participle phrase - SC Qn Bank

[Guest]

An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rate.s



a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and start a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

a lowering of employment rates triggered by dropping investment, which cause people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

falling employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, causing cutbacks in consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs that lead to even lower employment rates.

falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, causing people to cut consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs that lead back to even lower employment rates.

falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, that cause cutbacks in consumer spending and the start of a cycle of layoffs leading to even lower employment rates.


OA is C. Pasting below OE:

(C) CORRECT. This choice makes clear, through the use of the plural verb "cause", that the employment rates are responsible for the cutbacks in spending. Further it uses the concise phrase "cutbacks in consumer spending" and eliminates the redundant word "back."


Here are my doubts:

Ex : I went up the hill, running.
This sentence is equivalent to "Running, I went up the hill" (MGMAT TUTOR told us this trick)

Applying the same theory here, we can infer that "economic recession" is doing the causation part in answer choice C.

If phrase starting from "causing .. " has to modify "employment rates" then we need a "that " here..


Please explain.

Note: I have seen three posts to this qn, but they aren't discussing this point. So i had to start this new thread.

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry we're only getting to these now - we've been very behind because of the volume of questions. I don't know exactly what happened, but I suspect the problem was edited and whoever edited it forgot to update the answer explanation accordingly.

The modifier beginning with "causing" is an adverbial modifier (the -ing ending is the clue that adverbial modifier is the correct classification); it modifies the entire preceding clause. So "the recession can result from X triggered by Y" - that entire sequence of events causes the stuff talked about in the modifier.