GMAT Sentence Correction - Reporting that One of its Many Problems had been the Recent Extended

Question: Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three-month liquidation sale in all of its stores.

(A) its many problems had been the recent
(B) its many problems has been the recently
(C) its many problems is the recently
(D) their many problems is the recent
(E) their many problems had been the recent

“Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three-month liquidation sale in all of its stores.” - 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. GMAT Sentence correction questions examine candidate's grammar basics and also the accurate use of words and phrases. Consequently, while preparing for the GMAT sentence correction questions focus on two aspects- the structure of the sentence and the meaning of the sentence.

Answer: A
Explanation:

The given sentence correction question is tested by the given-below rules:

• Parallelism
• Comparison of two elements
• Modifiers

Let us check the given answer options to get the correct one that fits the most:

Option A: Correct
-This choice correctly refers to the singular noun "retailer" with the singular pronoun "it". Further, Option A uses the phrase "recent extended sales slump"; the utilization of the adjective "recent" modifies the noun "sales slump", conveying the intended meaning - that the sales slump in women's apparel passed within the recent past and extended over a protracted period of your time.

Option B: Incorrect
-This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "recently extended sales slump"; the employment of the adverb "recently" modifies the adjective "extended", incorrectly implying that the sales slump in women's apparel was extended by someone within the recent past; the intended meaning is that the sales slump in women's apparel happened within the recent past and extended over a protracted period of your time.

Option C: Incorrect
-This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "recently extended sales slump"; the employment of the adverb "recently" modifies the adjective "extended", incorrectly implying that the sales slump in women's apparel was extended by someone within the recent past; the intended meaning is that the sales slump in women's apparel materialized within the recent past and extended over an extended period of your time.

Option D: Incorrect
-This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "seven-store retailer" with the plural pronoun "their"; please note that during this context, "seven-store" is an adjective modifying "retailer" to convey that the singular retailer consists of seven stores.

Option E: Incorrect
-This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "seven-store retailer" with the plural pronoun "their"; please note that during this context, "seven-store" is an adjective modifying "retailer" to convey that the singular retailer consists of seven stores.

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