will B be the correct answer?please explain with reason.
- According to a ruling by the state supreme court, the owner of polluted land is liable for the cleanup of the property even if the owner did not have the responsibility that pollution occurred before the title changed hands.
(A) the owner did not have the responsibility that pollution
(B) the owner is not responsible for pollution that
(C) it was not the owner’s responsibility that pollution would have
(D) the responsibility of the owner is not that pollution(B)
(E) the responsibility was not the owner’s that pollution would have.
Hi Vihar,
Your question already has the OA – B! 🙂
Can you provide your reasoning – that would be a better way to learn such questions? Kindly keep that in mind going ahead.
For now, let me solve it for you:
A -> Tense issue here, the tense should be “is” because you are stating a rule in the present tense.
For example:
The owner is liable for the damages caused by her pet – even if the owner is not present when the pet causes the damage.
NOT
The owner is liable for the damages caused by her pet – even if the owner DID NOT let his pet lose when it caused the damage.
Secondly, we need to show intent through the preposition FOR.
Good: I am not responsible for the damage
Bad: I do not have the responsibility that the damage was caused.
C -> Constructs such as “It was”, “There was”, and “There is” on the GMAT will almost always be replaced by a simpler construction using just the noun.
For example:
Bad: There was a man who lived for 120 years.
Good: A man lived for 120 years.
Secondly, “would have” indicates hypothetical construction whereas here we assume that the owner was not responsible for the pollution.
Thirdly, the same reasoning as A for tenses.
D -> NOT should be placed next to responsibility – here it is placed next to pollution.
E -> Same reasoning as C
Hope this helps,
Arun
Thank you Arun.I went by the meaning of the sentence and found B to be correct.