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An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n

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globaldesi
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An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink] New post   24 Jan 2021, 06:50
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An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent financial difficulties, culminating in the foreclosure on their property last week, was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations.

a) was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by
b) was due not to irresponsible financial planning but to
c) was not due to irresponsible financial planning but caused by
d) were not due to irresponsible financial planning being caused by
e )were due not to irresponsible financial planning but to
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Re: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink] New post   24 Jan 2021, 18:49
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their recent financial difficulties-Plural
Verb required Plural.

A,B,and C are out.

Between D and E, the sentence is saying that :-
1. Recent financial difficulties
2. Caused not by irresponsible financial planning
3. But by unpredictable market fluctuations.

Option E highlights this properly. Option D changes the meaning that " irresponsible financial planning was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations"
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manan subba
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Re: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink] New post   24 Jan 2021, 20:48
financial difficulties is plural so we will choose "where"
option E is parallel where as D is not
hence

e )were due not to irresponsible financial planning but to
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Re: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink] New post   08 Feb 2021, 12:44
globaldesi wrote:
An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent financial difficulties, culminating in the foreclosure on their property last week, was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations.

a) was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by
b) was due not to irresponsible financial planning but to
c) was not due to irresponsible financial planning but caused by
d) were not due to irresponsible financial planning being caused by
e )were due not to irresponsible financial planning but to


STEP 1: CUT THE FLUFF
The first thing you should do after reading the initial sentence is to ignore the long modifier in the middle of the sentence. An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent financial difficulties, culminating in the foreclosure on their property last week, was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations.

You are left with: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent financial difficulties was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations.

Eliminate all other "fluff": An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent financial difficulties was due not to irresponsible financial planning but was caused by unpredictable market fluctuations.

You are left with: An analysis reveals that their financial difficulties was due not to irresponsible planning but was caused by market fluctuations.

STEP 2: SUBJECT-VERB
"their financial difficulties was" as soon as you see this I hope you heard the alarm bells: "MAY DAY MAY DAY we have SUBJECT-VERB DISAGREEMENT". Do not panic; we have practiced for this sort of event. "difficulties" is a plural noun, whereas "was" is a singular verb.
Choice A,B & C all repeat this mistake and we can get rid of them leaving us with D&E.

STEP 3: TRUST THE PROCESS
Choosing between D&E was difficult for me. My ear told me that I prefer "not due to" in D. BUT my ear is never part of my decision process as the golden rule (of @GMATNinja) is: 1. eliminate all definite errors & 2. pay attention to meaning.
Trusting in this process I noticed that D changes the meaning. Therefore, I correctly chose E.
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Re: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink] New post   08 Feb 2021, 13:12
Plural is clearly the case. but "being caused by" in D says that irresponsible financial planning was caused by unpredictable fluctuations. How can this be? from the logical standpoint, you are either responsible, or irresponsible. market has nothing to do with it.

Franklyspeaking, i had no clue that splitting "due to" like that was possible.

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Re: An analysis of the company’s documents reveals that their recent n [#permalink]
08 Feb 2021, 13:12
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