NandishSS wrote:
eybrj2 wrote:
For farmers in the Salinas Valley, the vegetable growing business has always been one of economic ups and downs, the downs usually because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened too quickly.
(A) because of unfavorable weather that killed crops, or they ripened
(B) because of unfavorable weather killing or ripening crops
(C) being caused by unfavorable weather that killed or ripened crops
(D) caused by unfavorable weather that kills crops or ripens them
(E) caused by unfavorable weather killing crops, or that they ripen
HI
AndrewN,
GMATCoachBenCan you please help me with this question?
I was confused by POE.
Hello,
NandishSS. I would be happy to offer my thoughts to assist you and the larger community. The first thing that strikes my eye is the split at the head of the underlined portion. Should it be
because of or
caused by?
the downs [are] usually _______ unfavorable weatherYou might question why I stuck a verb in there when the sentence structure requires its absence—the underlined portion is a modifier. The verb simply provides an easy way to focus on this part of the sentence without getting lost in too many details. And this is a straightforward split. To be honest, I was expecting
because of versus
due to. Remember,
because of is used to modify verbs, and the sentence is clearly outlining that a noun,
the downs, needs to be modified instead. Thus, we can eliminate choices (A) and (B). Meanwhile,
due to is used to modify nouns, and guess what? A replacement for
due to is
caused by, as
this e-GMAT article explains in depth.
The presence of
being in choice (C) gives us reason to pause. I left it on the table without looking at the rest of the answer choice and compared (D) and (E) instead, looking for weaknesses in either. Here, we encounter an internal split between
weather that kills and
weather killing. Not only does the former fit the context seamlessly, but the latter part of (E) is ungrammatical. I mean, a comma plus
or that they ripen? What is that supposed to mean? Choice (E) is out.
Looking at (D), there is simply nothing to single out to argue against.
Caused by makes sense, as explained earlier, as does
weather that kills crops. Finally, we have an
A or B construct that presents two downsides:
weather that [either] kills crops or ripens [crops] too quickly. This makes perfect sense, and the grammar checks out. If you felt like checking (C) one last time, you will notice that it shifts into the simple past tense for no reason. The earlier present perfect
has always been indicates that we need to conjugate our verbs in the underlined portion to suggest an ongoing cycle (of ups and downs). The simple past comments merely on, well, the past. We can feel confident choosing (D).
I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question. I have to run to a lesson!
- Andrew
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