In addition to the boom in tax revenue, the federal government’s books

In addition to the boom in tax revenue, the federal government’s books are being helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers that were taken over by Washington in 2009.

(A) are being helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers
(B) have been helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and by proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, automakers
(C) have been helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, and by the automakers
(D) are being helped by lower defense spending, by a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers
(E) were helped by lower defense spending and a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, also by proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers

After eliminating C, D,E base on their wrong appositive modifier. There are only A and B, B has present perfect tense, which is unnecessary because there is no sign of that tense in this sentence. The remaining correct answer is A

Damn it!!! I again chose D over A.

Would this have been a correct sentence correction?

(D) are being helped by lower defense spending, by a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and BY proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers


Thanks,
Rohan

The sentence is using "like". I am surprised because is it not the intent to mention "Medicaid" as an example? So, I believe the sentence should be using "such as".

I was wondering does B has any other problem apart the tense? If in B it was "are being"instead of "have been". Also, Though it is not -underlined isn't the use of like is wrong in each sentence rather it should be "such as.

In addition to the boom in tax revenue, the federal government’s books are being helped by lower defense spending, a drop in outlays for benefits like Medicaid, and proceeds from the sales of General Motors and Chrysler, the automakers that were taken over by Washington in 2009.

GM and Chrysler are the automakers that were taken over by Washington.
and everything else is in present tense.
automakers are specific and therefore article is needed before them.

(A)correct choice

(B)present perfect tense is used instead of simple present tense,
by proceeds breaks the rule of parallelism
Article the is removed

(C) conjunction and is removed thereby hampering the sentence
present perfect tense error repeats here
and by the automakers incorrectly modifies GM and Chrysler

(D) by a drop in non essential modifier spoils the sentence here

(E) past tense were helped is used here instead of present tense
non essential modifier is forcibly made parallel to the main sentence
also by proceeds does not make any sense by meaning.

Hi daagh / chetan2u,

Can you please suggest whats wrong with present perfect tense in option B and C.

Why can't we use present perfect tense in this sentence.

Just cast aside B, C and E for using in appropriate tense for a currently ongoing phenomenon.

How did you get to know that its an ongoing phenomenon..?

Please assist.

Thanks and Regards,
Prakhar

Hi daagh , MagooshExpert GMATNinja

Can we on first strike strike out B and C and choose A D E as A D E has "Automaker's name",THE automakers--- 'the' highlighting the automakers being referred... like "the Taj' ?

I selected A only as the correct answer but wanted to know if I can keep this as one strategy to strike out B and C.

Thanks,

ucb2k7

[edited]

Imo A
This question tests on two concepts 1) Tense
The federal government’s books are being helped by all the factors .It is an ongoing phenomenon so we have to use present continuous tense .

2)There is a list of factors which contribute to the government's books .

So we have to use correct list
By X , Y and Z or
By X, by Y , and by Z

Also there is an absolute modifier at the end of the original sentence that modifies modifies General Motors and Chrysler .

A correct

B List is wrong

C Makes absolute modifier part of the main clause and includes it in the list -clearly wrong .This choice suggests that there were other automobile companies other that the General Motors and Chrysler.

D List is wrong

E Past tense is not required also list is horrible in in E

Hi ucb2k7!

I want to make sure I'm understanding your question correctly -- I see "the automakers" in all answer choices except for B. Could you clarify a little more what you mean here?

Thanks!
-Carolyn

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Hi MagooshExpert,

I am sorry it is choice B and C to strike out. Answer choice B has 'automakers' . Answer choice C does the mistake of writing 'by the automakers' after the name of the automaker is mentioned. What I am asking here is can we strike out B on the basis of the missing 'the' before automakers as it should have 'the' before automakers as we are referring to a specific brand here...like 'the Taj'.

Thanks,

ucb2k7

Hi ucb2k7!

Thanks for clarifying

Here, you are correct that removing "the" slightly changes the meaning of the sentence. However, I'm not sure that in this case we can be 100% sure of the intended meaning of the sentence, and so it shouldn't be a basis alone to eliminate choice B. We don't know from the context whether there were more than just those two automakers that were taken over by Washington in 2009. If there were more than two, then we would correctly remove "the". But if those are the only two, then we do need "the" there. If we knew the answer to that question, we could definitively say which one is correct, but since we don't, it's not necessarily a good reason to eliminate B right away.

Hope that helps!
-Carolyn

1st Split : Absolute phrase ' A drop in .....'

Since this phrase is modifying noun ' lower defense spending' it should be preceded by only comma . Therefore D and E can be eliminated.

2nd Split : parallelism between 2 verbs 'are being helped' and 'proceeds'

Therefore wrong parallelism shown in option B makes this option incorrect.

Last, between A and C , C is wrong because the last absolute modifier at the end is made parallel to 'lower defense spending', which doesn't make sense.

Hence, the winner is A despite of unusual phrase at the start.

Note: Don't discard a choice just because 'being' is used in that.

I am still wondering the same thing here.. even though there are no answers with “such as”, wouldn’t that be the correct form?

Posted from my mobile device

I have seen this question in Veritas practice test. The difficulty of this question in Veritas was 650-700, but here in GMAT club it is 85% difficult. And I have encountered this several times that GMAT club shows question to be more difficult than Veritas.So to gauge my progress which one should I consider correct ?
Please Help.
THanks in advance

Hey aksh5900 ,

I am happy to help

Difficulty level of a question on GMATClub is determined autmatically by the system based on a couple of paramaters such as the number of correct sessions vs number of incorrect sessions, time taken by users.

So, if you see the difficulty level as 85% hard, it means many test takers found this question difficult/got it wrong or too more time to solve it.

I hope that helps.

The most obvious decision point in this problem is the verb choice at the beginning, but it is a false decision point! All of these tenses create a logical timeline, so you need to look elsewhere for your decisions. At the end of the choices you have a series that needs to be parallel. Choice B violates that standard by adding an additional "by" in front of "proceeds." C does it in front of "the automakers," and D does the same in front of "a drop". In each case, either all items need "by" or only the first one needs "by," so all are incorrect. Choice E improperly connects the list, as "..., also by" is not a valid connector after a comma. Only choice A properly connects the list and keeps it parallel.

AjiteshArun : Please help me with this

The federal government’s books are being helped by
1. Boom in tax revenue
2. Lower defense spending
3. A drop in outlays for X
4. Proceeds from the sales of GM...

I believe "lower" is an adverb that is modifying "defense" (adjective)

Please let me know "boom, a drop, and proceeds" are also adverbs. Or

Can different parts of speech be parallel to each other i.e noun parallel to adjective or adjective parallel to adverb etc.

I am way too much confused in such questions.