Government statistics on the size of foreign investment in real estate

Question

Government statistics on the size of foreign investment in real estate  are inconclusive because neither federal nor state laws require  disclosure of foreign ownership, and the Commerce Department, in its public tallies, does not categorize the owners.

A) are inconclusive because neither federal nor state laws require
B) are inconclusive because neither the federal nor state laws requires
C) are inconclusive because neither federal laws or state laws require
D) is inconclusive because neither the federal or state laws requires
E) is inconclusive because neither federal laws nor state laws require

SC61661.01
Verbal Review 2020 NEW QUESTION

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

HIGHLIGHTS
• the correct idiom is   neither X nor Y  
-- X and Y must be parallel.
--  Neither  is the parallelism word marker. Whatever comes after  neither  is the X element,
and nothing from the X element "carries over" to the Y element.
If we have  neither the X , then we must repeat  the , this way:  neither  the  X nor  the  Y

•  laws  is plural

•  statistics  can be singular or plural. In this context,    statistics  is plural

Singular : When we refer to the  study or field  of statistics, then "statistics" is  singular. 
 For undergraduates who pursue a degree in economics, statistics  is  a required course.

Plural : When we refer to  the actual numbers  (the numerical data), "statistics" is  plural .
 Statistics on gun violence in the U.S.  are  horrifying.

Similar analysis of statistics as a singular or plural noun is  on this site, here ,  and  in this dictionary, here .

•  Neither/nor  subject/verb agreement
-- when  neither  is paired with  nor,  the verb agrees with the subject  closer to the verb.

• Split #1: Subject/verb disagreement  
--  laws  is plural. Options B and D should say laws  require . 
--  Statistics  is plural. In options D and E, the verb should be  are , not  is .

Eliminate options B, D, and E

Split #2: IDIOM Neither X nor Y  
If neither is paired, it must always be paired with nor.
 Correct : Neither X nor Y
 Wrong : Neither X or Y

Options D and C incorrectly use  Neither . . . OR

Eliminate C. (Option D is already gone.)

(By POE, option A is correct)

• Split #3: Parallelism  
In  Neither X nor Y, 
X and Y must be parallel.
Options B and D incorrectly pair "the federal" (X) with "state." (Y)
 Correct : . . . neither  the  federal nor  the  state laws require
 Correct : . . . neither  federal  nor  state  laws require
 Wrong : . . . neither  the  federal nor state laws require
 Wrong  . . . neither federal nor  the  state laws require

By process of elimination, the correct answer is A.

A) Government  statistics  on the size of foreign investment in real estate   are  inconclusive because  neither federal nor state  laws  require   disclosure of foreign ownership, and . . .

(A) correctly
-- pairs  statistics  with the plural verb  are 
-- pairs  laws  with the plural verb  require 
-- uses  Neither X nor Y  correctly, keeping the X and Y elements parallel

Answer A

daagh · Answer

Vidhya
When the word 'statistics' refers to the science of collection, storage, and processing of data, it is singular. However, when it refers to the various data that are collected at the ground level and processed further, the term is used as plural with a plural verb.

In the given case, 'statistics' refers to the plural data; hence, it is plural.

MikeScarn · Answer

This question is testing 2 main topics.

1. Idiom - "neither x nor y"
2. Verbal structure - singular vs plural

Answer choices (C) and (D) use "Neither x  or  y" which is incorrect.

Answer choicer choices (B) and (D) use the verb "requires" when referring to "federal and state laws." Plural "laws" requires the plural verb "require." Eliminate (B) and (D).

Answer choices (D) and (E) use the verb "is" instead of "are" when referring to the plural subject "statistics." Eliminate (D) and (E).

jawele · Answer

I failed to remember whether "statistics" was singular or plural and instead acted upon the idiom in order to make eliminations. I don't disagree that choice A is correct. However, could anyone comment on whether the interpretation such as this could be plausible:

<...> because neither federal nor state laws require <...>

This structure seems to suggest that the laws that require ... X are not federal laws or state laws - then what are they (?). The structure seems to emphasise adjectives, which in turn both remove the possibility that the laws were federal or state, i.e. one type of the two. Hence, I would find "neither federal laws nor state laws" more suitable and clear. Nevertheless, could anybody please comment whether such interpretation could at all be implied or not?

