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E is the best option. Call conveys the accurate meaning in the most concise way.

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E
Contrary to financial analysts,who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted - contrary to prediction not analysts themselves
(b) analysts, whose predictions - contrary to prediction not analysts themselves
(c) analysts and their predictions- and their unnecessary, not contrary to both
(d) analysts' predicting - incorrect
(e) analysts' predictions - correct
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Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.
Hi,
What jumps straight out right after the non-essential modifier is the noun, the personal computer industry, which did something against analysts!! But because its in the non-underlined portion, it is correct. So there is a meaning error that needs correction.
B has the same error. OUT
C makes analysts and their predictions parallel. OUT
D predicting makes it just wrong. there is a proper noun in the dictionary, why use a gerund ??
E uses the noun required "prediction". Now, the meaning error is corrected.: Winner
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LordStark
Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.

"the personal computer industry" is a thing and not a person. " financial [u]analysts," is a group of persons. Now a person cant be compared with 'a thing'. So option A is wrong.
Option B repeats the same error. Option C takes 'analysts' too and so repeats the same error. Option D also uses 'analysts'".
Option E introduces "predictions' and is the correct answer.
Please give me kudo s if you liked my answer.
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Hi Experts,

I have a question.

Why can we use "contrary to" for comparison between "analysts' predictions" and "the personal computer industry"?

I think these two are not comparable.

Please explain.
Thank you.
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LordStark
Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma DmitryFarber Can you please comment on this question? Why A and B is wrong? And E says that the analyst's predictions are contrary to the personal computer industry, does that makes sense? Isn't it supposed to be contrary to the "performance" of the personal computer industry? Also, should it be prediction (singular)? Since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction, right? Tks! :)
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LordStark
Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma DmitryFarber Can you please comment on this question? Why A and B is wrong? And E says that the analyst's predictions are contrary to the personal computer industry, does that makes sense? Isn't it supposed to be contrary to the "performance" of the personal computer industry? Also, should it be prediction (singular)? Since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction, right? Tks! :)

Hi Will2020,

Although I'm not one of the experts you'd called out to, I'd still like to help you my friend.

Options A and B are incorrect as in both of these options 'financial analysts' (people) and 'current situation of the personal computer industry' (an event) are being compared.

Option E simply implies that contrary to the predictions (of the financial analysts) something else (the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth) happened.
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Exactly! If we started a sentence with "Contrary to analysts," we'd need to follow with another group of people: "Contrary to analysts, auditors feel that XYZ." Even then, it's a bit odd--can two groups of people really be contrary to one another the way that two views can?
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Will2020
LordStark
Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma DmitryFarber Can you please comment on this question? Why A and B is wrong? And E says that the analyst's predictions are contrary to the personal computer industry, does that makes sense? Isn't it supposed to be contrary to the "performance" of the personal computer industry? Also, should it be prediction (singular)? Since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction, right? Tks! :)

Remove the non essential modifier and see if the sentence structure makes sense:

(A) Contrary to financial analysts, ..., the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

On the other hand, look at the structure of (E):

Contrary to predictions that A will happen, B continued to show growth.

The predictions must have been that B will not show growth and this is contrary to reality. Correct.

Multiple analysts would have made their own predictions (of no growth).
If they got together and gave out a single prediction as a group, that would be correct too. It is irrelevant in this question.
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Contrary to financial analysts,
who predicted
last year
that the market for home computers would dwindle,
the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

IMO E
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Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted
(b) analysts, whose predictions
(c) analysts and their predictions
(d) analysts' predicting
(e) analysts' predictions

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/28/business/strong-growth-in-pc-industry-reports-say.html

Despite Wall Street anxieties about the market for home computers, the personal computer industry over all continues to show strong growth, according to two reports to be issued on Monday.

The correct option is E. The issue tested in this question is comparison
A: Incorrect, because the comparison is being made here between the analysts and the personal computer industry; while as per the meaning of the sentence the prediction of analysts made last year is compared with the reality in the computer industry in the present time.
B: Incorrect, because of the reason stated in A
C: Incorrect, Because of reason stated in A; also no need for adding a conjunction here
D: Incorrect, because of the wrong verb tense.
E: Correct, because of correct comparision and the verb form
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GMATNinja your approach to this question would be greatly appreciated!!
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Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.

(a) analysts, who predicted--> comparing analyst to computer industry
(b) analysts, whose predictions---> same as A
(c) analysts and their predictions---> comparing analyst and their predictions to computer industry
(d) analysts' predicting--> Comparing Action to noun
(e) analysts' predictions---> BEST

contrary to -->needs a noun and E supplies the noun in correct from.
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