SC Q-Bank Q17: Economic Recession

[makn]

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 rates.

Correct answer : C

I thought there is not an single choice correct and was very confused in the end..

Correct answer C says a cycle of layoffs that lead


.. here.. lead is incorrectly referring to cycle.. isnt it??
or it refers to layoffs ?? I thought (of layoffs) is a middle-man.

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.

[tim]

well, since you know that C is the correct answer, you now have to reconcile that with your understanding of the grammar rules. this is the best way to analyze SC problems - make sure you fully understand why the correct answer is correct and why all the wrong answers are wrong. in this case, if you know that "cycle of layoffs that lead" is correct, then the only correct interpretation is for "that lead" to refer to "layoffs". please understand that cutting out the middleman is a strategy for subject-verb agreement problems, whereas this is technically a modifiers problem. with modifiers, you *have* to leave in the middlemen because that's what modifiers are..