Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against

The level of credibility of A, B and C is seemingly out of doubt, so we should concentrane on D and E in the first 10 seconds after reading the sentence. In my native language the translated phrase " the collateral against which farmers borrow" sounds perfectly correct, so I would definitely go with that version. On the other hand, borrow against in D, sounds implausible, maybe "bet against" or "insure against", but not "borrow against" because it doesen't make sense.

Couple of issues with D:

a) At the very least, "which" is ambiguous, since it is not clear whether "which" is modifying "land" or "equipment and land". In fact, for the most part, "which" is not likely to ever modify a "list" ("equipment and land" in this case).

b) "which farmers use as collateral to borrow against" does not conform with GMAT‘s stylistic preference. Modifier clauses (especially relative clauses) should not end with a preposition. Here, this clause ends in a preposition "against".

234. Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

(A) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is
(B) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, is
(C) the collateral which is borrowed against by farmers to get through the harvest season, is
(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, are

Ques
- Can I say D is incorrect because it is passive construction
- the which in D-is modifying only land or farm equipment and land.

Modifier question -- B and D out.

Now isnt the answer supposed to be A?
the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is

Declining values for farm equipment and land,---------, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring

therefore it should be 'are' not 'is' (Declining values is plural).

correct me if i am wrong.

shadab

I do not see any issues with "Which" Vs "The". The usage of either an appositive or adjective clause doesn't make any difference. Both the ways convey a nonrestrictive description of "farm equipment and land".

But consider below:
Omit the excessive portion.

Declining values for farm equipment and land, which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

Problems:
Clause ends with preposition : "against"
If we add the extra portion ... to borrow against.. to get through... This double infinitive kind of lengthens the sentence. In GMAT short is sweet.

Though above issues are not major, still in presence of a better choice E - these issues are accountable.

Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrowto get through the harvest season, are going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

This looks good.

I have came across many times with these question.
and always misinterpret Declining values for farm equipment and land as a singular phrase.
and chosen option 'A'
any idea how to differentiate between Adjective in these one as 'Declining' from phrases that starts from '-ING' form?

whenever a clause or a phrase acts as a subject of a clause, it is always singular.
ex-"............., but what is much more difficult to determine IS.....". In the example, " But what ...........determine" is an intermediate clause, and the subject of this clause is "what is much more to difficult to determine". Hence we have a singular subject here.

Aristocrat, in the question above, the subject of the status quo phrase is "Declining values". We must remember that subject of the clause or phrase can't reside in the prep. phrase unless there is some quantity word. Hence Declining Values is correctly modified by "are".
Hope that helps.
Do let me know if anything remains unclear.

hi,

since the non underline part is starting with Verbing participle so it has to modify the subject of the sentence so if you think the declining values has to modify collateral hence the answer is E in D there is no proper use of which

Declining is a gerund here, what is verbing participle?

It is not used as a gerund (noun) here; it is used as an "adjective" ("-ing" form of verb, used as an adjective, is called participle).

Hi Ashish,

Please explain why is D incorrect and E correct.

Choosing between D and E is certainly tricky here. D is redundant. To "use [something] as collateral" is "to borrow against" that thing. You can say one or the other in a sentence (and D goes with the "borrow against" version) but, if you use both, you're saying the same thing twice! Most people miss that on this one - tough one.

I think option B, D which refers to "declining values". So declining values cannot be used as a collateral. Hence both of them are eliminated.

A, B, C can be eliminated - Subject verb agreement of "farm equipment and land" and "is" is incorrect.

E stays as the best answer.

Thanks
Ankit

PS: Do hit the Kudos button if you like the explanation.

Can't we consider "Declining values for farm equipment and land" as a participle phrase?

And as per rules , phrases and clauses when acting as a subject are considered singular.

Declining values for farm equipment and land....................................is going to force many lenders.

It is the whole idea of the phrase which is GOING to FORCE not just "declining values".

Plz Advise !

Hi - received a PM regarding your inquiry.

DECLINING -- is not used as a typical participial phrase. This different from: "Knowing everything, James aced the test."

Look for what's after the COMMA -- and see if it makes sense that the noun can be modified by the DECLINING phrase.

Can COLLATERAL be declining values? Doesn't make sense. COLLATERAL can be DECLINING IN VALUE -- but it can't be declining value. So you know this can't be a participial phrase.

Instead, DECLINING VALUES are simply processes that are happening. These declining values... ARE going to force...

We refrain from user fancy "gerund phrase" or other terminology because that's not how we think through these questions. Hope the above was useful.

Dear TGC,

In such questions, you can apply the following trick. Replace the word you are confused about with its antonym(s), and then verify which of the interpretations makes sense.

Let's do that for the two interpretations above.
1) Rising/Increasing values are forcing blah-blah.
2) Accepting values is forcing blah-blah.

The first interpretation makes sense. Changes in the values might force the lenders to take corrective action.

Now review the second interpretation. Why would someone decline, i.e., reject, or accept a value? Rejecting a request makes sense -- but rejecting values for farm equipment and land? The 2nd interpretation suggests that the lenders are rejecting the values, i.e. fact, and that their rejection of those values is forcing them to curtail their lending. (This essentially says that the lenders' denial of reality is forcing them to curtail their expenses.) This interpretation does not make sense.

--Prasad