In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan out of a total population of some 116 million people.

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan --- In despite of is awful.

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan-- the correct idiom is from rural areas to urban clusters and not into urban clusters.

(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million-- same from into idiom problem as in B.

(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan -- proper idiom from … to used. Correct choice.

(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households - from … into idiom problem

There may be other more serious mistakes such modifiction etc. But this much analysis is enough for this topic I suppose.
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Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan out of a total population of some 116 million people.

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan
(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan
(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million
(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan
(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households

We have a few key things to focus on here:

1. In despite of / In spite of / Despite (Idioms)
2. into / to (Idioms)
3. how each option ends (Meaning; Construction)

Let's start with #1 on our list: in despite of / in spite of / despite. If you need to refresh your memory on these idioms, make sure to look over your study materials!

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan
(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan
(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million
(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan
(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households

The only one here that uses an incorrect phrase is option A, so let's quickly rule that one out. Now let's move onto idiom #2: into / to. The correct idiom structure we're dealing with is "from X to Y." Let's see how our options stack up:

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan
(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million
(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan
(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households

There you have it - option D is the correct choice! It's the only one that handles both idioms correctly!

I see in the comments that many of you want to know how to tackle #3 on my list, so here is how you deal with the meaning/construction issue:

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

This suggests that there may be some farm households moved outside of Japan, which isn't what we're talking about - we're talking about people moving from rural to urban areas within Japan. While you could probably assume what the writer meant, it's not 100% clear, so it's not a good option.

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

Same problem as option A.

(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million

This changes the intended meaning from talking about 5 million households to 5 million people. We know that most households are comprised of more than one person, so this is incredibly misleading!

(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan

This works because it's conveying the clearest and closest intended meaning while adhering to all the idiom rules.

(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households

By placing the phrase "despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters" between commas, this turned the phrase into a non-essential clause. This piece of information is important to the intended meaning of the sentence, so giving readers the option to remove it is a bad idea. It's also not grammatically correct to say "still there are." It should be "there are still."

There you go - option D is still our answer, even if we focus on this issue first!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Since our only fixed portion is at the end of the sentence, I started by looking for a way to connect our underlined portion to "out of a total population of . . . " We basically need a ratio statement: "There are 5 million out of a total population of 116 million."

A and B give us a verb phrase--"are still in Japan." This makes "out of . . . 116" a modifier for that verb phrase, and this makes no sense.
C says that the households *are* 5 million. Households can't be a number. Also, since 5 million is a number of households and not people, the comparison that follows ends up rather jumbled. It almost sounds like the households are 5 million people.
E's trouble is a bit more subtle. What the official explanation is getting at is that we don't want to say "Despite X, still Y happens." We should say "Despite X, Y happens" or "X happens, but still Y happens."
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In the original sentence in this question, it's really saying, removing all the concrete nouns: "Even though this thing happened, this other thing is true." The first half of the sentence already contains its own subject; even though there is no verb, you could rephrase it to include a verb. "Even though the population has flowed from rural areas to urban clusters" or "Even though there has been a flow of population from rural areas to urban clusters" are more awkward writing than the OA here, but they mean essentially the same thing. "Japan" is not the subject, for one thing, and since the opening half of the sentence already contains its own implied subject, there's no need to connect it to a subject in the second half of the sentence. These are two similar sentences that are both perfectly correct:

"Despite a funding shortfall, the project was completed on time"
"Despite a funding shortfall, Beka completed the project on time"

and these are analogous to the original, because they both essentially say "Even though one thing was true, this other thing happened." There is no connection between the understood subject in the first half of the sentence and the subject in the second half.

These examples are not analogous to your Hawking or 760-scorer examples. When you say "Despite getting a 760..." there is no implied subject -- who got the 760? That needs to be stated immediately. Or when you say "An expert in astrophysics..." who is the astrophysics expert? Again, it needs to be stated immediately. If you write something like "An expert in astrophysics, the book was written by Stephen Hawking", you're suggesting "the book" is the "expert", not that Hawking is.

I like D for using From X to Y idiom.

However I always make a point of not eliminating the answer choices solely based on idiom.
So Here sentence is trying to convey that "Japan still has 5 million households." A & B very vaguely say that "5 million farm households are still in japan(and not in china)".
C is BS for the same reason as well.

