Question

According to a recent study of consumer spending on prescription medications, increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised very little.

• A. heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase indrug spending last year, the remainder of which came
• B. heavily were what accounted for almost halfof the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year; the remainder of the increase coming
• C. heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming
• D. heavily, accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came
• E. heavily, which accounted for almost half of the $20.8billion increase in drug spending last year, with the remainder of it coming

Answer 1

The correct option is C heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming

The sentence says that according to some studies, increase in the sales of heavily advertised drugs accounted (it cannot be 'accounts' as we are talking about records of the past year) for 50% of the total increase in drug spending last year. The remaining 50% of the increase came from the other 9850 drugs that were advertised very little. The sentence in question, however, has two errors- one being the use of 'accounts' and the other being the ambiguity of 'the remainder of which'. The use of 'accounts' is incorrect due to two reasons- it is singular and thus doesn't agree with the plural subject 'increases' which requires a plural verb (a plural subject must be followed by a plural verb and the same for a singular subject) and it in present tense but we are talking about 'last year'. 'The remainder of which' is ambiguous in the sense that we don't for sure what the 'which' refers to, though logically, it should refer to 'increases in drug spending'. Option A is incorrect due to these reasons. B is not appropriate because the use of 'were what' seems superfluous and the semi-colon after 'year' is incorrect as the part after it is not an independent clause but a modifier modifying part of the main clause. Since 'accounting' serves as a verb-ing modifier and not as a verb in option D, it leaves the sentence without a verb. Option E has three notable errors. First, there is no verb for the main subject 'increases', then there antecedent for 'which' is not clear. Grammatically, 'which' should refer to 'increases' but it is far off. Again, the antecedent 'it' is not clear either. Therefore, C is the correct option as it corrects the original errors without introducing any new errors.