Retail sales rose 8/10 of 1 percent in August, intensifying expectations that personal spending in the July-September quarter more than doubled that of the 1.4 percent growth rate in personal spending for the previous quarter.

a.) that personal spending in the July-September quarter more than doubled that of

b.) that personal spending in the July-September quarter would more than double

c.) of personal spending in the July-September quarter, that it more than doubled

d.) of personal spending in the July-September quarter more than doubling that of

e.) of personal spending in the July-September quarter, that it would more than double that of

Correct Answer: B

Are either "expectation of" or "expectation that" an idiom?

Also, outside of that, is the following analysis correct?

a.) "doubled" is wrong because it is past tense, the words "that of" are unnecessary.
b.) "would more than double" is correct as it is future tense
c.) added comma changes the meaning of the sentence, "doubled" is wrong because it is past tense.
d.) the words "that of" are unnecessary. (is using the progressive form "doubling" necessarily incorrect?)
e.) added comma changes the meaning of the sentence, the words "that of" are unnecessary.

correct.

technically, "would" is what you get when you translate the future tense "will" into the past tense construction. it seems as though you know this already.
there's probably a separate name for that, because it's not technically the future anymore, but i don't know that name (if it exists).



this sentence is actually ungrammatical.
you can't say "expectations of X(,) that it would do Y". that's wrong whether there's a comma or not.
the correct form would be "the expectation that X would do Y", which is precisely the form of choice (b).
if you're going to say "expectations of X", then that's the entirety of the construction; X must be a noun (or a gerund), and that's it.



former: yes.
see here for the latter.

e.) added comma changes the meaning of the sentence, the words "that of" are unnecessary.[/quote]

the sentence is ungrammatical as a whole. see (c).
yes, "that of" is unnecessary.

Retail sales rose 8/10 of 1 percent in August, intensifying expectations that personal spending in the July-September quarter would more than double the 1.4 percent growth rate in personal spending for the previous quarter.

Still don't know the meaning.

1# the growth rate in personal spending for the previous quarter is 1.4 percent, and then personal spending in the July-September would double(VERB) it (to 2.8 percent).
2#the growth rate in personal spending for the previous quarter is 1.4 percent, and growth rate in personal spending in the July-September is double(ADJ) that growth rate and so is 2.8 percent.

since ,in B, double function as Verb, 1# should be the meaning of the question; however, 1# dose not sounds as logical as 2#.

_________________
stephen

yeah. i'd say you're correct in these judgments.

i poked around the web for this question, and it seems that it is NOT from the official gmatprep software.

OG12 #16. Wow! I can't believe it is a OG qestion with B as official answer.

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stephen

That is remarkable. We will have to revise our understanding of the usage of more, according to this problem. Good find; thanks.

The comparison does not seem parallel to me. B seems to compare personal spending to the growth rate. How can spending be more than double the growth rate?

It is a strange construction, definitely, but we don't have a better option. Our task is to find the best of the 5 choices given; B is it.

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

I could get to B by elimination .
But i have a doubt in B :

I think option B says , it would double the 1.4 % growth rate of the previous Quarter . How can the growth rate of a previous quarter be changed ? It is past already . Isn't it ?
Is 'the' playing some role here ?

it's possible for a present value to double a past value.