During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers.

A)
B) principles, instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers
C) principles, rather functioning despite being stifled as a result of government regulations that variously restrict worker hiring and firing
D) principles; the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled
E) principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I ran into this question on the CAT exam. I was able to narrow my choices to B and E. I picked B but the OA was E.

In E, ";" separates the two sentences. However I am having a hard time figuring out what "its" stands for after "instead." Can "its" be unclear as is and still be a correct answer?

Thanks.

During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers.

A)
B) principles, instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers
C) principles, rather functioning despite being stifled as a result of government regulations that variously restrict worker hiring and firing
D) principles; the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled
E) principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

Hi!

Even I picked B. But on reading E again I devised this theory. Hope it is correct.

B -- functioning as a verb is incorrect here
E -- Functioning as a subject is correct here and restricting is correct here in the object.

But we need the staff to confirm or give the appropriate reason........

(B) has a grammatical problem. This sentence comprises two clauses.

During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles

AND

instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers.


These two clauses will have to be grammatically connected by a conjunction such as and, but, yet, etc. (Remember "instead" is an adverb so cannot act as a conjunction.) In (B), since the two clauses are not connected by a conjunction, the sentence becomes a "run-on" sentence. Thus (B) cannot be correct. (E) corrects this error by using the ";", signifying the equality of the clauses. The conjunction isn't required here.

Thus (E) is grammatically correct.

Hope this helps.

Pooja is correct; this question is primarily about punctuation.

You may be interested in another current thread on this question:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... t5197.html

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

but why D is wrong, I think D is grammatical

Contrast (D) and (E) to see why (E) is preferable.

After the semicolon, (D) reads:
"the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled."
--Main verb: "is restricted"
--Present participle: "being stifled"
We often see this type of construction when a main action yields a certain result (e.g. The volcano erupted (main action), spewing (result) lava over a large area."
This choice might seem OK: "being stifled" is the result of "is restricted," but "being" as a present participle is considered wordy and awkward by the GMAT. Mainly this is because clearer phrasing options exist (e.g. "because hiring and firing of workers is restricted, the functioning is stifled" OR "the functioning has been stifled by restrictions" and so on...). Beware of "being" in subordinate clauses on the GMAT.

Also, "its" does not have a clear antecedent in this choice, because we find it buried in the participle, making "the hiring and firing of workers" (could be considered singular), "the labor market", and even the implicit "government" possible antecedents.

After the semicolon, (E) reads:
"instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers."
--Main verb: "has been stifled"
--Adverbial modifier: "by various government regulations..." (i.e. HOW its functioning has been stifled)
That's much clearer than (D).

Also, "its" has a clear antecedent, "the labor market," because both pronoun and antecedent are subjects of their respective clauses (i.e. "the labor market has not been operating" and "its functioning has been stifled" are parallel. This parallelism is underscored by "instead.")

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Its not very clear on issue "its". Is there a typo in your explanation

Nope, no typos in Emily's explanation.

When there are two independent clauses (as in choice E) and the second one contains a pronoun as part of the subject, the structural expectation is that the pronoun refers to the subject of the first clause.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Hi,

I understand that E is right and B is wrong but is this construction acceptable as found in option B?
"that variously restrict worker hiring and firing". I found this to be odd but I couldn't explain the reason to justify ruling out this option.

Thanks.

yeah, that construction would definitely be labeled "awkward"/"unclear". no doubt about it.

Hi there,

Option B is termed incorrect because they are two independent clauses and hence should contain a semi-colon, right?

But doesnt an independent clause mean that it should be able to stand of its own and should not be dependent on the other clause ?

If that be the case, then how is option E right???
During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers
Here, by using the word INSTEAD, isnt the second clause making itself dependent on the first one ??

Due to this reason, I had chosen option B.

Some help please......

Regards

No, the use of the word “instead” does not make the clause dependent on the other one. It simply helps indicate that they cover the same subject matter and the new clause is being introduced to contrast with the first one. If the clause were dependent, it would not be able to stand as a complete sentence. The ultimate test is to put a period in place of the semicolon. Once you realize this sentence works with a period you’ll see that a semicolon is perfectly acceptable..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

can someone explain why A is wrong?
thanks

@ elevinty..
"A" has atleast 2 problems:

1. But instead is redundant
2. stifling functioning does not make sense.

Hope this helps

in this sentence, the comma-but REQUIRES an independent clause on the right..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor