State officials report that soaring rates of liability insurance have

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the meaning of this sentence is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that the soaring rates of liability insurance are forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Verb Forms

• The infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + force" in this sentence) is the preferred construction for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "have risen to force"; the construction of this phrase and the use of the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + force" in this sentence) illogically imply that the soaring rates of liability insurance rose for the purpose of forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities; the intended meaning is that the soaring rates of liability insurance are currently, practically, forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities; remember, the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + force" in this sentence) is the preferred construction for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "are a force for"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the soaring rates of liability insurance are forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

C: Correct. The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "soaring rates for liability insurance", conveying the intended meaning - that the liability insurance rates, themselves, are soaring. Moreover, Option C uses the phrase "are forcing" - conveying the intended meaning - that the soaring rates of liability insurance are currently, practically, forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

D: The sentence formed by this answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "soaring rises in liability insurance rates"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the rises in liability insurance rates are soaring - in other words that the speeds at which the rates are rising are soaring; the intended meaning is that the liability insurance rates, themselves, are soaring.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "have risen to force"; the construction of this phrase and the use of the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + force" in this sentence) illogically imply that the soaring rates of liability insurance rose for the purpose of forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities; the intended meaning is that the soaring rates of liability insurance are currently, practically, forcing cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities; remember, the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + force" in this sentence) is the preferred construction for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

in addition to the idiomatic usage...

A. It already states "soaring rates". So mentioned "risen" again is not needed.
for B "are a force for" when compared to C "are forcing" makes C look proper to me.

There is also a verb issue here. On my first try of this question, I thought it should be "have risen" because the rates are rising and continue to rise. But, this one is tricky, because they put the word soaring in the sentence. This meaning already indicates the action is happening and continuing to happen, so the present perfect is not needed! Present tense works!

State officials report that soaring rates of liability insurance have risen to force cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

(A) rates of liability insurance have risen to force
(B) rates of liability insurance are a force for
(C) rates for liability insurance are forcing
(D) rises in liability insurance rates are forcing
(E) liability insurance rates have risen to force

souring and rises are redundant as they try to convey the same meaning. Between B and C "rates for" is the correct idiom.

I have chosen C for this question:

A. "Have risen" is redundant because "soaring" already describes the rates. Also, "to force" should be changed to "are forcing" to describe what the rates are doing.

B. "Are a force for" is wordy and is not the correct answer.

C. This answer choice is correct. The words "have risen" are no longer in the sentence and do not cause redundancy. Also, "are forcing" is correctly used here.

D. "Soaring rises" is redundant.

E. Again, "have risen" is redundant. Also, "to force" should be "are forcing."

I understand the fact that in B) 'are a force' is unidiomatic but what about 'rates for liability insurance' in C). Isn't that unidiomatic as well? As in, 'the rate of attrition' is right and not 'the rate for attrition'. Kindly help me through this.

"rates for" and "rates of" are both idiomatic: it depends on the subject. If the subject is a price "rates for" is correct, is the subject is a measure/rate "rates of" is correct ('the rate of attrition')

However this idioms are not tested with high frequency, so you can arrive at the correct answer without knowing the difference; just keep in mind that just because you know that "the rate of" is idiomatic, it does not mean that a change in the words makes the construct unidiomatic: there can be multiple correct versions of the thing (as here "rates of/for").

IMO - C
(A) rates of liability insurance have risen to force >> correct idiom is - rates for. to force - this wrongly implying that rates have rises just to force...where as intended meaning should be rates rises are forcing....Also, soaring & rises are redundant
(B) rates of liability insurance are a force for >> correct idiom is - rates for. Correct usage can be are a force for cutting back (for...V-ing)
(C) rates for liability insurance are forcing >> CORRECT
(D) rises in liability insurance rates are forcing >> soaring & rises are redundant
(E) liability insurance rates have risen to force >> to force - this wrongly implying that rates have rises just to force...where as intended meaning should be rates rises are forcing....Also, soaring & risen are redundant

Hi Experts - GMATNinja and VeritasKarishma
Here "soaring" modify "rates of liability insurance" or "soaring rates" modify "liability insurance" ?
According to my understanding "soaring rates" modify "liability insurance".
"soaring" modify "rates of liability insurance" is incorrect.
"soaring rate of liability insurance" is a better version if soaring is modifying rate.