D & E are good and I atually prefer the placement of "in japan" in E. But Unfortunately E uses incorrect idiom and hence D is the right answer

Official Explanation

Rhetorical construction; Diction

In despite of is idiomatically incorrect; either in spite of or despite is acceptable. Also, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan is stated confusingly; the idea is not that the farm households are leaving Japan itself, but rather that people are leaving rural areas. The sentence would be more appropriately phrased if it said there are still 5 million farm households in Japan.

A. This choice is flawed for the reasons given above.

B. In spite of is correct, but, as in A, nearly 5 million . . . are still in fails to convey the intended meaning clearly.

C. Japan's farm households are still nearly 5 million is confusingly phrased. As worded, it seems to indicate that there are 5 million people on farms in Japan rather than that the number of farm households in Japan is 5 million. The intended meaning would be better conveyed if it said there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan.

D. Correct. This choice conveys the intended idea clearly and is grammatically correct.

E. The time indicator still should be placed after the verb are. That is, the appropriate sentence should read there are still nearly . . . As worded here, still could be read in a way that does not indicate time, but rather means something like nevertheless, which would be redundant, given the earlier occurrence of despite.

The correct answer is D.

i'm unable to comprehend official explanation.

I don't like the placement of "in Japan " in OA...eliminated D coz of that

I still believe "in Japan " should be placed at either the very beginning or the very end of the sentence to have a clear meaning.

Really tough

Posted from my mobile device

newyork2012 That's why it's important to start by eliminating answers that simply CANNOT work because they break a rule we can cite or because the meaning they create makes no sense. The GMAT will often present correct answers that don't feel quite right--think of that as the "protective camouflage" that prevents these answers from being spotted too easily.
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In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan out of a total population of some 116 million people.

" In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan"- non idiomatic, "In despite of" does not make sense here nor convey the intended meaning that despite a steady flow of people out of rural areas...the answer needs to convey clear meaning, be idiomatically correct, and maintain proper grammatical structure.



(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan- Correct in all areas mentioned above!

Scanning vertically, there are three things mainly that differ. Refer highlighted text. But i tried to POE purely based on diction.

In A and B households are still in Japan is wrong. E kind of has similar error in meaning part as both A and B have.
In C 'Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million' does make sense till this point. If we read till the end that only then we see the error that it doesn't make sense.

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan[/u] out of a total population of some 116 million people.

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million

(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan - CORRECT.

(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households
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(D) is correct because it is the only option that uses the correct "from-to" idiom.

In option (D), the idiomatic structure is as follows: ....... from ..... to...

In all the other answer choices, the incorrect idiom expression is being used.

Hello experts

GMATNinja
ChiranjeevSingh
GMATCoachBen
VeritasKarishma

I eliminated option on the basis of incorrect idioms, which I am unsure of.

1.From..into ( Apart from D every options uses this idiom )

2. Also 'Flow out' seems to be awkward.
Both reasons are not strong enough to evaluate answer choices.After going through the discussion, I could not understand why usage of phrase "still in Japan" is incorrect

Kindly help in clarifying errors.Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

The correct idiom is 'flow from A to B'.
'Flow out' and 'flow from A into B' are incorrect.

In option (E), when we have 'still' right after the comma, it shows contrast. But we already have 'despite' to show contrast.

In option (D), 'still' acts as an adverb showing 'upto this time/as yet/even now'.
There are still 5 million farm households ...

GMATNinja

Please share your reasoning in order to cement concept regarding option D&E. Thanks

Use PoE because there are many splits that jump out instantly as you go through the options:

1. Flow out isnt correct use - A/B/E eliminated
2. From....into isnt correct use - A/B/C/E eliminated

Only D survives after all these incorrect usages.
Hence D is the answer

Is C wrong purely from idiom perspective? I marked the correct choice too. But want to know is that the sole reason?

The only problem that I could see in C that makes it outright wrong is the use of "are" with "household". Any "be" verb is followed by a predicate that defines/describes the subject. Here "5 million" cannot define/describe "households".

Cheers!

Besides idioms,

A,B seem to mean, the 5 million are in Japan but the 111(116-5) million are not.
C should be corrected to "the number of Japan's farm households"
D is correct
E: "still there are" and "there are still" don't exactly describe the same intention.