Last visit was: 19 Nov 2025, 14:05 It is currently 19 Nov 2025, 14:05
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Sub 505 Level|   Complete the Passage|                                 
User avatar
manishkhare
Joined: 21 Jun 2014
Last visit: 15 May 2021
Posts: 76
Own Kudos:
412
 [57]
Given Kudos: 59
Location: United States
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
GMAT 1: 630 Q45 V31
GPA: 3.4
WE:Engineering (Computer Software)
GMAT 1: 630 Q45 V31
Posts: 76
Kudos: 412
 [57]
11
Kudos
Add Kudos
46
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Most Helpful Reply
User avatar
broall
User avatar
Retired Moderator
Joined: 10 Oct 2016
Last visit: 07 Apr 2021
Posts: 1,138
Own Kudos:
7,149
 [7]
Given Kudos: 65
Status:Long way to go!
Location: Viet Nam
Posts: 1,138
Kudos: 7,149
 [7]
6
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
General Discussion
avatar
aj33
Joined: 09 Sep 2013
Last visit: 16 Dec 2019
Posts: 62
Own Kudos:
14
 [4]
Given Kudos: 9
Posts: 62
Kudos: 14
 [4]
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
User avatar
AlexGenkins1234
Joined: 18 Sep 2015
Last visit: 17 May 2023
Posts: 57
Own Kudos:
112
 [2]
Given Kudos: 611
GMAT 1: 610 Q47 V27
GMAT 2: 650 Q48 V31
GMAT 3: 700 Q49 V35
WE:Project Management (Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals)
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
manishkhare
Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-distance passenger routes into two categories: rural routes and interurban routes. The analysis found that, unlike the interurban routes, few rural routes carried a high enough passenger volume to be profitable. Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system, since _____________________

[A] A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently
for new high-speed express trains

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services

(E) the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes’ capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes

Premises:
- Analysis showed 2 categories: R & I.U
- Few R routs have #passengers -> that route is profitable
--
Assumptions:
- Saving the unprofitable routes will either cause no change for the profits or case profits to say higher than if we were to remove those routes.
Conclusion:
- Closing the unprofitable routes -/-> (overall profit) to rise

[V] - A
- Since most urban routes are profitable (From the stimulus), and according to this answer choice, if we were to remove those rural routes 2 things might happen:
1. People will find another way to reach the urban routes - in that case the argument will not be strengthened (or weakened).
2. People will chose other means of transportation, and might not even use the urban routes. This strengthen the conclusion.

[X] - B
- Well, if people switched their way only to their rural transportation means, they might still use the urban routes - no influence here.
- In addition, This statement focuses on "few" data points - which means this trend might even be representative - and hence we cannot use it.
- Notice that option A uses the phrase" a large portion..." - which implies the emphasis on significant amount of people.

[X] - C
- This is irrelevant.

[X] - D
- This is irrelevant.

[X] - E
- This is irrelevant.
User avatar
Abhishek009
User avatar
Board of Directors
Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Last visit: 18 Jul 2025
Posts: 5,934
Own Kudos:
5,328
 [1]
Given Kudos: 463
Status:QA & VA Forum Moderator
Location: India
GPA: 3.5
WE:Business Development (Commercial Banking)
Posts: 5,934
Kudos: 5,328
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
manishkhare
Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-distance passenger routes into two categories: rural routes and interurban routes. The analysis found that, unlike the interurban routes, few rural routes carried a high enough passenger volume to be profitable. Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system, since _____________________

Attachment:
Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG [ 5.42 KiB | Viewed 45119 times ]

Now analyze why -

Quote:
Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system...

Prethink :

1. Rural Networks may have a prominent role to the whole system
2. There may be a connection between Urban and Rural railway network system and closing one may have adverse effect

Lets check the options -

Quote:
(A) A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently for new high-speed express trains

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services

(E) the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes’ capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes

Option (A) matches our pre thinking option, hence this is correct answer...
User avatar
Skywalker18
User avatar
Retired Moderator
Joined: 08 Dec 2013
Last visit: 15 Nov 2023
Posts: 2,039
Own Kudos:
9,962
 [1]
Given Kudos: 171
Status:Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
GPA: 3.2
WE:Information Technology (Consulting)
Products:
Posts: 2,039
Kudos: 9,962
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
manishkhare
Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-distance passenger routes into two categories: rural routes and interurban routes. The analysis found that, unlike the interurban routes, few rural routes carried a high enough passenger volume to be profitable. Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system, since _____________________

[A] A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently
for new high-speed express trains

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services

(E) the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes’ capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes

Boil it down - Closing unprofitable routes will not necessarily increase the profitability of the whole system
Type - Explain
Pre - thinking - what if the unprofitable routes have a significant contribution to passenger volume for the profitable routes . Closing the unprofitable routes in such a scenario will be counterproductive .