AjiteshArun VeritasKarishma MentorTutoring Abhi077 MikeScarn


Any issue with verb tense (present perfect) in this sentence?
Being a non-native, I would prefer performing PoE on basis of other options than memorizing idioms.

Can redundancy of risen and soaring be used to eliminate this choice?

Hi adkikani,

... soaring rates of liability insurance have risen to force cutbacks...

1. You're correct: soaring + have risen is redundant.
2. Rate of insurance is incorrect. We'd normally use rate of with something that has a frequency or is changing, like rate of change of speed. For price, rate for is the one we want. Soaring rates for electricity, not soaring rates of electricity.
3. To force makes it sound as if that is the reason that the rates have risen.
4. Soaring indicates that the rates are still increasing, but have risen leaves us with something that seems to be over. That is, something "has risen", but may not be continuing to rise.

We're spoiled for choice here.

soaring modifies rates (noun).
"of liability insurance" modifies rates too - tells us what kind of rates these are. These are rates of liability insurance.

You can say:
soaring rates ... have forced cutbacks ...
or
rates ... have risen, forcing cutbacks ...

Use of both soaring and risen is wrong. "soaring" in not underlined so we have to live with it.
As for the tense, since we are saying "soaring rates..." I would like to say "are forcing". Since rates soaring is an ongoing process, they are forcing cutbacks (an ongoing process).
Though, "have forced" would also be fine to show that we have noticed cutbacks. There is relevance to the present because of the use of present perfect.

State officials report that soaring rates of liability insurance have risen to force cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.


(A) rates of liability insurance have risen to force

(B) rates of liability insurance are a force for

(C) rates for liability insurance are forcing

(D) rises in liability insurance rates are forcing

(E) liability insurance rates have risen to force

"rise" and "soaring" are redundant. So A, D, and E are out.

Comparing B and C:

Remember:
"a force": noun form of "force", refers to the result.
"forcing": verb+ing form of "force", refers to the action/process.

Since the original sentence used "report" and "soaring", we can infer that the original sentence intended to use action of "force". Therefore, forcing is correct.

The same logic can be applied to many other words. Such as "comparing", "comparison". The usage depends on the context of the original sentence.

In addition, "rates for" + price, and "rates of" + measure.

Question stem:

State officials report that soaring rates of liability insurance have risen to force cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

Detailed answer

I see a lot of discussion on idiom "rates of" vs "rates for", but we can tackle this question without having the knowledge of idiomatic expression.

Let's see why incorrect choices are incorrect.


(A) rates of liability insurance have risen to force

No grammatical error, but whenever we use infinitive it shows intention, here, rates of liability insurance have risen to force, conveys an unintended meaning. Think: rates have risen to force something? Is it logical? No -- So incorrect.


(B) rates of liability insurance are a force for

No grammatical error. Plural subject "rates" matches with the plural verb "are". But again see the meaning. Present tense in GMAT is used only when we want to convey general/usual fact. Here "rates of liability insurance are a force for" conveys an unintended meaning i.e rates of liability insurance are always a force for... Incorrect.

(C) rates for liability insurance are forcing

Perfect. Use of present progressive tense seems logical here, conveys an intended meaning. - Correct

(D) rises in liability insurance rates are forcing

Incorrect. Just replace the underlined part in the question with this one and see the mess it creates. soaring rises in.... soaring and rises redundant and illogical also.

(E) liability insurance rates have risen to force

Incorrect. Same as A.

Hope this helps.

VeritasKarishma
Hi Karishma,
Why present tense is incorrect in B?
"State officials report" - This statement is in present tense. Why shift in verb (present tense to progressive) in C is correct?
How to decide whether tense shift is correct?

In C) "rates....are forcing"
Isnt this structure a bit weird? Rates are not living things, they cant force someone or something. That's the only reason I eliminated C, because that felt a shady

AndrewN VeritasKarishma GMATNinja pls help