Register    Login    Search    Rss Feeds

Forums Home » Ask An Instructor » GMAT Verbal » GMAT Prep Verbal


 Page 1 of 1 [ 8 posts ] 



  Print view Print view Previous topic Previous topic | Next topic Next topic
 

SC - Although the restaurant company...

Author Message
sinhavis
 Post subject: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:53 am 
Offline
Students


Posts: 15
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically

B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company's

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Source : GMAT Prep Software
OA is A.
I chose B. Please explain ?
Top 
RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:28 am 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
sinhavis wrote:
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically

B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company's

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Source : GMAT Prep Software
OA is A.
I chose B. Please explain ?


i'll assume that you are inquiring only about (a) vs. (b). if you need information about other choices, post back.

(b) contains bad parallelism. since you're talking about two trends that have taken place simultaneously, you MUST use the same verb tense to describe those trends.
in (b), the first verb (has ... added) is in the present perfect, but the second (increased) is in the simple past. i don't care whether you actually know what these tenses are called, provided that you can recognize that they are different.

the parallelism in (a) is perfect: both verbs (has ... added and have ... increased) are presented in the same tense.
Top 
hberens18
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:39 am 
Offline
Students


Posts: 14
d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Can someone comment on what's wrong with D/E? Specifically the 'having' verb tense and why it is wrong here.
Top 
RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:08 am 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
hberens18 wrote:
d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Can someone comment on what's wrong with D/E? Specifically the 'having' verb tense and why it is wrong here.


in this case, you don't even have to worry about minutiae such as the "having".

these choices are both wrong for one of the most common (and therefore important) reasons you'll encounter: the initial modifier modifies the wrong noun.

read this post for the use of INITIAL MODIFIERS WITHOUT SUBJECTS:
post20923.html#p20923

now apply that principle here.

both of these choices modify "the restaurant company's sales".
they should be modifying "the restaurant company".
therefore, they are wrong.
end of story.
Top 
goelmohit2002
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:53 am 
Offline
Students


Posts: 226
Can someone please tell what is wrong with C ?
Top 
RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:55 am 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
goelmohit2002 wrote:
Can someone please tell what is wrong with C ?


many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and...

in this construction, there is no indication that these new restaurants have been opened by the company in question. it just says that they have recently been opened, but not by whom.
that's an unacceptable shift of meaning.
Top 
priyankamittal
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:25 am 
Offline
Students


Posts: 3
Hi Ron,

I read and re-read your explanation a couple of times, but did not understand the reasoning for the correct answer.

Please explain what is wrong is the line of thought written below:

GMAT, as I've read in your previous posts is very particular on antecedents for pronouns.
The first "its"- possessive pronoun refers back to the to new restaurant as that is the closest noun. The 2nd "its" then should also refer back to the same noun- the new restaurant. However this would distort the meaning as the rest of the sentence refers to the main restaurant.

In choosing C, I was bringing the noun closer to the object of the sentence presuming the first part of the sentence to be the modifier.

Please explain where am I going wrong.

Thanks
Top 
RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: SC - Although the restaurant company...
 Post Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:57 pm 
Offline
ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
priyankamittal wrote:
Hi Ron,

I read and re-read your explanation a couple of times, but did not understand the reasoning for the correct answer.

Please explain what is wrong is the line of thought written below:

GMAT, as I've read in your previous posts is very particular on antecedents for pronouns.
The first "its"- possessive pronoun refers back to the to new restaurant as that is the closest noun. The 2nd "its" then should also refer back to the same noun- the new restaurant. However this would distort the meaning as the rest of the sentence refers to the main restaurant.

In choosing C, I was bringing the noun closer to the object of the sentence presuming the first part of the sentence to be the modifier.

Please explain where am I going wrong.

Thanks


first, there is absolutely no rule stating that nouns lying closer to a pronoun are more likely to be considered antecedents. where'd you get that "rule"?

second, the gmat is rather inconsistent on the issue of pronoun ambiguity, as i've noted in several places. see here, for instance:
post35595.html#p35595
...so picking based on pronoun ambiguity is a VERY bad idea, unless you literally can't think of any other criterion on which to split.

third, we HAVE noticed the following trend: objects of prepositions are unlikely to be chosen as antecedents of pronouns, unless the pronoun itself is also the object of a preposition.
here, "country" is the object of the preposition "across", and so is much less likely to be considered the antecedent.
Top 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
 
 Page 1 of 1 [ 8 posts ] 





Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

 
 

 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: