HOT Competition, 26 Aug/8AM: At the monthly board discussion, board

All five choices introduce different modifiers. Let’s juxtapose them:


A. board members watched a presentation on the several business challenges facing the enterprise, including among them the threat from a competitor’s trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit and the declining sales for the enterprise’s latest phone.

1. “including among them” is a redundant construction. Any of them alone would suffice.
2. “the threat from X” implies that the threat comes from X. “the threat of X” implies that X itself is a threat. We need the latter because trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit is not threatening but it itself is a threat for the enterprise.
3. “declining sales” is parallel with “the threat”, but “declining sales” implies that sales themselves are the challenge. That’s nonsense. It’s “the decline” in sales what challenges the company.
4. we need “sales of”, not “sales for”. When something is being sold, we say sales OF something.


B. board members watched a presentation on the several business challenges facing the enterprise, which includes the threat of a competitor’s trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit and declining sales the enterprise’s latest phone.

1. “which includes” illogically refers to “the enterprise” rather than to “challenges”.
2. “declining sales” is parallel with “the threat”, but “declining sales” implies that sales themselves are the challenge. That’s nonsense. It’s “the decline” in sales what challenges the company.
3. “sales the enterprise’s latest phone” misses “of”, hence illogical.
4. the present tense “includes” doesn’t make within the context of the sentence
5. even if we had “which included”, the meaning would be illogical. “including” and “which included” are different animals.


C. board members watched a presentation on the several business challenges facing the enterprise, included among them the threat from a competitor’s trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit as well as a decline in sales for

1. “included” illogically implies that the enterprise itself is included into something.
2. “included among them” may mean that they = challenges included the enterprise – nonsense.
3. “the threat from X” implies that the threat comes from X. “the threat of X” implies that X itself is a threat. We need the latter because trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit is not threatening but it itself is a threat for the enterprise.
4. “a decline” dilutes the meaning. “a” makes “decline” too general. We don’t know which decline is borne in mind.
5. we need “sales of”, not “sales for”. When something is being sold, we say sales OF something.


D. board members watched a presentation on the several business challenges facing the enterprise, among them the threat of a competitor’s trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit and the decline in sales of…

Bingo. The correct answer. “among them” is a noun modifier that gives two samples of business challenges.


E. board members watched a presentation on the several business challenges facing the enterprise, among these the threat from a competitor’s trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit as well as the decline in sales for…

1. “these” is very rarely used as a standalone pronoun.
2. “the threat from X” implies that the threat comes from X. “the threat of X” implies that X itself is a threat. We need the latter because trillion-dollar patent-infringement suit is not threatening but it itself is a threat for the enterprise.
3. we need “sales of”, not “sales for”. When something is being sold, we say sales OF something.


Hence D

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