Every option is looking incorrect to me!
Developed by Pennsylvania’s Palatine Germans about 1750, Conestoga wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent cargo from shifting on steep grades.
(A) wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and they had a floor curved upward on either end so as to prevent
(B) wagons, with high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and with a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(C) wagons, which had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and floors curved upward on their ends so that they prevented
(D) wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie, and a floor that was curved upward at both ends to prevent
(E) wagons had high wheels capable of crossing rutted roads, muddy flats, and the nonroads of the prairie and floors curving upward at their ends so that it prevented
Not able to figure out the correct answer to this.
OA : D
A — not parallel
B — is it a run on?
C– which refer to the wagons .. however; I sense parallelism issue here. However, I am not really able to point out the issue here.
D — crossed it off thinking that “wagons” (plural) should have “floors” and not “a floor”.
E — “… and floor curving upwards..” changes the meaning.
Every option is looking incorrect to me! please help.
Now you know that using “floors” is not necessary.
Both floor/floors are acceptable.
Is my POE correct for options other than D?
How do I spent less time eliminating the wrong options?
there is no “shortcut” for answering these questions. You need to practice more. Only then will you get good at identifying patterns. The trick here is to strike out the non-essential modifiers to see if the sentence makes sense.
B – not a sentence. (try to strike out the non-essential modifiers – modifiers separated by a comma – to see this)
C – not a sentence. (again not a sentence).
E – “it” does not refer to anything.