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505-555 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|                     
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 13 Jan 2022, 08:59
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if any choice has no grammatical error, which we realize easily, we need to focus on meaning. for many sc problems,there are no hard grammar points in the problems, but the meaning error is hard to realize

in choice d, " needed by government" means government need approval. this is no sense. the companies need approval.

if we focus on meaning, then we can realize meaning error. but we need to be good at grammar before we can focus on meaning
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 11 May 2022, 11:43
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Dear Expert,

I have two questions

1) What does needing no.... modify? insurance companies in California were free.. ??

2) WHY D is incorrect ? A preposition after comma generally modifies subject of the clause, which is insurance companies. Also, "they" logically refers to insurance companies. (Pronoun ambiguity is not the absolute rule to eliminate)
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 11 May 2022, 14:39
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Tanchat
Dear Expert,

I have two questions

1) What does needing no.... modify? insurance companies in California were free.. ??
Show more
Yes, exactly.

Quote:
2) WHY D is incorrect ? A preposition after comma generally modifies subject of the clause, which is insurance companies. Also, "they" logically refers to insurance companies. (Pronoun ambiguity is not the absolute rule to eliminate)
Show more
The meaning conveyed by (D) doesn't make sense.

The clearest issue is that (D) says, "approval not needed BY regulators," as if the regulators would need approval in order for insurance companies to raise rates. We can see that this meaning is not logical.

Also, the use of "with" in (D) is not ideal. Nothing is "with" something or using something. So, while "with" is OK, it's not the ideal connector in this context.
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 15 May 2022, 03:57
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Tanchat
Dear Expert,

I have two questions

1) What does needing no.... modify? insurance companies in California were free.. ??
Yes, exactly.

Quote:
2) WHY D is incorrect ? A preposition after comma generally modifies subject of the clause, which is insurance companies. Also, "they" logically refers to insurance companies. (Pronoun ambiguity is not the absolute rule to eliminate)
The meaning conveyed by (D) doesn't make sense.

The clearest issue is that (D) says, "approval not needed BY regulators," as if the regulators would need approval in order for insurance companies to raise rates. We can see that this meaning is not logical.

Also, the use of "with" in (D) is not ideal. Nothing is "with" something or using something. So, while "with" is OK, it's not the ideal connector in this context.
Show more

MartyTargetTestPrep

(D) changes the meaning, right? It seems regulators need approval rather than insurance companies do.

Thank you for your response :)
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 15 May 2022, 14:12
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Tanchat
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(D) changes the meaning, right? It seems regulators need approval rather than insurance companies do.

Thank you for your response :)
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Yes, it changes the meaning as you have outlined.

That said, to be clear, the issue with (D) is not that the (D) version changes the meaning.

The issue is that the meaning conveyed by the (D) version is illogical.
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 20 May 2022, 04:51
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I got this answer correct. But can you break down this in parts of speech.

1988
Insurance companies
California
Rates
Market
Regulators
Rates
Approval

Are nouns right?
Any other apart from these?

Before and In are the prepositions..

Were is the verb?
To charge is infinitive?
Would bear ....??
Needing is the -ing modifier (what's it called...verbal?)
Raising is ...?

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In this particular sentence, "would bear" is also a verb.
Why is "needing" -ing form doesnot modify this verb?
Is it that "-ing" verbal modifies the main verb in the preceding clause.?
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 28 Jul 2022, 01:32
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SolankiDas
In this particular sentence, "would bear" is also a verb.
Why is "needing" -ing form doesnot modify this verb?
Is it that "-ing" verbal modifies the main verb in the preceding clause.?
Show more

comma + present participle modifier at the end of the sentence modifies the previous clause or the subject of the previous clause.
Here, logically, 'needing ...' modifies 'insurance companies.'
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SolankiDas
In this particular sentence, "would bear" is also a verb.
Why is "needing" -ing form doesnot modify this verb?
Is it that "-ing" verbal modifies the main verb in the preceding clause.?
Show more

Hello SolankiDas,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the introduction of present participle ("verb+ing"- “needing” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship; consequently, the present participle acts upon the entirety of the preceding clause, so the subject of the clause must be one that can logically take the action conveyed through the participle.

To understand the concept of "Comma Plus Present Participle for Cause-Effect Relationship" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
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Tanchat
MartyTargetTestPrep

(D) changes the meaning, right? It seems regulators need approval rather than insurance companies do.

Thank you for your response :)
Yes, it changes the meaning as you have outlined.

That said, to be clear, the issue with (D) is not that the (D) version changes the meaning.

The issue is that the meaning conveyed by the (D) version is illogical.
Show more

Hi MartyTargetTestPrep

(A) Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge whatever rates the market would bear, needing no approval from regulators before raising rates.

Is it ok to omit subject after "before"? I understand that we can omit subject in dependent clause if the subject is the same as independent clause. However, there is no subject there : "needing no approval from regulators before raising rates." Should it be : needing no approval from regulators before they raised rates ?
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Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge wha 16 Aug 2022, 05:57
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Tanchat
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MartyTargetTestPrep

(D) changes the meaning, right? It seems regulators need approval rather than insurance companies do.

Thank you for your response :)
Yes, it changes the meaning as you have outlined.

That said, to be clear, the issue with (D) is not that the (D) version changes the meaning.

The issue is that the meaning conveyed by the (D) version is illogical.

Hi MartyTargetTestPrep

(A) Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge whatever rates the market would bear, needing no approval from regulators before raising rates.

Is it ok to omit subject after "before"? I understand that we can omit subject in dependent clause if the subject is the same as independent clause. However, there is no subject there : "needing no approval from regulators before raising rates." Should it be : needing no approval from regulators before they raised rates ?
Show more

Hello Tanchat,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, we do not need to include the subject here, as "needing no approval from regulators before raising rates" is a modifying phrase; specifically, it is a "comma + present participle ("verb+ing")" phrase, meaning it is understood that the present participle "needing" and its parallel "raising" refer to the subject of the preceding clause - "insurance companies".

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

(D) changes the meaning, right? It seems regulators need approval rather than insurance companies do.

Thank you for your response :)
Yes, it changes the meaning as you have outlined.

That said, to be clear, the issue with (D) is not that the (D) version changes the meaning.

The issue is that the meaning conveyed by the (D) version is illogical.
Show more

MartyTargetTestPrep
Thank you for your clarification on this question.

I am still confused as to why Choice (E) is incorrect. I see that the explanations above mention there is no clear indication of who actually does "the raising of" the rates: the insurance companies, the regulators, or some other entity.

However, from my understanding, "comma with" serves as an adverbial modifier = similar purpose to the "comma -ing" used in Choice A. If Choice (E) read as "with no approval needed from regulators before raising rates", would this still be incorrect (I simplified the language to be less awkward)? Thank you in advance.
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