Metallicafan wrote




The problem with this question is that it is a recent OG question and that we have to take the OA and OE per se, however cryptic or abnormal they are. Let me give my own interpretation of the GMAC’s thinking.


a) According to the OE in the OG 12th: "The original sentence successfully avoids the problems that may occur in a long sentence with multiple modifiers. Two subordinate clauses begin with "that", and one of them is contained within another


(A) that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come

The question here is what is going to avoid the recession? Is it the economy or the confidence? If we realize that it is the economy that will avoid the recession, then the expression ‘in the economy’ becomes irrelevant. Thus A avoids the pitfall of multiple modifier sentences in which it will be difficult to fix which noun will be modified by which modifier. A seems to be better than B, C and D

b) How can one be sure that "come" is parallel with "avoid", and not with "reflect" of the main clause?,

The confidence does two things and those two things must be parallel. One is that the economy will avoid something and instead (will) come in for something. Reflect is a present tense plural verb and (will) come is a singular future tense verb as in ‘will avoid’. Please do not lose sight of the auxiliary verb ‘will’. So 'reflect' and 'come' are
not parallel.

C In B, why does "rather to come" is wrong

Pl lread in full - “According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence in the economy to avoid the recession, what many feared earlier in the year, rather to come in for a 'soft landing', followed by a gradual increase in the business activity.”

First part: The gains reflect confidence (in the economy) to avoid the recession
Second part: The gains reflect confidence (in the economy) to come in for soft landing

When OG says that ‘to come’ is not idiomatic, it may be meaning that ‘to come’, though grammatically parallel ‘to avoid’, is not the normal usage. Common usage is to describe it as ‘to avoid’ ‘but / instead come’, dropping the infinitive marker ‘to” in the second part.
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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
(B) in the economy to avoid the recession, what many feared earlier in the year, rather to come
(C) in the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared , and instead to come
(D) in the economy to avoid the recession many were fearing earlier in the year, and rather to come
(E) that the economy will avoid the recession that was feared eariler this year by many, with it instead coming

Meaning :

Analyst Said : Gains Reflect confidence . Confidence that Economy with Avoid recession. A recession that was feared by many but come soft with increase in business activity.

Sentence Structure :

According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence (Clause - Gain : Subject, Reflect - Verb)
That the economy will avoid the recession, (clause - Economy: Subject, Will avoid : Verb )
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. (clause That (Recession) : Subject, had Feared and had come verb)

Second clause modifies "Confidence" and Third clause modifies Recession.

Error Analysis :

1. Use of "that" - Usually That introduces clause (S + V), ( when lot of action is happening in small part of sentence GMAT always prefer Clause instead of Phrases ) As per above structure analysis, we have full clause after every occurrence of that and hence Use of that is correct.

2. Use of Will : Any future prediction need Use of simple future hence use of Will is correct.

3. Use of Past perfect Had : Is fear still exist ? No, It was expected / Feared by many but that fear is not there at the time of analyst making that statement. Analyst made that sentence in past and they talked about "Fear" their past event - So Use of "HAD" is not incorrect.

4. Modifiers : there is not misplaces or dangling modifiers, clauses introduced by "that" logically modifies its preceding noun.

So sentence is correct

Option B,C,D can be eliminated based on the absence of "that"
There are other issues as well in Option B,C and D, such as Incorrect usage of "Rather or Instead"

Let's analyse Option E (only option with "That")
that the economy will avoid the recession - Correct
that was feared eariler this year by many - Simple past tense, that means, when analyst made that statement Fear was in existence that means analyst statement in void. this part changes the intended meaning - incorrect
with it instead coming - Adverbial phrase acting as modifier, what this guy is trying to modify, Recession or economy not clear.

I dont' know why it used past perfect tense for A..There is even no single past tense in the sentence!!!
Not mentioning the past perfect tense, I think A is right.
IN B...I am not sure if we can still have "rather to come" without and connecting words such as "and". And maybe it would be better if "in avoiding" is used rather than "to avoid". Overall, B looks okay to me.
In C...confidence in economy's ability...sounds not quite right. Again, past perfect tense. So I drop C.
D. Past progressive tense makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I think D is better than B.
E...Awkward..."with it instead coming" and passive expression.

For me B and E are the winners. If OA is A, I do need an explanation on the reason of using Past Perfect tense there. THx.

Rather - shows preference
e.g
1). We ought to invest in machinery rather than buildings.
2) I want a cat rather than a dog

Instead - suggests that one person, thing or action replaces another.
1). I'll have tea instead of coffee, please.
2). I stayed in bed all day instead of going to work.

E is wrong. You can kill C because instead is not followed by infinitive.
(C) in the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared , and instead to come

Please, your help with this:
a) According to the OE in the OG 12th: "The original sentence successfully avoids the problems that may occur in a long sentence with multiple modifiers. Two subordinate clauses begin with "that", and one of them is contained within another".
Could someone please explain: why does, in this case, the sentence successfully avoid this usual problem?, and Why, in other cases, other sentences can't?

b) How can one be sure that "come" is parallel with "avoid", and not with "reflect" of the main clause?,

c) In B, why does "rather to come" is wrong?
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Hi EGMAT,

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
(B) in the economy to avoid the recession, what many feared earlier in the year, rather to come
(C) in the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared , and instead to come
(D) in the economy to avoid the recession many were fearing earlier in the year, and rather to come
(E) that the economy will avoid the recession that was feared eariler this year by many, with it instead coming

Here correct answer is A. But why we are using past perfect tense. here we are talking about three time periods :past (fear of recession), present (time when the sentence was spoken), and future (will avoid recession). Can't we show past by simple past instead of past perfect? I am unable to get this as there cannot be the case of if.. then.. condition.
Also why choice C is wrong? Is it due to parallelism issue?

Hi eGMAT,
I got the question but need a quick clarification on your explanation above...

Here, "earlier in the year" is a time indicator like "by the time". Right ? You've mentioned that use of past perfect tense is optional. But for a sentence like 'By the time the party ended, the chief guest had left.', use of past perfect tense is must NOT OPTIONAL.

So, please let me know why it'll be optional for this OG question ?

P.S: Optional use of past perfect tense, I guess, only works in a sentence where words such as 'after','before' etc are present,I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Thanks Meghna for clarifying.
So in case of time marker/indicator such as "by the time", use of past perfect tense is MUST. 'By the time the party ended, the chief guest had left.' Right ? (Or is "by the time" NOT a time marker? )

Then for which time markers the use of past perfect tense is OPTIONAL, as you say ? Can we list 'em anyhow ?
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I can come to choice A because other choices have clear errors.
But I am uneasy with choice A
there is no past action or past point of time before which "had feared" happened. In nearly all og questions, "had done" has a past point of time or past action.

we can infer the meaning only from the forms of verb in the sentence.

Hi e-gmat,

Thanks for the good explanation. However, below is my query.

How can we be so sure of the phrase "According to some analysts" is a past event?

Unless the below are mentioned we cannot be sure enough?

(1). Currently, according to analysts : Present

(2). In the past, according to analyst: Past

(3). According to analyst in the coming years: Future

And lastly for the indefinite time when we don't know the time period we use "Present Perfect"

(4). According to analysts: Present perfect.

Please clarify !