A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade

the right answer choice is as folllows:
keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did

However, the answer choice ignores that "of is just the middleman". The manhattan sc book explains that eliminate the "of" construction to see the true subject of the sentence. Using the same method, one establishes that "one" is the subject, which is an important one. But the answer choice calls it wrong and indicates that "factors" is the true subject and should be matched with the correct verb "keep".

Besides the above discrepancy, the rest of the sentence is singular as "the factors that keep housing market from spiralling out of control, as it did" if the subject was plural then the pronoun used should also have been plural, which is not the case.

Can the instructor throw more light on the above topic and explain rationale for the given answer choice.

Thanks

Best
Divya

"One" is one of those special indefinite pronouns for which you must examine the object of the the preposition (the "of construction") to determine the whether to use a singular or plural verb. Remember the acronym SANAM (some, any, none, all, most) mentioned in the Strategy Guide? Well the acronym should more appropriately be called SANAMO to include the indefinite pronoun, "one."

The key clue here is the "that" following factors. (You can ignore the phrase set off by commas "albeit an important one.") "That" indicates an essential noun modifier, which means the clause following it is modifying the noun immediately preceding it - factors (again, ignore that phrase set off by the commas). So, "factors keep" is the correct subject-verb match here.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

I have an additonal question to the use of pronoun 'it' in this sentence.

I'm not a native english speaker so to me 'it' in the phrase 'like it did earlier in the decade' can logically refer to either the rate or the market. Is it unambigious to the author because as discussed above 'one of the factors' is plural.

And would the use of 'it' still remains clear for you if the sentence originaly was written this way:
A higher interest rate is an important factor, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.

Thanks in advance,
Vladimir

When you say "as it did" you are referring to some noun that did something. Earlier in the sentence, the "rate" didn't do anything - I can't say, "oh, earlier in the decade the rate did X." The "market" on the other hand was spiraling out of control earlier in the decade - I know what "it did."

Same would be true if you changed the sentence to "an important factor" instead of "only one of the factors" - that doesn't change the "it did" issue.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

tutor,

I think the answer shd be C since we are using ONLY here ......

Comment me if i am wrong

Hm, well I forget specifically what page this comes from... can you update with that and some more info on why you like C?

Thanks,
J

Well here is the question...

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.

a) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
b) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade
c) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade
d) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like earlier in the decade
e) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade

OA is E

What confuses me is why "like" is used instead of "as", also whats the best way to tackle such questions

I just looked this one up in our database and the OA is B, not E. Also, the underline begins with the word "keeps/keep" (not with "that") and does not include the words "earlier in the decade."

That leads me to believe that someone found this posted somewhere on the web and transcribed it here, rather than seeing it at the source (on our test). This is what happens when you don't study from the original sources. Please only post questions from their original sources; we don't want to keep perpetuating errors that people introduce when they transcribe stuff and post it around the web.

So, the correct answer does use "as," not "like" - I assume that clears up your confusion on that point. In terms of best way to tackle an SC:

Read the original sentence all the way through.
If you happen to spot anything problematic, examine. If it's an error, cross off A. Then scan the other choices vertically, at the same point as that error you found (do NOT read the whole answer choice), and cross off any others that repeat the same error.
Repeat the above until you've dealt with everything you happened to see on your first read-through of the original sentence (note: sometimes you won't see anything on the first read-through!).
If you've exhausted the original sentence, do a vertical scan of the first word of each choice. If you can identify the potential error based on the differences you see, deal with it. If not, do a vertical scan of the last word of each choice - same thing. After that, do a vertical scan starting at the beginning of each choice.
If you notice a difference when scanning but you don't know what error that difference might signify, keep going - look for a different split.
If you've dealt with everything you know how to deal with and you still have more than one choice left, pick something and move on. Don't agonize over it - just pick and go.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Dear Stacy, Ron

I am re-posting this question as I have a doubt

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade

a) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did
b) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did
c) that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did
d) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like earlier
e) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did

I know that the above question has been answered before, But i haven't been able to get a concrete input on the 'one of the factors' construction.

I do understand that we need 'keep' for a 'that construction as a 'that' is an essential modifier which refers to the noun immediately preceding it. I also understand that we need 'as it did' to compare the actions - spiraling out of control in this case.

Now, here's what i dont understand -

I read somewhere that the 'one of the' constructions functions like the SANAM pronouns. Is it true? Because in that case 'one of the factors' will take the plural form of factors and be in agreement with 'keep'.

Looking forward to your reply

Thanks

Zaara

"one of" is a tricky construction. I think though that instead of looking at "one of" you look at what the pronoun refers to.

Mary is one of the girls who come on Friday night.
Mary is the only one of the girls who comes on Friday night.

In the first sentence, "who" refers to the girls. We can ask "who comes on Friday night?" "The girls do. And Mary is one of them." Because "who" refers to "girls," then we need to use the plural verb, "come."

In the second sentence "who" refers to Mary. We can ask "who comes on Friday nigh?" "Mary does. She's the only one." Because who refers to "Mary," then we need to use the singular verb, "comes."

In this sentence, we ask "what keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control?" "Well, there are many factors." Because the subject of "that" is "many," we'll use the plural verb, "keep." "Many factors keep the market from spiraling out of control."

Hope that makes sense.

_________________
Ben Ku
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Ben,

I have one question regarding your comments on identifying the subject of 'who' in the examples you have stated above.

In both the sentences:
Mary is one of the girls who come on Friday night.
Mary is the only one of the girls who comes on Friday

Can you please explain how to identify the subject of "who"?

Thank you,
Jayshree

I think you meant to ask for the subject of come / comes? "who" is not a verb.

And the verb is exactly how you tell who the subject is. If the verb is "come," then the subject must be plural: they come. If the verb is "comes," then the subject must be singular: she comes. You can also tell from the way the earlier part of the sentence is constructed.

"Mary is one of the girls who" - in this construction, the stuff following "who" should refer to the girls
"Mary is the only one of the girls who" - in this construction, the stuff following "who" should refer to Mary.

In the "higher interest rate" question, this part is not underlined:

A rate is only one of the factors that...

The setup of that part of the sentence tells us that the modifier following "that" will refer to "factors." If the author had wanted the "that" modifier to refer to the interest rate, it would have had to say something like "A higher interest rate is the only of the factors that..."

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

can somebody clear this confusion:

1. A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiraling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
Why would the bold phrase not confirm that it is singular subject and hence use 'keeps'?

Similarly see the second example:
2. The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.
Why would the bold phrase confirm here that it is indeed a singular subject and hence use 'admits'?

Ashish, go back and read Stacey's first post for an explanation to your first question.

Not sure I understand your second question--"admits" is a singular verb.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor