In all, fifteen or more Greenwich Capital employees have been tied to

daagh

Thank you for the prompt response

I agree with you!

So there will always be other errors in incorrect option choices other than concision?

Should we even look for concision while choosing the correct answers?

(GMAT official guide stated 'GMAT prefers lesser words if they can convey the same meaning')

Thanks!!

HI GMATGuruNY, AndrewN , GMATCoachBen


Can you please help me with this question. I was unable to comprehend the explanation given.

In C, D & E does it not mean the employers are still doing insider trading? What is the issue in A & B?

Hello, NandishSS. The sentence seems to convey that a number of former employees at the fund were engaging in insider trading while employed there. Among the accused, or those with ties to insider trading, four have admitted guilt, while others are expected to come forward and fess up. Even though the entire sentence is underlined, we can still look to the most common places, the head and the tail of the underlined portion, for key splits. To be honest, I prefer in all to the more casual all told, but I would not use my preference to eliminate anything. The tail-end, though, is more helpful.

(A) ... , with four to plead guilty and more likely
(B) ... , with four having pleaded guilty and more likely
(C) ... ; four have pleaded guilty and more are likely to do so
(D) ... ; with four having pleaded guilty and more are likely to do so
(E) ... ; four have pleaded guilty and more are likely

Choices (A) and (B) lack a verb at the end to parallel the earlier action of pleading guilty. You should be thinking, And more what? Meanwhile, choice (E) employs the verb to be in are, but it still does not answer the question. And more are likely pleaded guilty? That does not make sense. The only real contenders are (C) and (D), but the latter uses a semicolon with a prepositional phrase, rather than an independent clause. I know the GMAT™ is not a strict test of grammar, but grammar basics certainly help, not to mention that (D) adds nothing in the way of clarity that the more concise (C) lacks. Choice (C) it is, then.

I look for any weakness I can find to attack the validity of an answer choice. If I am lucky, I will not find any in one and I will find at least one in all of the others. That is a case-closed scenario, and that proved to be the case on this one.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question.

- Andrew

Isn't "to do so" part of the ellipses? daagh IanStewart AndrewN

I marked E (between E and C) because E conveyed the same meaning "four have pleaded and more are likely (to do so)"

You could say "There have been twelve arrests, and more are likely", because then you are saying "more arrests are likely". You can't say "Twelve people have been arrested, and more are likely", because then you are saying "more people are likely", which doesn't mean anything on its own.

But I don't understand what "while at the fund" refers to even in the "right" answer here, or at least it seems to mean something strange, and different from what I'd guess is intended. It seems like the sentence is trying to say that the insider trading occurred while the employees were at the fund. But that's not what it says, reading it literally. It says they were *tied to insider trading while at the fund*, so the sentence is only talking about people who were caught doing insider trading in the middle of their employment at the fund. It's not talking about people who might have been doing insider trading which was discovered after they left. That seems a strange meaning here, and doesn't seem intentional, which is why I was looking for an answer choice that clarified that modifier, but I didn't find one.

Well stated, IanStewart. I could not think of a better way to explain the matter (and in such a timely fashion).

- Andrew

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