Because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic co

Because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic conditions beyond the purchaser's control, an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments.

(A) an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments

Compared to “that of” other widely available classes of investments.
“That of” should refer to “investment”. In that case, it would read- an investment in a home may underperform when compared to the investment of other widely available classes of investments.- Now, we have a problem of redundancy! Eliminate.

(B) an investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments
Correct.

(C) an investment in a home may underperform when comparing it with other widely available classes of investments
- distorts the meaning of the sentence. Eliminate.

(D) compared to that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform
Same as A. Eliminate.

(E) in comparison with that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform
Same as A. Eliminate.

Vishnupriya
GMAT Verbal SME

that in A,D,E have no logical referent.
C wrong for error mentioned ( underperform when comparing is making no logical sense).

B the best available.

Please explain the solution to this question.Why B is selected and A & D are eliminated?

abhish27
Because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic conditions beyond the purchaser's control, an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments.

A) an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments - WRONG. 'That of' makes the sentence as "...an investment in a home may underperform when compared to investment of other widely available classes of investments". Thus, its redundant.

B) an investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments - CORRECT. Two noun entities 'an investment' and 'classes of investments' are compared properly.

C) an investment in a home may underperform when comparing it with other widely available classes of investments - WRONG. Unidiomatic.

D) compared to that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform - WRONG. A noun must follow after comma after control. 'That of' makes it redundant.

E) in comparison with that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform - WRONG. Similar error as that made in option D.

Also, for understanding if we write the sentence as:
"An investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic conditions beyond the purchaser's control."

Hope this helps..!!

"Compared with" used for same type i.e. "Investment" here.
"compared to" used to compare two different kind.
So A,C and D is wrong.

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Because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic conditions beyond the purchaser's control, an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments.


When comparing similar objects, "compare with" is the correct idiom.

A) an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments -- idiom error

B) an investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments -- CORRECT idiom and comparison of "investment in a home" with "available classes of investments"

C) an investment in a home may underperform when comparing it with other widely available classes of investments -- "it" has ambiguous referents (investment or home); "comparing it" is also wrong since the subject doing the comparison is not given

D) compared to that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform -- same as A

E) in comparison with that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform -- wrong usage of "that of" which can be replaced with "investment of" and render the sentence illogical

Answer is B

A. an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments. We have to be strict as to when we use 'when'. When has to refer to a specific time period

B. looks fine. Keep B

C. an investment in a home may underperform when comparing it with other widely available classes of investments. C has the same problem as option A does. Eliminate C

D. compared to that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform. When we see 'that' we rephrase the sentence by putting the exact noun that 'that' is trying to replace. Here we have compared to 'investment' of other widely available classes of investment? This does not make any sense. Eliminate D

E. Option E has same problem as option D does. Eliminate E.

We are left with B

PS, An Obvious thing : To improve yourself in SC, REVIEW every mistake in every answer choice after you attempt a problem.

Because property values sometimes fluctuate in response to economic conditions beyond the purchaser's control, an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments.

Observing the SS - “Because property…..control” is a subordinate clause, the part after comma requires a main clause.


A) an investment in a home may underperform when compared to that of other widely available classes of investments
Whenever there is comparison, it is better to replace the “that” with the appropriate noun.
Here “when compared to the investment of other widely available classes of investments” – Doesn’t make sense. So Incorrect.

B) an investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments
Best of ALL.

C) an investment in a home may underperform when comparing it with other widely available classes of investments
Meaning is of utmost importance.”…… may underperform when comparing it with…..” means what that it underperforms only WHEN we compare it, otherwise it doesn’t ?
Incorrect

D) compared to that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform
Property value is being compared to “that of other widely available classes of”
Incorrect comparison and doesn’t make sense.

E) in comparison with that of other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform
Property value is being compared to “that of other widely available classes of”
Incorrect comparison and doesn’t make sense.

Hi GMATNinja,
Need to verify my understanding of the options. When i tried solving this question, i rejected all the choices. A,D and E because of 'that of' which causes redundancy and leads to illogical meaning when we replace that with 'an investment'.
I rejected B and C because they seem to be comparing an investment to other 'CLASSES of investments" rather than comparing an investment to a different investment.
Could you please help make sense of the options?

(B) an investment in a home may underperform compared with other widely available classes of investments.

I don't understand the structure of sentence B.

what does "compared" modify? Thanks!

Hello Spicyagent,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt. Option B takes the form of an independent clause, wherein the subject "investment in a home" is acted upon by the active verb phrase "may underperform"; the subject is then modified by the past participle phrase "compared with other widely available classes of investments"; this conveys that if compared with other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform. Another way to construct this clause is "compared with other widely available classes of investments, an investment in a home may underperform"; this construction makes the modification clearer, but the construction of Option B is not incorrect.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja AndrewN
I rejected (B) because there is no comma before V.ed modifier.
In GMAT, without comma, V.ing modifier will modify preceding noun.

However, in this case, V.ed is used, and the preceding is verb.
So, is V.ed without comma allowed to modify entire clause ?

Hello, TorGmatGod. I agree with the Experts' Global response above, as well as this earlier post by GMATNinja. I think you may be following your understanding of grammatical conventions too closely while overlooking the comparison. If I were to write two somewhat similar sentences with a one-word noun instead of a noun phrase as the subject, I think you would appreciate the point. Consider:

1) He runs faster than that other person.
2) He runs faster compared to that other person.

Is it absolutely necessary to place a comma before compared to in the second sentence? No. The comparison trigger between the two runners is understood. (Of course, if I were to see both sentences in a lineup, I would favor the first, but that is beside the point.) In fact, I would disfavor the comparison with a comma. Why? Because a comma would create an extra little pause, and in that short span of time, I would have a completely meaningless comparison. (Faster, but relative to what?) Without a comma, the pause is shorter, and I can anticipate that the second element of the comparison will follow immediately, just as it does above.

In the sentence about investments, one type of investment is being compared to another. Would you have the same trouble if (B) were rewritten with a different comparison trigger?

B.2) an investment in a home may perform worse than other widely available classes of investments

When you stop thinking about meaning, you will keep finding these so-called exceptions to the rules. Anyway, I hope my response proves helpful to you. Thank you for thinking to ask, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Hello TorGmatGod,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, modifiers can absolutely act upon a noun or noun phrase without being offset by a comma. As AndrewN has written above, understanding the meaning of the sentence is often key to understanding the structure.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hey ExpertsGlobal5, do ed modifiers jump over verbs? For this question the structure looks like this: our noun phrase subject [invest in a home] + verb [may underperform] + verb-ed modifier [compared], and it appears that compared is jumping over our verb and modifying the nearest noun phrase. I think there was this e-gmat blog post saying ed modifiers do not jump over verbs. Any proper reference that I can use to learn how GMAT likes to use ed modifiers? What are the dos and dont's?

Vordhosbn

"Compared with" is working as an adverbial modifier for "underperform." It might be clearer if we replace "compared with" with "in relation to." HOW are investments in homes underperforming? They are underperforming in relation to other classes of investments. This makes it clear that they aren't underperforming compared with, say, previous performance or the predictions of investors.

Hello Vordhosbn,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, as DmitryFarber has written, another way to look at this is that "compared" acts as an adverb on "underperform", conveying that"an investment in a home" may seem to underperform if it is compared with other types of investments.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team