According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect grow

Let's compare (A) and (D):
When we say that we have confidence IN somebody (or something), this suggests that the person (or thing) has some influence over the outcome:

• For example, if I have "confidence IN my management team," it means that I trust the team's ability to do a good job.
• But if I have "confidence THAT the meteor will avoid the Earth," it's not because I trust that the meteor will, of its own accord, steer clear of the Earth -- the meteor itself has no direct control or influence over the outcome.
• Similarly, the economy doesn't actively DO anything to avoid a recession. So "confidence IN" is more appropriate than "confidence THAT" in this case.

Also, does the phrase "TO avoid the recession..." mean "IN ORDER TO avoid the recession..." -- as if there is confidence IN ORDER TO avoid the recession? This leaves the reader wondering who or what is actually avoiding the recession, as suggested in this post by VeritasKarishma.

Also, the verb "were fearing" (which, if you like the jargon, is the past progressive tense) doesn't really work here because we generally expect it to be followed by a specific action or moment in the past.

Here, have an example:

"Tim framed the shirt that he was wearing when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004."

In this case, "was wearing" tells us what Tim was doing WHEN something else happened, right?

With that in mind, consider the phrase "the recession many were fearing." In this case, we don't get a something else, so there's really no reason to use a progressive/continuous tense.

More importantly, as explained in this post, the past perfect in (A) helps clarify the timing of the actions.

None of these are smoking guns, but we have several reasons why (A) is a better choice than (D).

I hope that helps!

Hello ElijahTimroyalty,

Thank you for the PM on this question.


So, your question pertains to Choice C. Yes, you have correctly identified that there are two consecutive modifiers in this choice. But is this a good reason to reject this or any answer choice? I will say No. It is not uncommon to see modifiers appearing one after the other in a long, complex sentence. What really matters in such structures is that every modifier must present logical meaning with absolutely no ambiguity at all. As long as this criterion is met, the usage of consecutive modifiers is not at all an issue.

In Choice C, the modifiers unambiguously modify the entities they are meant to. The modifier "in the economy's ability" clearly modifies the action "reflect growing confidence". Similarly, the modifier "something earlier in the year..." unambiguously modifies "the recession". When we read this choice, we do not get confused about what these modifiers are talking about. Therefore, their usage one after the other is fine.

This choice is incorrect because it changes the intended meaning of the sentence as explained in the detailed solution presented by e-GMAT.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi egmat ,

As per my understanding, we cannot use past perfect tense with just one past event, in that case we use simple past.
So does above explanation mean
"had feared" : is the first action/verb
"Analysts said" : is the second action/verb

Can you please elaborate this.

Hello OrAnGe80,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

Your reasoning here is correct; put simply, the order of events here is that many feared something earlier in the year, and then analysts said something about the stock market.

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

Hi GMATNinja,
Could you please analyze each option?

We've touched on all five options throughout the thread, so here's quick recap to help you follow along:

• To start, check out this explanation of (A) vs (C).
• Next, check out this explanation of (A) vs (D).
• Those two explanations explain why "that the economy..." is better than "in the economy...," giving us a vote against choice (B).
• We get another vote against (B) in the middle of this post. The end of that same post explains a problem with (E).
• Lastly, the "with it" in (E) doesn't really make sense: the economy will avoid the recession WITH the economy coming in for a soft landing? Why are we using the preposition "with" here? How does the economy do something WITH the economy doing something else? That might not be wrong, but the parallel structure in (A) makes the intended meaning more clear.

Hopefully you can piece all of that together, but if you still have questions, don't hesitate to tag us again!

" The economy will avoid " Isn't this a bit illogical ? How can an economy itself perform the activity of avoiding something ?

Hi Namangupta1997,

Good point, but such usage is acceptable. As far as I know, there are no rules that can guide us here, so such calls need to be taken on a case-by-case basis.

We can also try to prioritise other splits.