A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes - Correct answer
User avatar
anairamitch1804
Joined: 26 Oct 2016
Last visit: 20 Apr 2019
Posts: 506
Own Kudos:
3,564
 [3]
Given Kudos: 877
Location: United States
Concentration: Marketing, International Business
Schools: HBS '19
GMAT 1: 770 Q51 V44
GPA: 4
WE:Education (Education)
Schools: HBS '19
GMAT 1: 770 Q51 V44
Posts: 506
Kudos: 3,564
 [3]
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Argument Construction

Situation In the Appenian railroad system, interurban routes generally carry enough passengers to be profitable, but few rural routes do.

Reasoning What would suggest that closing unprofitable rural routes would not enhance the railroad systems profitability?

Any evidence that closing the unprofitable rural routes would
indirectly reduce the profitability of other components of the railroad system would support the conclusion that closing those rural routes will not enhance the system's
profitability. Thus, a statement providing such evidence would logically complete the passage.

A Correct. This suggests that closing the rural routes could discourage many passengers from traveling on the profitable interurban routes as well, thus reducing the profitability of the railroad system as a whole.

B Even if some of the least used rural routes have already been closed, it remains true that most of theremaining rural routes are too little used to be profitable.

C Closing very old routes would be at least as likely to enhance the railroad system's profitability as closing newer routes would be.

D Even if there is better railroad service to some large cities than others, closing unprofitable rural routes could still enhance the system's profitability.

E Even if suburban routes are the most heavily used and profitable, closing underused, unprofitable rural routes could still enhance the system's profitability.

The correct answer is A.
User avatar
anshul0130
Joined: 11 Oct 2020
Last visit: 26 Jan 2023
Posts: 49
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 22
Posts: 49
Kudos: 1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 - I have a query on option A from sentence correction perspective. Can you pls have a look at it and share your thoughts?

Option A - a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

in phrase "Is accounted for", for is a preposition and is followed by another preposition rather than by a noun or noun phrase.

Is phrase "by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes a noun phrase" ?

I understand that it's a GMAT sentence, hence it's correct but I want to know how it's correct.

Thanks,
Anshul P
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,195
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 43
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,195
Kudos: 4,765
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
PanpaliaAnshul
KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 - I have a query on option A from sentence correction perspective. Can you pls have a look at it and share your thoughts?

Option A - a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

in phrase "Is accounted for", for is a preposition and is followed by another preposition rather than by a noun or noun phrase.

Is phrase "by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes a noun phrase" ?

I understand that it's a GMAT sentence, hence it's correct but I want to know how it's correct.

Thanks,
Anshul P

Hello PanpaliaAnshul,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here, "is accounted for" is actually a verb phrase, and "by passengers..." is the only preposition phrase.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
User avatar
KarishmaB
Joined: 16 Oct 2010
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 16,267
Own Kudos:
77,000
 [1]
Given Kudos: 482
Location: Pune, India
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 16,267
Kudos: 77,000
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
PanpaliaAnshul
KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 - I have a query on option A from sentence correction perspective. Can you pls have a look at it and share your thoughts?

Option A - a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

in phrase "Is accounted for", for is a preposition and is followed by another preposition rather than by a noun or noun phrase.

Is phrase "by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes a noun phrase" ?

I understand that it's a GMAT sentence, hence it's correct but I want to know how it's correct.

Thanks,
Anshul P

Active structure:
A accounts for B
'accounts for' is a phrasal verb (verb + preposition/adverb makes the verb. Other examples are ask around or hold on etc). It means "explain or justify".
This is how we would use it in active: Type A passengers account for the passenger volume.

Passive structure
B is accounted for by A
Passenger volume is accounted for by type A passengers.

'for' is not used as a preposition here. It is a part of the verb.
User avatar
Oppenheimer1945
Joined: 16 Jul 2019
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 784
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 223
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 645 Q90 V76 DI80
GPA: 7.81
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KarishmaB
PanpaliaAnshul

Option A - a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

in phrase "Is accounted for", for is a preposition and is followed by another preposition rather than by a noun or noun phrase.

Is phrase "by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes a noun phrase" ?

I understand that it's a GMAT sentence, hence it's correct but I want to know how it's correct.

Thanks,
Anshul P

Active structure:
A accounts for B
'accounts for' is a phrasal verb (verb + preposition/adverb makes the verb. Other examples are ask around or hold on etc). It means "explain or justify".
This is how we would use it in active: Type A passengers account for the passenger volume.

Passive structure
B is accounted for by A
Passenger volume is accounted for by type A passengers.

'for' is not used as a preposition here. It is a part of the verb.

Option B : How changing means of transport not related to reducing profits?
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,829
Own Kudos:
Posts: 18,829
Kudos: 986
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
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.
Moderators:
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
189 posts