Because the economic cycle in the United states

There is an ambiguity in what 'its' refers to. It could meaningfully refer to both economic cycle and United States. Dont know how C is right.

Please refer to this cite : https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t1474.html
It is from Manhattan Review !!

Recessing = holding onto / suspending.
Recessions = a period of temporary economic decline.

According to the context C and D are only left.
C is better than D.
interval of recessions . ? interval of period ??

Correct answer must be (C) for the highlighted errors in the other options...

Because the economic cycle in the United States changes little during its 20-year
interval between recessing, it is fairly easy for analysts to predict analogous trends in the stock market.

(A) between recessing
(B) of recessing
(C) between its recessions
(D) of its recessions
(E) as it recesses
POE Between C and D

Please search before posting. Merged.

Interval between recessions is the right phrase. Choice C is the correct answer.

"its " in C, D, and E looked suspicious to me. IMO, it should refer to Unites States but "its" used before was used for economic cycle.
So thinking its a pronoun ambiguity, i chose B. Why "its" does not seem to be at issue here ?

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The word ‘interval’ is critical in this sentence. You might want to ask yourself why use the word ‘between’ at all? You need the word because of the word ‘interval’. ‘Interval’ implies that something is happening. That something has two parts to it. ‘Interval between’ is the correct idiomatic expression. A is incorrect because it uses the verb form ‘recessing’, which is not connected to a recession in the economy. This type of recession is what the sentence is discussing. Choice C is the best answer.

Hey Bunuel

Thanks for OE. But I still find the use of "its" in Choice C odd.

GMATclub experts pl enlighten...

mikemcgarry, GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo, sudarshan22, broall, Vyshak, hazelnut, generis VeritasKarishma

Harshgmat , I think the "oddity" you sense is actually the "its" in the prompt.

Bottom line? Nice work! +1

Although pronouns are not the determining factor, "its" in the prompt stopped me for a few seconds. Every time I get stopped for a few seconds I force myself to move on. Moving on worked.

The PROMPT should use "the" instead of its, thus:

Because the economic cycle in the United States changes little during THE 20-year interval between ITS recessions, it is fairly easy for analysts to predict analogous trends in the stock market.

Generally, because pronouns are not the issue, we have to use POE with our focus on
1) recessing/recessions, then
2) correct idiom: the interval is BETWEEN the economic cycle's recessions

The OA is silent about the issue you raise, but you are correct. The use of "its" (in the prompt) is "odd."

generis - As always prompt ( ) and pertinent!!

Nice work! +1

Can you update the question prompt ( ) in original posting ?

Harshgmat
Too funny. I'm laughing so hard.
I can definitely be the absent-minded professor, but I am kinda nutty about editing.
I would not have left the error . . . had it been a TYPO.

It's an author's error. I can't change copyrighted material.
Just now I decided that the error did not seem as if it would have gotten past Manhattan Prep's sentence editors.
So I went searching. This question is from Manhattan . . . . Review, it seems.

I just found the question on (confused yet?) Manhattan Prep.

I'm inclined to believe the poster here, though, on Manhattan Prep -- who says he or she accidentally posted it from Manhattan Review. I'll re-tag.

That poster, BTW, was also rightly uneasy about the pronouns.
Ron P. gave the same answer that I did.

Thanks for the laugh. Gotta say, you handled what you thought was a pretty serious mod blooper with aplomb.

Thanks for keeping us on our toes!

generis Only thing which I would like to say is -

generis is a sui generis

For others what I mean - https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sui%20generis

Because the economic cycle in the United States changes little during its 20-year interval between recessing, it is fairly easy for analysts to predict analogous trends in the stock market.

Key idea: when we highlight events that take place within a time interval, then we need to use ''between''. Since (B), (D), and (E) does not have the word ''between'', we can eliminate (B), (D), and (E).

(A) between recessing - here, "recessing" is a verb, not a noun.

(C) between its recessions - has no error. hence, (C) is the right answer choice.

(A) between recessing
- Made little sense, between recessing and what?

(B) of recessing
- I read this as the economic cycles function during 20 years was to recess which makes no sense.

(C) between its recessions
- 'Its recessions' in contrast to A clearly indicates that there are multiple recessions, and between which the economic cycle changes little.

(D) of its recessions
- Same as B.

(E) as it recesses
- Incorrect use of 'as,' If we are using 'as' to propose a function then we require a noun.

(B) is correct

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.