For many revisionist historians, Christopher Columbus

[PrashantS209]

(Please note that this question has at least two versions in GMATPrep. I got the version where option B was "devastation and enslavement in the name of progress by which native peoples of the Western Hemisphere have been decimated" and not "devastation and enslavement in the name of progress by which native peoples of the Western Hemisphere decimated")

I was wondering why is option B inferior to option E. Is it because option B uses passive voice whereas option E uses active voice?

[Also since I got this question in GMATPrep Exam 3, which has to be purchased, so as per the guideline https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/read-before-you-post-gmatprep-verbal-guidelines-t2720.html, I did not post in GMATPrep folder. Let me know if I misunderstood the guidelines. ]

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

You're right that, unfortunately, we can't post paid-for resources here.

It looks like the original version was easier, since "native peoples of the Western Hemisphere decimated" makes no sense. Check out the meaning of "decimate" here: https://www.lexico.com/definition/decimate

As for the tougher choice between the rewritten B and E, it's not enough that B is in the passive voice and E is in the active voice. Passive and active have different meanings and therefore different uses; simply treating one as superior without an appreciation of context will get you into trouble. However, the use of the phrase 'by which' creates a problem with meaning here. It makes the sentence sound like 'devastation and enslavement' are somehow tools used to decimate native peoples, rather than the actual things that caused the problem. Think particularly about 'devastation': you wouldn't write 'the devastation was used to decimate the native people', rather 'the devastation decimated the native people'. However, this is one of the more subtle meaning issues I've seen on SC.

[PrashantS209]

thank you.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

You're welcome.