With only five

[ramendra.awesome]

With only five percent of the world's population, United States citizens consume 28 percent of its nonrenewable resources, drive more than one-third of its automobiles, and use 21 times more water per capita than Europeans do.

A. With
B. As
C. Being
D. Despite having
E. Although accounting for

Now my question here is that Despite is a preposition, so it should be followed by a noun, while 'although' is a conjunction hence it should be followed by a clause.

Then how is option E correct?

A, B, C are wrong as meaning requires that there should be contrast in the sentence.

Please help!

Source is GMAT prep.

[RonPurewal]

D is grammatically sound, but it's nonsense: the people don't "have" a certain percentage of the world's population. They ARE a certain percentage of the world's population!

(We could write that the United States has 5% of the world's population.)

If "Although X" precedes a sentence, X can be an adjective or other descriptive phrase.
Although exhausted, Ryan still can't go to sleep until he writes 5 more e-mails.

[ramendra.awesome]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the help!

Well, I think I was mistaken big time. The same is true for other subordinating conjunctions as well.
Few examples could be:

Because

Because of hurry, I tossed the coat away.

Before

Before the sunrise, I was home.

Since

Since Gandhi, there have been many followers of truth and ahimsa.

Ron, Am I correct or my examples are just irrelevant? Please advise. Thanks again.

[RonPurewal]

"Because" has to be followed by a complete sentence, unless it's "because of" (in which case it's followed by a noun, as in your example).

The other two you've listed here, as you seem to understand already, can be followed either by nouns or by complete sentences.

Note that "since" has two principal meanings:
1/ "because" or "in light of the fact that" (Since my clothes just got dirty, I now have to go home and change before going to the party.)
2/ "From this time/event/example onward" (as in your Gandhi sentence)

If "since" is used in sense #1 here, it must be followed by a complete sentence.
If it is used in sense #2, it can be followed either by a complete sentence or by a noun.

[RAVIR106]

Sir, can you explain why "Being" is wrong ?

[RonPurewal]

Sir, can you explain why "Being" is wrong ?

• in context, there's a clear need for a transition indicating CONTRAST ("despite...", "although...", etc.), but choice C has no such transition.

• an initial "__ing + comma" modifier must relate not only to the following subject, but also to the meaning of the entire following sentence.
post102559.html#p102559
that doesn't happen in choice C either.

[nahid078]

Sir, can you explain why "Being" is wrong ?

• in context, there's a clear need for a transition indicating CONTRAST ("despite...", "although...", etc.), but choice C has no such transition.

• an initial "__ing + comma" modifier must relate not only to the following subject, but also to the meaning of the entire following sentence.
forums/post102559.html#p102559
that doesn't happen in choice C either.

Nice explanation.

[NicoleT643]

Hi Ron,

Would you please explain why A is wrong? Thanks

[RonPurewal]

the whole point of the sentence is to express a CONTRAST (5% of the world's population, versus much larger shares of various resources).

the modifier in choice A ("With...") doesn't express this contrast. thus, choice A is nonsense.