Despite the recent increase in sales and cash flow that have

Question

Despite the recent increase in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to set dividends more conservatively than they were

1) to set dividends more conservatively than they were
2) to set dividends more conservatively than they have been
3) to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends
4) that they will be more conservative than they were in setting dividends
5) that they will be more conservative than they have been to set dividends

pranrasvij · Answer

i vote for 2 above... the other choices dont make sense grammatically, will add details later

mrik · Answer

IMO 3. Was confused between 2 and 3. TO is required like 'expect to'

abcd1 · Answer

the answer is 3, please help explain

thank you

serhio · Answer

We need proper comparison here. Pay attention to the parts of the sentence are compared.

pranrasvij · Answer

thank you serhio,.. i thought 2 was more concise...

ingoditrust · Answer

You need have been here, rightchoice is B

Posted from my mobile device

seekmba · Answer

shoule be C.

B is incorrect

Despite the recent increase in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash,  to set dividends more conservatively than they were .

1) to set dividends more conservatively than they were     - incorrect. The ellipsis here is the word 'setting'...this means that the word 'setting' should be present in some other part of the sentence. We cannot have a word as ellipsis if the word is not present elsewhere in the sentence.
2) to set dividends more conservatively than they have been     - same as A
3) to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends - CORRECT
4) that  they  will be more conservative than  they  were in setting dividends - 'they' can refer to 'industry analysts' or 'automakers'
5) that  they  will be more conservative than  they  have been to set dividends - 'they' can refer to 'industry analysts' or 'automakers'

Gonaives · Answer

Went with C. Please underline section to be considered as it is done on the GMAT.

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

Hey guys,

Great debate! This one has to be C. Both A and B use an ambiguous pronoun "they", which could apply to "automakers" or to "dividends". By putting "dividends" last in choice C, the authors fix that problem.

Update: Just found this problem...officially it is, indeed, C.

Despite the recent increase in sales and cash flow that have

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