Because of the erratic pattern of sales increases this year retailers

Hi woohoo921,

There is another possibility here, that the GMAT doesn't look at this issue as an absolute. I'm not saying that you should change your approach, but I don't think using due to to modify clauses is impossible.

That said, although I don't look at it as an absolute, I don't think this call is all that important, and a simple, direct approach (treat it as an absolute) should work well for most test takers.

...thus another example of how the OG answer explanations routinely contain inaccuracies.





You're breaking this down into fundamentally incorrect pieces.
It seems that you're treating the two words "because of", all by themselves, as though they were a whole modifier...? If so, then it ought to be clear enough that this is the wrong breakdown—since those two words alone are completely meaningless.

The way it works:
• "Because of xxxxxx" is a modifier.
• This modifier—which actually contains a meaningful attribution of causation (unlike just the words "because of", which mean nothing at all until a noun is appended afterwards)—should describe the entire clause to which it is attached.

In this case, Because of the erratic pattern of sales increases this year (in choice A) is A MODIFIER. This modifier sensibly, and thus correctly, describes the whole sentence/clause that appears after the comma.

Analysis of all options is at the bottom of this post.


Option A: Because of the erratic pattern of sales increases this year,
retailers and analysts hesitate to predict five-year trends in retail sales during the months that have historically been the most profitable.


Hi cool16 ,

No, option A is not an exception.
(And +1 kudos for not "fighting" with the official answer.)

Option A does not have a clause with a subject and a verb after Because of.
The underlined words are a noun phrase (a noun + modifiers).
. . . the erratic pattern of sales increases [NOUN phrase] this year. . .

You got tripped up by "sales increases."
That phrase is a noun phrase.

The noun is increases.
-- The legislators proposed two tax rate increases: one on the sale of alcohol and one on the sale of legal marijuana.

The adjective is sales. (What kind of increases? Sales increases.)
-- Similar example: The sales figures for this year are surprisingly high.
-- True, "sales" is a often just a noun.
But sales can and does act as an adjective that describes increases. See below.

Sales and increases cannot be a subject and verb together.
Sales is plural and increases is singular.

• "SALES increases" - nouns that modify nouns

In English, we use nouns to modify nouns:
Spanish teacher
Sports car
Race horse
Corn bread

In the noun phrase sales increases, the noun increases is modified by the noun, sales, which acts as an adjective.
(What kind of increases? Sales increases.)

When a noun modifies another noun
(1) we can call the first noun a "noun-adjective" and
(2) the "noun-adjective" always comes before the noun that it modifies. No exceptions.

"Sales" is a noun-adjective.
GMAC is exploiting the fact that no good synonym exists for the noun increases in this context.
Sales rises? Not idiomatic. Sales spikes? Sales surges? Better, but a spike and surge indicate a radical increase, not just a "regular" increase.

In short, we realize that sales increases is a noun phrase because
(1) the two words cannot be subject/verb. Sales is plural. Increases is singular.
(2) sales increases follows the compound preposition because of.
-- prepositions must be followed by nouns or noun phrases
-- in English, one noun can act as an adjective that describes a subsequent noun.

• Introductory phrase structure?

Although the "because of" phrasing is not common in spoken English, that phrasing is fairly common in formal written English.

You correctly note that the compound preposition because of should be followed by a noun or noun phrase.
Because of is indeed followed by a noun phrase; that fact is just hard to see if we don't examine "sales increases" carefully.

That is, the introductory phrase is a compound preposition (Because of)
+
a noun phrase (the erratic pattern OF sales increases this year...)

As I note in my post below, here, we have two prepositions back to back:
because of [an erratic pattern]
and
of [sales increases this year]

More specifically, we have:

[compound preposition] + THE + [adjective] + [noun/direct object] + OF + [noun-adjective + noun] + [time adjective]

[Because of] + THE + [erratic] + [pattern] + OF + [sales + increases] + [this year]

Finally, to what time period does this pattern [of sales increases] belong?
This pattern belongs to this year
This year = adjective
Most of the time, a "when" phrase or word is an adverb.
When a time phrase modifies a noun, it is an adjective.
-- This November's daily temperatures are surprisingly high, especially compared to last November's daily temperatures .
-- In both instances, the phrase "this November's" is an adjective that modifies the noun temperatures, not the verbs are or compared.

This part of the question is hard. Just below I have indicated the errors in the other options.

Hope that helps.

************
PROCESS OF ELIMINATION

When in doubt, compare. Option A has no errors. The other four have clear errors.

Because of the erratic pattern of sales increases this year, retailers and analysts hesitate to predict five-year trends in retail sales during the months that have historically been the most profitable.

A) Because of the erratic pattern of sales increases this year, retailers and analysts hesitate to predict

B) With the erratic pattern of this year’s sales increases, retailers and analysts are hesitant in predicting:
GMAC does not like "with" to express causality. The meaning is strange and not clear: along with or together with the erratic pattern of sales increases, analysts are hesitant?
Finally, hesitant in predicting is not idiomatic. They are hesitant TO do something. They are hesitant TO predict trends.

C) This year, due to the erratic pattern of increasing sales, there is some hesitation among retailers and analysts in predicting
Especially compared to option A, option C is awkwardly phrased, unnecessarily passive, and wordy. No need exists for there is.The phrase some hesitation among . . . in predicting is cumbersome.
Finally, hesitation IN predicting is not idiomatic. There is hesitation TO predict.

D) The erratic pattern of sales increases have made retailers and analysts hesitate this year to predict
The singular subject pattern is not in agreement with the plural verb have.

E) This year’s erratic pattern of increasing sales have made retailers and analysts hesitate to predict - same S/V problem as that in D

increases is singular???!

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