Thanks

MikeScarn GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo aragonn generis hazelnut

generis · Answer

jawele , interesting question. In answer to your question: no. The sentence explains that the Commerce Department would be a (THE) third source of such statistics but it does not categorize owners (into foreign and native owners). Further, these statistics on foreign ownership are not just any statistics. They are government statistics. The two major levels of government in a federalist structure cover the rest of the levels. (Preemptively: I will avoid 10th Amendment discussion.

) I think meaning is clear from context. The sentence intends to convey that the three sources (federal laws, state laws, Commerce Department) from which we could obtain reliable government statistics on foreign ownership fall short and thus whatever government statistics we do have about foreign ownership are inconclusive. I can understand that interpretation, but in context, this structure conveys that no pertinent and possible laws exist. The two government levels that could pass laws designed to require ownership statistics have not passed any laws.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Option A  seems like a good option. There are no obvious errors; so let’s hold on to that.

Option B  introduces an unnecessary ‘the’ before ‘federal’. This option also flouts the subject verb agreement with ‘requires’.  Eliminate.

Option C  does not observe the correct idiom ‘neither X… nor Y…’  Eliminate.

Option D  violates the SVA: ‘is’ and ‘requires’ are incorrect.  Eliminate.

Option E  changes ‘are’ to ‘is’ which is incorrect.  Eliminate.

Option A  is the best option.

Hope this helps!

KarishmaB · Answer

What does the sentence say? That Govt. Statistics on X are/is inconclusive because laws don’t require certain disclosures. The sentence is testing our subject – verb agreement understanding. You must have read that name of subjects such as Mathematics, Statistics etc. are singular even though they ‘sound’ plural.

But here, we are not using the term ‘Statistics’ to mean the subject of statistics. We use it in the sense of ‘figures/numbers.’ - that the Govt. figures on size of foreign investment are inconclusive. 
Hence, here, ‘Statistics’ will be plural! 
This eliminates options (D) and (E).

The correct correlative conjunction is ‘neither … nor.’ We do not use ‘neither … or.’ Hence we eliminate options (C) and (D).

The only other decision point is the subject – verb agreement of the dependent clause beginning with ‘because.’ 
‘neither federal nor state laws require or requires …’
We know that in the case of correlative conjunctions (either or, neither nor) the verb will agree with the closer subject. So verb agrees with ‘state laws’ which is plural. Hence, we need ‘require.’ This eliminates options (B) and (D).

Answer (A)

PriyamRathor · Answer

Hello Experts,
 HaileyCusimano 
 AnthonyRitz

Do we require repetition of the  word   LAWS  after federal ?

What if we  change    choice C  to the following :-

Choice C' - are inconclusive because neither federal laws  nor  state laws require

So now if we compare  Choice A and Choice C ' , then which one is   superior   ?

Is there any rule with regard to repetition of the words ?

Thanks

AnthonyRitz · Answer

Neither would be " superior " -- both "neither federal laws nor state laws" and "neither federal nor state laws" are equally acceptable. There's no reason we have to repeat the word "laws." Parallelism simply requires that the elements after the "neither" match the elements after the "nor," so that either "branch" of the structure can be used alone to create a complete and correct sentence. If we were diagramming, the two equally-correct structures would look sort of like this: ....................... federal neither/nor < ............... > laws ....................... state ....................... federal laws neither/nor < ....................... > ....................... state laws I hope this helps!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  PriyamRathor ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, we do not need to repeat the noun "laws"; in Option A, the adjectives "federal" and "state" both apply to "laws" because they are joined via conjunction ("or" in this case).

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

EducationAisle · Answer

Also, please note that this  not  the kind of repetition of words that GMAT tests you on.

Repetition of words tested on GMAT, would more be of the nature of:

Mike's annual income is $150 k per year.

Annual  and  per year  are redundant here.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Government statistics on the size of foreign investment in real estate

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