Noting that the Federal Reserve had raised a key short-term interest rate against last month, analysts said that they expected orders for durable goods to decline soon because rising interest rates makes it more expensive to buy them on credit.

A. rising interest rates makes it more expensive to buy them on credit
B. rising interest rates make buying on credit more expensive
C. a rise in interest rates make it more expensive to buy on credit
D. a rise in interest rates make buying on credit more expensive
E. a rise in interest rates makes it more expensive for them to be bought on credit

What do you think are the possible referents for IT? Could someone please explain proper use of BECAUSE. I understand that Because is best used to explain cause/effect relationships but are there any rules with regards to the general usage of Because.

Thanks!

Sorry, I placed this question in the wrong section. This question is from GMATPREP, so could one of the moderators place it in the GMATPREP verbal section. Thanks!

The word "it" doesn't have an exact referent here. Instead, the sentence uses the word "it" to mean the general situation. "makes it difficult" means "makes the situation difficult," etc.

"because" does indeed signal a cause/effect relationship, and should be used to introduce a clause that contains the cause part of that relationship.

read about this here:

viewtopic.php?p=11193#p11193

What's the official answer for the above question?

I don't have the key, but I would say (B) is correct.

(A) and (E) use the ambiguous pronoun "them." Analysts, durable goods, interest rates?

"A rise in interest rates" is wordier than the GMAT preferred "rising interest rates." Eliminate (C)(D) and (E).

Even if "a rise" were OK, it is singular and would require the singular verb "makes." Eliminate (C) and (D).

Likewise, "rising interest rates" is plural (rates), so would require the plural verb "make." Eliminate (A).

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Emily

"Rising Interest rates" - is it plural or singular?. Can you please elaborate

Rising Interest rates is a worrisome sign for the economy

or

Rising Interest rates are a worrisome sign for the economy

Pls help

it's plural.
"rising" is an adjective describing interest rates.

in fact, "rising" can't take a direct object, so this must be the case even if you don't understand the sentence at all.

--

the distinction is a little trickier in the case of words such as "declining", which can act either as adjectives or as transitive verb participles ("transitive" = taking a direct object).

examples:
declining interest rates are making it harder to make money from investments. --> here, "declining" is an adjective describing "interest rates". since "interest rates" is the core noun, we go plural.

declining dinner invitations is not good for your networking ability. --> here, "declining dinner invitations" is a noun phrase. "declining" acts as a gerund (noun-type "ing"), and "dinner invitations" is the direct object.
NOTE: this type of construction is impossible for "rising", which can't take direct objects, so your job there is easier.

context is king in cases such as these.

In A can 'them' refer to durable goods since it is object of a preposition 'for'.

that doesn't disqualify "durable goods". especially because "them" is also an object, albeit an object of something else (a verb, rather than a preposition).

--

the subject-verb disagreement in (a) is so egregious that, it a real-life testing situation, you wouldn't bother to continue looking at that choice.

Ron,
Thanks for your reply.

I'm just trying to focus on the pronoun rule here. I've gone through several posts in MGMAT forum. As per my understanding,
All types of pronouns (subject, object and possessive) can refer to subject of a sentence.
But an object pronoun can ONLY refer subject of a sentence. Please correct me if I'm wrong here. Even MGMAT's SC guide(old one) does not say anything on this.
There is a OG Q on this.
In her book illustrations, carefully coordinating them with her narratives, Beatrix Potter..... As per OG "them" can not refer "book illustration" as it is an object of a preposition.

You also wrote in one of your posts that It can be considered unsavory for a pronoun to refer to the object of a preposition.

Can subject pronoun refer to any antecedent(except possessive)?

Can you please comment on the following post. Really appreciate your help on this.
preposition-infinitive-t6645.html

Thanks in advance.

i would say yes.

here's a good rule-of-thumb that you can follow. i don't think i'll be able to do any better than this, as far as rules, since so very few things are truly absolute when it comes to grammar.

the BEST possible case is that in which the PRONOUN AND ITS ANTECEDENT ARE GRAMMATICALLY PARALLEL.
e.g., a subject pronoun is used to refer to a noun that's the subject of its sentence, or an object pronoun is used to refer to a noun that's the object of its sentence, etc.

for subject and object pronouns, most other types of antecedents are accessible, but, THE LESS PARALLEL TO THE PRONOUN, THE LESS DESIRABLE.

that's about the best i can do.

--

in general, since this particular type of issue (matching pronoun case with antecedent case) is so slippery, you'd do well not to try to address it until after you've resolved ALL other issues in the sentence.

Thanks Ron for your nice explanation and for being patient with me.
I just want to make sure that I understand parallelism correctly here.

Noting that the Federal Reserve had raised a key short-term interest rate against last month, analysts said that they expected orders for durable goods to decline soon because rising interest rates makes it more expensive to buy them on credit.

I guess in this sentence 'them' is parallel to 'durable goods'. So it is valid ref. Pls correct me if I'm wrong here. (i'm not going into ambiguity just ref.)

An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, ........

Here 'it' (subject pronoun) is not parallel to the 'course of action' (object of sentence)

In her book illustrations, Beatrix Potter carefully coordinated them with her narratives.

In this case OG says 'them' can not refer 'illustrations' as 'illustrations' is object of preposition. When I come across this problem I'm just getting confused. Ron can you pls explain this.

Ron,
I am assuming in actual GMAT, transitive/intransitive concept can get on your way. Is there any example of such question?

um.

hmmm

here are a couple:

the-achaemenid-empire-of-persia-reached-the-indus-valley-t1128.html

post12684.html

i didn't have these memorized or anything; i just ran a search (search terms were "site:manhattangmat.com transitive").

you should probably just go the google route if you want to find more of these.