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Tanchat
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A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell 02 Oct 2022, 01:15
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A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell about half of its gold reserves and this raised fears of other countries that do the same and inundate the market.

A. reserves and this raised fears of other countries that
B. reserves, which, as a result, raised fears of other countries that
C. reserves, as a result, they feared that other countries would
D. reserves, with fears raised that other countries would
E. reserves, raising fears that other countries would


The issue in (A) is "fear of", right?

"This" in (A) is not wrong because it logically refers to the entire clause "A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell about half of its gold reserves".
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A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell 02 Oct 2022, 10:47
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Tanchat
The issue in (A) is "fear of", right?
Show more

Correct. Nobody was afraid of other countries.
Some people were afraid that other countries would do certain things—a meaning that's impossible to convey with "other countries" + modifier(s).


Quote:
"This" in (A) is not wrong because it logically refers to the entire clause "A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell about half of its gold reserves".
Show more

I suppose so.

The rare instances of standalone "this"/"these" in GMAC's correct sentences, however, have been used for things that don't neatly fit other common modifier templates.
The modifier here is an absolutely perfect fit for comma + _ING, so GMAC is going to write it as comma + _ING in the correct version of the sentence.
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A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell 02 Oct 2022, 11:33
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Tanchat
The issue in (A) is "fear of", right?

Correct. Nobody was afraid of other countries.
Some people were afraid that other countries would do certain things—a meaning that's impossible to convey with "other countries" + modifier(s).


Quote:
"This" in (A) is not wrong because it logically refers to the entire clause "A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell about half of its gold reserves".

I suppose so.

The rare instances of standalone "this"/"these" in GMAC's correct sentences, however, have been used for things that don't neatly fit other common modifier templates.
The modifier here is an absolutely perfect fit for comma + _ING, so GMAC is going to write it as comma + _ING in the correct version of the sentence.
Show more


RonTargetTestPrep
Tanchat

But I would like to confirm that I understand correctly. Some GMAT questions provide only 1 clear and other 1-2 options "not" incorrect but the correct one is better (more concise or clearer)

No. Every question will have 1 correct answer and 4 incorrect answers. The wrong answers are all, indeed, wrong.


Quote:
(A) This can refer to either "clause", "phrase" or "noun". But the structure is not quite good and if "this" refers to the phrase after "with", it will not make much sense and the modifier (with____, ) cannot modify "this".


• "Near to" is not idiomatic.


• The initial "With..." modifier is incorrect for at least two distinct reasons:

—The choice of modifier is entirely inappropriate. Comma-blocked initial "With..." should refer to an underlying circumstance/situation, already true at the time narrated, that contributes/contributed to the event narrated in the main clause. (See here.)

—"This" is trying to describe exactly the same process that's in the modifier, creating nonsense because the modifier and the main clause can't describe the same single observation/event/idea.
analogy:
Because the object is very heavy, it is hard to lift —> SENSIBLE SENTENCE
Because the object is very heavy, its weight makes it hard to lift —> NONSENSE
The object's weight makes it hard to lift —> SENSIBLE SENTENCE (here we need common sense to conclude that the object is heavy, not light or of middling weight)


Quote:
(E) I don't think (E) is totally wrong, but (D) is better

The no comma + "having..." modifier in E is nonsense. A summary of the issue can be found in this post (permalink; should jump directly to my post once the page has finished loading).
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RonTargetTestPrep

Thank you for your response. I really like your explanation :)

Actually, I got the usage of "this" from your knowledge here : https://gmatclub.com/forum/severely-hin ... s#p3077667 here
I used to automatically eliminate the option that has "this" alone, but I don't do that now.
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A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell 01 Nov 2023, 08:31
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Nevernevergiveup
A Swiss government panel recommended that the country sell about half of its gold reserves and this raised fears of other countries that do the same and inundate the market.

A Swiss government panel recommended X and this X resulted in Y.
or simply panel took x causing Y.

In given sentence, this is improperly used pronoun to refer the recommendation.
This pronoun also results in improper meaning.

In option B. reserves, which, as a result, raised fears of other countries that

Which refers to reserves instead of recommendation.
as a result is wordy and modifies which.

C. reserves, as a result, they feared that other countries would

as a result is wordy and modifies which.
they implies is absurd as it refers to reserves wrongly thereby introducing the meaning error.

D. reserves, with fears raised that other countries would

with construction after comma is improper and wrong modifier
fears raised is in passive voice instead of active voice as indicated in non underlined part of the sentence.

E. reserves, raising fears that other countries o

This sentence solves all the problems.
raising fears is the correct verb-ing modifier correctly modifying previous action(panel recommending sth) and presenting result of the previous action in correct tense, voice and construction.
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For E: I think, the verb-ing phrase is modifying the adjoining clause, i.e 'the country sell about half of its gold', the verb-ing phrase is presenting the result of ' country selling the gold'. But how is the subject i.e 'the country' making sense with the phrase ? egmat AjiteshArun , KarishmaB.
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