In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used cross

[MdAbuAsad]

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

[MdAbuAsad]

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

What if the sentence is written in the following way? Will it still be ok? A vast curiosity on it ...
In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.

[Whit Garner]

Hi MdAbuAsad,

Your version would be incorrect because it is not parallel.

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.

Notice that what immediately follows the and is the word partly. That means that it is pointing back to the earlier partly as the first item in the parallel structure. You would need to include language in the second half that is parallel with the "because crossbreeding is said..." in the first half. For example:

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly because it is said to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.

Also note that "to acquire certain characteristics in their steers" is unidiomatic. Something is acquired BY something; you don't acquire something IN something else. In your sentence, a more logical term would be "to create certain characteristics" or "to breed certain characteristics."

Hope this helps!

Whit

[MdAbuAsad]

Hi MdAbuAsad,

Your version would be incorrect because it is not parallel.

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.

Notice that what immediately follows the and is the word partly. That means that it is pointing back to the earlier partly as the first item in the parallel structure. You would need to include language in the second half that is parallel with the "because crossbreeding is said..." in the first half. For example:

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly because it is said to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.

Also note that "to acquire certain characteristics in their steers" is unidiomatic. Something is acquired BY something; you don't acquire something IN something else. In your sentence, a more logical term would be "to create certain characteristics" or "to breed certain characteristics."

Hope this helps!

Whit

Thanks for the kind response.
Can't we think the bold part as ellipsis? if yes, then my creative example is perfectly fine, isn't it?

[Whit Garner]

Hi MdAbuAsad, I'm not sure what you mean by seeing something as "ellipsis." An ellipsis is a punctuation (...) that has only 2 uses, and neither would ever be used in GMAT Sentence correction (or on the GMAT at all). The first is to show that text has been omitted from a quote, and the second is to show that the sentence was not finished.

Your imagined sentence is grammatically incorrect, so can you try to help me understand your thought a bit more?