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In January 1994 An Oil Barge Ran Aground Off The Coast Of San Juan GMAT Sentence Correction

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Question: In January 1994 an oil barge ran aground off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, leaking its cargo of 750000 gallons into the ocean, while causing the pollution of the city's beaches.

(A) leaking its cargo of 750000 gallons into the ocean, while causing the pollution of
(B) with its cargo of 750000 gallons leaking into the ocean, and it polluted
(C) and its cargo of 750000 gallons leaked into the ocean, polluting
(D) while it leaked its cargo of 750000 gallons into the ocean and caused the pollution of
(E) so that its cargo of 750000 gallons leaked into the ocean, and they were polluting.

Correct Answer: (C)
Explanation:
 A Puerto Rican oil barge grounded off the coast of San Juan in January 1994. Spilling its 750000 gallons of cargo into the ocean and contaminating the city's beaches.

The concepts needed to solve this question includes,

  • Parallelism
  • Pronouns
  • Modifiers
  • Grammatical Construction
  • Meaning

The right option that when put in the underlined portion of the question will convey the right meaning without any grammatical or other errors. Let us analyze each option individually to find the correct answer.

Option – C : Correct
An oil barge is a clear antecedent for “its” (subject parallelism) and "-ing" modifier, is doing a good job of expressing the outcome of the preceding clause in this sentence. As a result, this option is the right choice.

Option –A : Incorrect
Leaking and running aground are two distinct, independent actions. Running around might not always cause leaking. Therefore, rather than being misplaced, the present participle "leaking" is being used incorrectly. As a result, this option is eliminated.

Option – B : Incorrect
Study the prepositional phrase that modifies the verb in the preceding clause. We need a much better construction because "it" lacks a clear antecedent and further refers to the entire incident that took place in the preceding clause in context. As a result, this option is eliminated.

Option – D : Incorrect
It is incorrect to claim that the oil barge in question was the source of the pollution; instead, the leak was to blame. The cargo on the barge wasn't intentionally leaked. A meaning mistake has occurred here. As a result, this option is eliminated.

Option – E : Incorrect
"So that" is incorrect. Nothing is done on purpose. As a result, this option is eliminated.
From the explanations given above, it is clear that the third option is the right answer.
“In January 1994 an oil barge ran aground off the coast of San Juan” - is a GMAT sentence correction question. These types of questions contain grammatical errors in the underlined sentence and we have to choose the correct statement from the options. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

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*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

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