[Ben Ku]

Please cite the source (author) of this problem. We cannot reply unless a source is cited (and, if no source is cited, we will have to delete the post!). Thanks.