In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year

[RonPurewal]

remember—
DO NOT 'make your own versions' of GMAC's sentences.
really.
don't do it.

the GMAT only tests about 1% of the things that can actually go wrong with english sentences (and even that is probably an overestimate).
when random users try to 'edit' these sentences, the result is almost always inferior or incorrect—for reasons that the GMAT doesn't test.

making your own examples is good, but they should be...
...1/ your own examples,
...2/ SIMPLE examples, each illustrating only ONE concept (that is actually tested on this exam).

as far as the official problems are concerned, the given answer choices should be challenging enough already.
(:

__

that difference isn't something that this exam will ever test. (also, that choice would still contain "at", which would still be nonsense.)

[Feynman]

Hi Ron,

You said the construction "of + NOUN + VERBing" is incorrect.

B, the number of United States citizens declaring

is this correct?

Thanks
Feynman

[RonPurewal]

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p26678

^^ this example is functionally identical to the sentence with "...a picture of my cousin playing hockey" in that thread.
this one is perfectly fine... as is that one.