AjiteshArun

On this forum, I've seen some explanations of some answer choices that were discarded because they had an inanimate thing or an abstract noun perform an action. But as you said, there are no concrete rules in this area. Eliminating the obvious might be our only arrow in the quiver.

Dear Experts,

As per my understanding, in the sentence "According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and ...", the highlighted portion depicts a past perfect tense, and there no related event from the more recent past. Since it's an official question, I'm sure that there's some gap in my understanding that I'm unable to close. Request you to please help me understand what am I missing.

Thanks in advance!

We attempted to address this question in the following posts:

• (scroll to the end) https://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to-some-analysts-the-gains-in-the-stock-market-reflect-grow-70645-40.html#p2590747
• https://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to-some-analysts-the-gains-in-the-stock-market-reflect-grow-70645-40.html#p2785969

If you still have questions, let us know!

A I don't see any errors, and it's pretty direct

B "rather to come" is incorrect because of parallelism

C Similar issue as B "instead to come" is incorrect because of parallelism

D "and rather to come" is incorrect because of parallelism

E Generally awkward sentence with this phrasing

According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come in for a 'soft landing', followed by a gradual increase in the business activity.

(A) that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come
apprppriately conveys the two aspects of the economy in a chronological and precise manner[

(B) in the economy to avoid the recession, what many feared earlier in the year, rather to come
infinitive -- rather to come -- subject assignment to the verb is not clearr

(C) in the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared , and instead to come
wordy and not concise

(D) in the economy to avoid the recession many were fearing earlier in the year, and rather to come
infinitive -- rather to come -- subject assignment to the verb is not clear

(E) that the economy will avoid the recession that was feared earlier this year by many, with it instead coming
parallellism error -- will avoid and coming -- in two dependent clauses

Posted from my mobile device


I got this correct because E was awkward in the end.

However, can you please help with with why past perfect was used in option A. Which event in the past does it preceed?

ExpertsGlobal

Editing post as ExpertsGlobal hasn't replied.

Can any other experts please chime in on the double use of past perfect.

There are a couple of ways you can eliminate answers quickly using logic and precise intended meaning.

B, C, and D use the “infinitive of purpose” following a noun other than the subject.

At the very least, the construction in B, C, and D leads to ambiguity, if not an illogical meaning.

Generally, if we wrote the following sentence:

Ex: “The coach lost faith in his players to bring home the trophy.”

In this case, the “agent” of the infinitive is the noun “players.” It is the “players” who are responsible for the action conveyed by “to bring home the trophy.”

Using this interpretation of the infinitive in answers B and D, we are conceding that the “economy” had the ability and opportunity itself “to avoid the recession”: an illogical meaning.

Another interpretation of B and D is one that reads the sentence as conveying the message that the the subject noun is the Agent of the infinitive “to avoid.”

This would lead to the absurd meaning that the “gains” in the stock market reflect a growing confidence IN ORDER TO AVOID the recession.

Any way you try to interpret the infinitive, the meaning is nonsensical. B and D can be eliminated.

The author compounds the meaning issue in answer C by including the construction “the economy’s ability to avoid the recession.”

Answer C directly attributes an ability to the economy to purposefully avoid a recession (and also provides a hint to look closer at B and D)

What remains is A and E.

E: …..that the economy will avoid the recession THAT was feared earlier this year by many…

The “that” begins an essential noun modifier delineating the exact type of “recession”: it is the “recession that was feared earlier this year by many.”

To have feared an event (in the past time frame), the event must have already occurred.

Therefore, the implication of this construction is that this was a recession that ALREADY OCCURRED and “was feared earlier this year.”

This reason alone gives on enough reason to confidently eliminate E, to say nothing of the illogical “comma + with” modifier at the end of the sentence.

Through process of elimination, the only answer that conveys the intended meaning correctly is A.

Posted from my mobile device

We attempted to explain the usage of the past perfect in this post (and also at the very bottom of this lengthy post). Check that out, and let us know if that doesn't answer your questions!