Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel

Question

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel,  a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are  going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months

(A) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are

(B) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, is

(C) and most commercial airlines use it as a source of income to survive with, are

(D) which is a source of income which is needed by most commercial airlines who could not survive without it, are

(E) which most commercial airlines use as a source of income without which they are unable to survive, is

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi there, Verb-ing words are modifiers that define certain entities, depending on their placement in the sentence. Also, verb-ing words act as gerunds. Gerunds are formed by adding “ing” to any verb but they are nouns. Now when a gerund is the subject of a sentence, then it is singular. Let’s understand this with the help of few examples: 1. Swimming is my favorite sport. 2. Listening to music works as the best stress buster for me. In the above two sentences, “swimming” and “listening” are gerunds. They are nouns that form the subject of the sentence. Since “swimming” and “listening” are gerunds, they are singular in number and take singular verbs “is” and “works” respectively. Now, if the sentence has two or more gerunds as subjects connected with proper conjunctions, then the verb will become plural. For example: 1. Swimming and listening to music relax me the most after a long day at work. Now let’s take a look at the original sentence: Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel, a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months. Now here “declining” is a verb-ing word. Notice that “declining” is not a gerund here. It is modifier or an adjective that is modifying the noun “revenues”. It is showing one of the qualities of the revenues. So, technically the subject of the sentence is “revenues”. And since it has an adjective before it that cannot be left out as it shows one of its features, the subject becomes “declining revenues”. Now, since “revenues” is plural, we need plural verb. Answer choice A has the correct verb “are” that agrees in number with “revenues” or rather “declining revenues”.

Hope this helps. Thanks. Shraddha

daagh · Answer

Except A, all the rest suffer from some kind of a fault.

(B) Declining  revenues  …  is  – SV number disagreement

C) A fragment without a verb in the first part.

D) Commercial  airlines – who- -- wrong pronoun to denote a thing.

E) Declining  revenues  ….  Is  –SV disagreement

What is the problem in A?

vgan4 · Answer

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel,  a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are  going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months
(A) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are best option 
(B) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, is Subject verb agreement problem. 
(C) and most commercial airlines use it as a source of income to survive with, are   the usage of "it" is ambiguous.  
(D) which is a source of income which is needed by most commercial airlines who could not survive without it, are too wordy 
(E) which most commercial airlines use as a source of income without which they are unable to survive, is can be eliminated because of "is"

I hope my explanation is right!!

devashish · Answer

As I understand from MGMAT SC, Phrases starting with Present Particpile ( -ing ) should take a singular verb. Hence I think B is correct and not A.

Please advise if I am wrong ?

daagh · Answer

Look at the given sentence

Going from strength to strength, Indian athletes have gathered more than a hundred medals in CWG.
The sentence starts with a present participial and the verb is the plural -have gathered – Any thing wrong?

May be MGMAT SC is being quoted out of place.

amma4u · Answer

Step1: Look for S-V agreement error if any.
In the questions yes: Subject is: declining revenues; verb must be "are"

(A) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are
(B) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, is -  out (C) and most commercial airlines use it as a source of income to survive with, are -  we do not need to independent clauses. eliminate 
(D) which is a source of income which is needed by most commercial airlines who could not survive without it, are -  the restrictive pronoun "which" is not modifying the correcr noun. out 
(E) which most commercial airlines use as a source of income without which they are unable to survive, is -same as D
So in A, all os this is taken care.

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

This question is a perfect platform for a Modifier strategy we call "Use It or Lose It":

When you're presented with a modifier on the GMAT, you either "Use It" to eliminate that answer choice (because it's an incorrect modifier) or you "Lose It" (read as though it weren't there to get a better sense of subject-verb agreement and other errors.

Here, "a source of income..." logically modifies "business travel", so we can "Lose It' with that modifier and bring the rest of the sentence closer together:

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel ARE/IS going to force...

Now we can look at the remaining sentence and again eliminate a modifier: "resulting from..." modifies "declining revenues", so really this sentence is just saying that:

Declining revenues ARE going to force...

By eliminating that modifier we know that the subject is plural and we'll need "ARE" as the verb to match.

C and D each contain multiple errors (C uses "it" as a pronoun that really needs to refer back to the subject "revenues", plus it ends a statement with a preposition "with"; D is just horrendously long and uses redundant terms throughout), so the only potential answer is A. A is much easier to get to if you're seen that you can ignore the modifier that seeks to separate the subject from the verb. Because we couldn't "Use It" to eliminate the answer choice, we can "Lose It" to make a much shorter, easier-to-dissect sentence, leading us to A.

PTK · Answer

Hi all,

Try to split and resplit the asnwer choices by looking at the begining and at the end of the sentence. 
Read It vertically. Scan and Kill it.  (RiSK) (c)

So what do you see here. Look the following splits:
1) A, B - begin with  a source of income , C- with  and , D, E- begin with  which  
2) Plural A, C, D/singular - B, E

Decide what is wrong let say in 2). subject "Declining revenues" - they are or it is???! Must be  they are.  So cross out B, E. 
now go to 1) we have still 3 different subsplits A, C and D. 
 which  must refer to the noun just before it. Is  travel  is a source of income? not for us. Kill D and move on. 
Make sure you have crossed out B,E and D. Now you have 50% probability to get this SC right.

