Financial analysts said they were surprised that despite higher inflation and shrinking profit margins, investors continue pouring money into the stock market, believing that the American economy was nicely balanced, with little inflation. (A) continue pouring money into the stock market, believing that the American economy was (B) continue pouring money into the stock market, believing in the American economy as (C) still continue pouring money into the stock market in the belief that the American economy as (D) still continued to pour money into the stock market, believing in the American economy as (E) continued to pour money into the stock market in the belief that the American economy was Screen Shot 2016-10-10 at 3.03.04 AM.png

Yeah, this is tricky because the sentence is telling us what the financial analysts said , and there's an implied "that" after "said" ("Financial analysts said ..."). The basic structure of the sentence is, "Financial analysts said ." The main clause (the independent clause) is simply, " Financial analysts said ," and is a dependent clause representing what was said (" they were surprised..."). To make things more confusing, we have yet another dependent clause telling us what the analysts were surprised about: "they were surprised that investors continued to pour money ." I hope that helps a bit!

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Financial analysts said they were surprised that despite higher inflat

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Anki111

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can someone explain which one is independent and dependent clause in this sentence?? I rejected E thinking that both independent are joined without any conjunction.

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Anki111

can someone explain which one is independent and dependent clause in this sentence?? I rejected E thinking that both independent are joined without any conjunction.

Yeah, this is tricky because the sentence is telling us what the financial analysts said, and there's an implied "that" after "said" ("Financial analysts said [that]...").

The basic structure of the sentence is, "Financial analysts said [X]." The main clause (the independent clause) is simply, "Financial analysts said," and [X] is a dependent clause representing what was said ("[that] they were surprised...").

To make things more confusing, we have yet another dependent clause telling us what the analysts were surprised about: "they were surprised that investors continued to pour money."

I hope that helps a bit!

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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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