An entrepreneur seeking a loan from a financial institution will find

An entrepreneur seeking a loan from a financial institution will find it difficult to persuade a lender if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove his or her potential for success.

A) if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove
Does not follow the correct conditional structure.

B) unless there will be a concrete business plan to prove
Needs to be in present tense to currently prove that the plain is viable.

C) if there is an absence of a concrete business plan to prove
Same reasoning as A

D) without a concrete business plan that proves
Short and concise.

E) in the case there is not a business plan proving
proving should be proves. But, this is also wordy and 'in the case' is a mouthful.

An entrepreneur seeking a loan from a financial institution will find it difficult to persuade a lender if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove his or her potential for success.

Analysis:
The "lacking concrete business plan" in the original sentence does not convey the intended meaning, its not the plan that lacks , but the absence of the plan will prove it difficult to presuade a lender.

Lets see the options

A) if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove
Based on our analysis, lacking concrete business plan changes intended meaning - Incorrect

B) unless there will be a concrete business plan to prove
"will be" changes tense, it should a simple present tense - Incorrect

C) if there is an absence of a concrete business plan to prove
"there is an absence of a concrete business plan" is not concise - Incorrect

D) without a concrete business plan that proves
This option corrects the tense errors and also concise - Correct

E) in the case there is not a business plan proving
The business plan does not prove , but the presence of a concrete business plans proves potential - Incorrect

Ans: D

An entrepreneur seeking a loan from a financial institution will find it difficult to persuade a lender if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove his or her potential for success.

A) if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove Incorrect

there is - redundant , there is refers what?
there is not concise with An entrepreneur

B) unless there will be a concrete business plan to prove Incorrect

there is - redundant , there is refers what?

C) if there is an absence of a concrete business plan to prove Incorrect

there is - redundant , there is refers what?

D) without a concrete business plan that proves Correct

E) in the case there is not a business plan proving Incorrect

there is - redundant , there is refers what?
in the case - wrong

warrior1991 , you wrote


*facepalm*

I searched! Three ways! Rats.

Thank you, warrior1991 . You are gracious.

And to all: I apologize for the duplicate.
Bunuel is the master of merging. (I'm decent at doing so, but he's the master. )
I will ask him to merge the threads and preserve this OE.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



THE PROMPT


THE OPTIONS

• a lacking incorrectly and nonsensically modifies business plan
→ a lacking concrete business plan could only mean a deficient concrete business plan, but in that case, deficient is much better than lacking
→ the usage is not standard. Standard usage includes:
The lack of a concrete business plan . . .

→ __ING words (participles) can modify the nouns that the participles precede: a hovering aircraft, a speeding train
(Some of you have been taught that verbING words can modify only words that precede them. Not correct.)

→ but there is no such thing as "a lacking" noun.
There can be A/THE lack OF [a] noun: lack of honor, lack of patriotism, lack of empathy, for lack of a conscience, for lack of a better word

→ be careful when you see there is or there are.
Typically, these two phrases make a sentence needlessly wordy and rhetorically/stylistically inelegant, a situation evident in this option.

• setting aside the noun problem, the phrase if there is a lacking is beyond awkward. Its diction is a stylistic disaster.
ELIMINATE A

• The logic of the verb tenses in the conditional is incorrectly reversed.
→ The idiomatic structure of UNLESS is
UNLESS X happens, Y will/will not happen.

Unless THIS thing happens, THAT thing will/will not happen.

Unless X happens [present tense], Y will/will not happen[future tense]
X = business plan
Y = convince a lender

→ Transpose the logic: Y will not happen unless X happens.
An entrepreneur will not convince a lender unless there is a concrete business plan.
This sentence reverses the sequential X and Y elements.
ELIMINATE B

• UNLESS
On dave13 's excellent and generously offered thread, SC Tips & Tricks (the whole thread starts here) , he posted a good video about conditionals that use unless. That video is here.


• grammatical, but "there is an absence of" is unnecessarily long and unwieldy. Nor is this usage standard in this sentence.
We never eliminate an option on the basis of awkwardness or wordiness on the first pass.
KEEP C, but look for a better option

• I do not see any errors

• This option is clear and concise. No other option even comes close to the rhetorical effectiveness of option D.
→ Eliminate C.
→ without (in D) is more clear, direct, and concise than if there is an absence of (in C)
ELIMINATE C, KEEP D


• Now that we have seen option D, compare option E to option D
Option D wins. It is clear and concise.
→ Without is more concise and effective than in the case there is not
→ in the case there is not is very close to making little contextual sense at all

The best answer is D.

COMMENTS
(I am writing as if the threads were combined.)

Ever since the election and as the pandemic spiraled out of control in my state, I have been a little flighty.
I forgot that I'd posted this question.
So.

SofiaSaini and mcmoorthy , welcome to SC Butler.

Most of these answers range from good to very good. Nice work.

A) if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove

"if" is not correct usage since there is no "then" clause. INCORRECT

B) unless there will be a concrete business plan to prove

Usage of "will" seems to be questionable as it may mean the entrepreneur may create the plan sometime in the future point post seeking loan. INCORRECT

C) if there is an absence of a concrete business plan to prove

Usage of "if" as in A. INCORRECT

D) without a concrete business plan that proves

clearly conveys the meaning with no error. CORRECT

E) in the case there is not a business plan proving

"in the case there is not" is not direct. INCORRECT

ANS:D

Posted from my mobile device

Hi generis

While I was going through the question, I realized that I have seen the same question before.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-entrepren ... 40316.html

With due respect , just pointing out that the same question was posted by you earlier. I think we can merge these 2 questions.

An entrepreneur will find it difficult if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove his or her potential - Here sentence structure is in 'if-then' conditional statement. In "if-then" structure, "then" is optional. In this sentence also, only "if" has been used and "then" has been omitted.

As outcome has been presented using future tense (will), if statement should use "simple present" tense.


A) if there is a lacking concrete business plan to prove - 'lacking business plan' is not grammatical correct

B) unless there will be a concrete business plan to prove - usage of "will be" is not correct

C) if there is an absence of a concrete business plan to prove - sentence is grammatically correct, but it's unreasonably lengthy

D) without a concrete business plan that proves - this usage is concise and correct

E) in the case there is not a business plan proving - this sentence is also awkward, 'proving' has been used as a modifier

The official explanation is here.

generis

Does not "without business plan'' provides additional info about the lender?

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