In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan out of a total population of some 116 million people.

" In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan"- non idiomatic, "In despite of" does not make sense here nor convey the intended meaning that despite a steady flow of people out of rural areas...the answer needs to convey clear meaning, be idiomatically correct, and maintain proper grammatical structure.



(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan- Correct in all areas mentioned above!

Scanning vertically, there are three things mainly that differ. Refer highlighted text. But i tried to POE purely based on diction.

In A and B households are still in Japan is wrong. E kind of has similar error in meaning part as both A and B have.
In C 'Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million' does make sense till this point. If we read till the end that only then we see the error that it doesn't make sense.

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan[/u] out of a total population of some 116 million people.

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan

(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million

(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan - CORRECT.

(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households

(D) is correct because it is the only option that uses the correct "from-to" idiom.

In option (D), the idiomatic structure is as follows: ....... from ..... to...

In all the other answer choices, the incorrect idiom expression is being used.

Hello experts

GMATNinja
ChiranjeevSingh
GMATCoachBen
VeritasKarishma

I eliminated option on the basis of incorrect idioms, which I am unsure of.

1.From..into ( Apart from D every options uses this idiom )

2. Also 'Flow out' seems to be awkward.
Both reasons are not strong enough to evaluate answer choices.After going through the discussion, I could not understand why usage of phrase "still in Japan" is incorrect

Kindly help in clarifying errors.Thanks

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GMATNinja

Please share your reasoning in order to cement concept regarding option D&E. Thanks

Use PoE because there are many splits that jump out instantly as you go through the options:

1. Flow out isnt correct use - A/B/E eliminated
2. From....into isnt correct use - A/B/C/E eliminated

Only D survives after all these incorrect usages.
Hence D is the answer

Is C wrong purely from idiom perspective? I marked the correct choice too. But want to know is that the sole reason?

The only problem that I could see in C that makes it outright wrong is the use of "are" with "household". Any "be" verb is followed by a predicate that defines/describes the subject. Here "5 million" cannot define/describe "households".

Cheers!

Besides idioms,

A,B seem to mean, the 5 million are in Japan but the 111(116-5) million are not.
C should be corrected to "the number of Japan's farm households"
D is correct
E: "still there are" and "there are still" don't exactly describe the same intention.

DmitryFarber
GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo, VeritasKarishma, AnthonyRitz, CJAnish, MartyTargetTestPrep,AndrewN,VeritasPrepBrian
Dear experts,

this point is not easy for me to understand, why here is very "are still in Japan", and modifier "out of ...116" is no sense?

I read this part many times, and still have no idea.

I genuinely need your help.

In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan out of a total population of some 116 million people.

(A) In despite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan -- 'In despite' is wrong

(B) In spite of the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, nearly 5 million farm households are still in Japan -- idiom error. Should be flow from rural areas 'to' urban clusters.

(C) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas into urban clusters, Japan’s farm households are still nearly 5 million -- idiom error. Should be flow from rural areas 'to' urban clusters.

(D) Despite the steady population flow from rural areas to urban clusters, there are still nearly 5 million farm households in Japan - Correct

(E) In Japan, despite the steady population flow out from rural areas into urban clusters, still there are nearly 5 million farm households -- idiom error. Should be flow from rural areas 'to' urban clusters. 'Still' is not needed when 'despite' is in the sentence.

"Despite of" is an incorrect idiom. The correct idiom is despite or in spite of. "Into" is used when something enters into some other thing. The right choice is going to the city not going into the city.
A, B, C, and E are out. D is the right answer.

In this official question, despite is followed by a noun and a verb ,,,,,, the rule says despite needs to be followed only by noun. Can anyone please point out my mistake ?

Also, is flow out not redundant ?

Tagging experts GMATNinja generis VeritasKarishma DmitryFarber

Is the use of "flow out" not redundant? "from" rural "to" urban already shows this. What is the need for "out". We can simply use flow out no?

Please halp.

Hi Farber!
What do you mean by "Households can't be a number"? Can you please elaborate a bit more?

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Hi philwei!
Why should C be corrected to "the number of Japan's farm households"? What is wrong with using the verb "to be" with "households"?
Thanks !!

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Hi Godot!
Could you please explain more in detail why "5 million" cannot define/describe "households"?

Thanks!

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