Now, even if you are stuck between choices A and C, read C carefully. Do you see smth wrong ?
first,  it  is ambigous here, to what does it refer? seems to business travel, is it really so ? nope. 
second,  to survive with  - is awkward ask yourself with what??! why infinitive? 
third,  and  is used in either parallel structures or enumeration, do you see that neither of cases is applicable to C? Cross it. 
So answer is A.

oldstudent · Answer

Can you please also explain why the subject "Declining Revenues" is plural according to you. I believe it is a subject phrase and shud be singular. I do not see any convincing explanation.

Marcab · Answer

First of all, remove the non essential modifier. The rest of the sentence becomes "Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel   are   going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months"
So the correct answer must be an option, which uses "are". Eliminate B and E.
D incorrectly uses "which". "Which" if used to introduce a relative clause, must be preceded by a comma. There is no referent for "it".
C tries to use ", and" as a conjunction to add two independent clauses, a construction where the two clauses are given equal status. But here the requirement was of a relative clause. Also it incorrectly uses "it". Eliminate C
A remains.
Hope that helps.
-s

Heisenberg12 · Answer

Quick method to solve this:

"Declining revenues" is the subject.

It must be followed by a plural verb. 
Only A,C and D have plural verb. Eliminate B and E.

C has Comma + and. This must only be used to connect two independent clauses. However, in C, after Comma + and, the rest of the part is fragment. Eliminate C.

D is too wordy.

Thus A.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

No, this isn't the most eloquent sentence that one could write, but it is grammatically correct and uses modifiers correctly. In the original sentence, the clause beginning a source modifies business travel, and follows it immediately, as any well placed modifier should.

Answer choices (C) and (D) create an error by altering that clause so that it no longer acts as a modifier, though it must for the same reasons that Scribner's needed its modifier above. The remaining choices differ with respect to the final verb: is is or are correct? Since the subject of the sentence is declining revenues, itself plural, then the verb should be are. Eliminate (B) and (E). Only (A) remains.

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel, a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months

(A) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive, are

(B) a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive,  is

(C) and most commercial airlines use  it  as a source of income to survive with, are

(D)  which is a source of income which is needed by most commercial airlines who could not survive without it, are
 
(E) which most commercial airlines use as a source of income without which they are unable to survive,  is

A is correct choice by elimination,
B is using 'is'
C is using 'it' but its not clear what is it refering to
D wrong formation
E is using 'is'

Yogananda · Answer

Declining "revenues", should be plural since the subject is revenues and declining is modifying it.Hence, "are" form should be used for representing plural word.
Answer should be A , not B.

bacseialex · Answer

(D) & (E) are easy to eliminate because which modifies business travel and it doesn t make sense.

In (C) The pronoun it i guess is refering back to business travel and, again, it doesn t make sense.

Now between A and B. The subject is revenues, so the verb has to be singular "is", not are.

IMO A.

Posted from my mobile device

gentvenus · Answer

My thoughts:
(A) Correct. Best option
(B) Incorrect. Subject verb agreement.
(C) Incorrect. Usage of "it" is wrong.
(D) Incorrect. Too many words.
(E) Incorrect. Improper use of "is".

BIGDAMNGOD · Answer

Why is C wrong?

bacseialex · Answer

Hei  anshumandash0119  !

Let me try to explain my point of view.

First of all, "it" does not have a clear antecedent.

Second, you have a weird parallelism "Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel" - fragment AND "and most commercial airlines use it as a source of income to survive with" - an independent sentence. Not parallel and also it doesn't make sense. Let's take a step forward. Let's say that Declining revenues(noun) and commercial airlines(noun) are parallel. Revenues and airlines(plural subject) use IT(???) as a source of income?? Doesn't make any sense.

You need  a source of income without which most commercial airlines could not survive  from choice (A) to modify business travel.

This is my approach. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 Cheers!

LE: Also look at the rest of the non underlined part for meaning.

.....going to force many commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services in the coming months.

Cut the modifiers and you get: Declining revenues and  commercial airlines , are going to force many  commercial airlines  to ....

Declining revenues are going to force commercial airlines to increase prices and decrease services.

HRICS · Answer

Hi  egmat   GMATNinja  As per the prior explanation I had received ' Marketing baby products in the internet world requires a cohesive message to be spread through traditional print and social media.' 
In this sentence, “ marketing ”, the verb-ing word acts as a noun and forms a big noun phrase “Marketing baby products in the internet world” that is the subject of the sentence. Since “marketing” is the head of this noun phrase and is a verb-ing noun, it takes singular verb “requires”. The number of the nouns entities that follow “marketing” has no effect on the number of the verb “requires”.

So I don't know when the singular vs plural needs to be used. How is  Marketing baby products  different than  declining revenues

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Declining revenues resulting from a decrease in business travel

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