In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of

IMO A

revert to - hence, 'reversion to' is needed ......

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples
(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples - REDUNDANT
(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again - REDUNDANT
(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples - no infinitve needed
(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples - 'to' needed

The infinitive indicates purpose. Option D is saying that the agronomists foresee a gradual reversion because they want to raise agricultural staples. Obviously this is not the intended meaning.

the problem is ' a gradual reversion' is noun and ' raise agricultural staples' is verb.... so noun to verb does not sound ok... whereas in A 'the raising of agricultural staples' is noun.. so noun to noun is ok

398. In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat.

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples


(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples

How does ''back'' fit in here? Sounds redudant and unncessary

(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again
Same reasno for B, and ''again'' in this passage sounds wierd.

(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples
Changed the whole meaning.

(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples
Just doesn't feel right here

Inspite of trends toward increased consumption, agronomists foresee a reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: corn and wheat.

lets put in simple words.........

reversion [regression] to the raising [growing] of staples --> means....downward trend in the growing of agricultural staples...is better than

reversion to raise agricultural staples --> regression to grow agricultural staples....Hence A

In spite of continuing national trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods, agronomists in the Midwest foresee a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples: feed corn and hard red wheat.

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples -
(B) that a gradual reversion back will feature the raising of agricultural staples -
(C) a gradual reversion back to the raising of agricultural staples again -
(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples -
(E) a gradual reversion into the raising of agricultural staples -

I chose A over D to make the sentence more parallel over all.

......trends toward increased consumption of specialty foods............

(A) a gradual reversion to the raising of agricultural staples (Noun to noun)

(D) a gradual reversion to raise agricultural staples (Noun to infinitive)

The correct idiom is = reversion to sth.
B is Incorrect => back is superfluous and wordy
C is incorrect => back is superfluous and wordy and also at the end we need staples so that it can connect well with examples mentioned in the sentence.
D is Incorrect => reversion to raise incorrect use of idiom. Infinitive is not expected after reversion.
E is Incorrect => again incorrect idiom.

Answer: A
'gradual reversion back' is wrong as 'back' is redundant. B and C is out.
Idiom: 'reversion to' - E is out.
In this case, the question stem is talking about a reversion to a certain practice. Hence, we need to use 'raising of agricultural staples', which signifies an ongoing act/process i.e. practice. D is out.

Could someone please explain why A is better than D?

Option D has a problematic meaning:

A: the agricultural staples were raised - the agronomists now foresee a downward trend in agricultural staples.
D: the agronomists are foreseeing in order to raise the agricultural staples, i.e. the purpose of the foreseeing is the raising of the staples.

Hence D is wrong.

tough one...
reversion - get back... so B and C are eliminated right away because of the redundancy.
D - revision to raise - the meaning is changed. the revision is done with the intention to raise ... this is an incorrect meaning.
between A and D: revision to vs revision into. revision to seems more concise. return to not return into. so I chose A.

Can anyone explain more clearly why option D is incorrect?

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when you say in option D that we are comparing nouns, does ''increased consumption of spec. foods'' is also a noun? IMO verb to verb is compared hence I chose C

Narrowed it down to A & E, However chose E.

Can you explain the contrast between to and into.

Thanks

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