The Recent Global Boom in the Market Price for Scrap Steel and Aluminum Leads To A Sudden Rise in the Theft of Everyday Metal Objects

Question: The recent global boom in the market price for scrap steel and aluminum leads to a sudden rise in the theft of everyday metal objects like manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs.

1. leads to a sudden rise in the theft of everyday metal objects like manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs
2. have led to a sudden rise in the theft of everyday objects such as manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs
3. has led to a sudden increase in the number of thieves for everyday metal objects like manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs
4. has led to a sudden rise in the theft of everyday metal objects such as manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs
5. is leading the suddenly rising theft of everyday metal objects: manhole covers, guard rails, and empty beer kegs

“The recent global boom in the market price for scrap steel and aluminum leads to a sudden rise in the theft of everyday metal objects”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Construction and tenses. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: D

Explanation: The concepts tested here are:

1. Construction
2. Tenses

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of “leads” is wrong. The phrase “recent global boom” indicates an event that began in the past and is continuing in the present. So, the present perfect tense “has led” would have made more sense than “leads”. Also, “such as” is preferred when talking about examples. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of the plural verb “have led” for a singular subject “boom” is not accurate. Instead of “have”, “has” should have been used to describe a singular subject. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of the phrase “the number of thieves for everyday metal objects like” has changed the meaning of the sentence. It states that the number of “thieves” has increased instead of the number of “thefts”. Also, “such as” is more appropriate while introducing examples. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Correct
This option is correct because it correctly uses the present perfect tense “has led” to indicate an event that began in the past and is continuing in the present. Also, it has used “such as” to introduce examples rather than “like”. So, Option D is correct.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the present perfect tense is more appropriate than the present progressive tense “is leading” to indicate something that started in the past and is continuing in the present. So, Option E is incorrect.

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