In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are

Question

In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are looking to avoid the attention brought on by moving to such obvious tax shelters as  Belize, and taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also have a highly skilled work force .

(A) Belize, and taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also have a highly skilled work force
 
(B) Belize, and by taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark that also have a highly skilled work force

(C) Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also has a highly skilled work force

(D)Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also have a highly skilled work force

(E) Belize, and are taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also have a highly skilled work force

pytha1gurus · Accepted Answer

Identifying the correct list could be difficult here:

are  looking to avoid  ... , and  taking advantage  
are looking to  avoid the attention   ... , and  take advantage 
are looking to avoid the attention brought on  by moving to  ..., and  taking/ by taking advantage

Split the sentence while working on the meaning and grammatical structure:

Two errors here- 
Companies are looking to do two things: avoid X and  taking  Y - verbs should be parallel 
Denmark (singular noun) doesn't agree with plural verb (have)

In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are looking to 
 avoid  the attention brought on by moving to such obvious tax shelters as  Belize, 
and 
  taking   advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark , which also   have   a highly skilled work force.

A.) Belize, and  taking  advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark , which also   have   a highly skilled work force
 B.) Belize,  and by taking  advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark  that also  have   a highly skilled work force
 C.) Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark , which also  has  a highly skilled work force
 D.)Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark , which also   have   a highly skilled work force
 E.) Belize,  and are taking  advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark , which also   have   a highly skilled work force

Best!
Dolly

Udai · Answer

went for D …. which i thought was supposed to modify the countries but since we cannot separate "like denmark" which was correct in referring to countries….wonder how it refers to denmark

mshrek · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

This sentence correction problem is primarily concerned with sentence construction and tricky subject-verb agreement. You need to make sure that the multiple parts of the sentence are properly linked together and that there is proper agreement in the “which” clause at the end. Any time you are dealing with errors of sentence construction, the technique of slash-and-burn is particularly useful. In (A), there are two main errors: the structure “looking to avoid…and taking” is not parallel or logical (should be “looking to avoid and take”) and the verb “have” after the “which” clause is also incorrect as it should be singular. The subject for that verb is the singular Denmark – the noun right beside it - and that is clear because only a country would have “a highly skilled work force”, not countries. (B) contains this same agreement error as (A) - should be “has” not “have” - and the “by taking” is also incorrect as it is erroneously and illogically making that part of the sentence parallel to “by moving”. (C) gets the parallelism correct: “U.S. companies are looking to avoid…..and take “ Also only (C) uses the correct “has” in the which clause at the end. (D) and (E) both contain the agreement error with “have” discussed above and are thus incorrect. Answer is (C).

viciss · Answer

If one tries to look at the core sentence -

In relocating to countries in Eur and Asia, US companies are looking to avoid X, and taking advantage of Y in countries like Denmark, which also have Z .

Now, it seems looking is a linking verb (such as appear, feel, etc which describes the state of subject rather than its action) here and doesnt really have to be parallel to action verb taking. Therefore to avoid will be parallel to verb (to) take in my opinion. Also if someone confuses parallelism in - by moving to be parallel with by taking, then meaning wise its odd, as US cant possibly avoid attention by taking advantage of something else. That rules out A,B and E.

Between C and D, from SV agreement between has/have, since Denmark is singular, C comes out as the correct ans

Thanks

donkadsw · Answer

(C) doesn't look right because of the comma right after 'Belize'. In fact, none of the options look good to me by way of usage of comma

thangvietname · Answer

if the sentence is long, we do not know the latter part is paralel to which previous part. this case is imple but terribly hard . using out common sense of the world to realize the correct paralelism is hard.

gmat can use simple grammar rule like this one to make very hard question.

similar case happen in which 3 verb are in order and we are asked to realize the logic paralelism.

Bowtye · Answer

Same here. I narrowed it down to D and C within 20 seconds but was hesitant on the has/have issue. I finally went for D following the same reasoning above. When reading the sentence we cannot separate "like Denmark" and it refers to countries which is plural. Another way to say it is I read the which clause as modifying "countries like Denmark" and not "Denmark".

KapilVarshney · Answer

I think I got every other part correct except the has/have.

C.) Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like  Denmark ,  which also has  a highly skilled work force
D.)Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in  countries  like Denmark,  which also have  a highly skilled work force

From the discussion above I understand that "has" has to conform with "Denmark" which is supposedly the subject here. And therefore, C is the correct option.

Can anyone explain me how would have we constructed the statement given "countries" was the subject?

Thanks.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

The subject for that verb is the singular Denmark - the noun right beside it - and that is clear because only a country would have “a highly skilled work force”, not countries. I suppose the statement with countries as subject would be Belize, and take advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries , each of which also has a highly skilled work force Please verify the official solution posted by mshrek above.(we can thus avoid duplicate posts) I hope I'm right. Any discussion or suggestions are most welcome.

rohitkumar77 · Answer

In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are looking to avoid the attention brought on by moving to such obvious tax shelters as Belize, and taking advantage of the more favorable business conditions in countries like Denmark, which also have a highly skilled work force.

we have to make it parellel and the best parallelism is shown in C ----- U.S. companies are looking to avoid .............. as Belize and take advantage ;

so to avoid and take becomes parellel and plus Denmark is a country - collective noun -- needs singular ; so Answer is C;

sowragu · Answer

Based on Subject-Verb agreement we can easily eliminate all other four options except C.
||lelism --> To avoid attention and To take advantage.

Mahmud6 · Answer

Is the use of 'like' before Denmark correct? So far I know, in gmat 'like' cannot be used to cite example.

Posted from my mobile device

GittinGud · Answer

VeritasPrepBrian

Which noun does a which that appears after an example modify? Ex. 
I like COUNTRIES such as Denmark, which BOAST high life expectancy.
OR
I like Countries such as DENMARK, which BOASTS high life expectancy.

Also, is the use of LIKE in this question correct?

Please help. Thanks!

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

In a question like this where they don't give you a choice, I wouldn't worry about it in the least. "Like vs such as" is has become a GMAT forum hot button but plenty of reputable sources (such as the New York Times) use the two interchangeably:  https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/faqs-on-style-2/

And in a case like this where they don't even give you the choice, don't worry about it. There are plenty of strange "I didn't realize you could do that" idioms that will appear on the GMAT as ways to make incorrect answers (or all five answers) strike your ear funny and distract from what they're really testing. If you don't get to choose and all five answers seem different from how you'd write it, that's just an invitation to dig a little deeper for the actionable decision point. And the GMAT probably can't test it by having "like" in the right answer and "such as" in wrong ones, just since so many people study like-vs-such-as for the GMAT nowadays, but technically there's nothing wrong with "like" to introduce an example. It's one of those style things like the Oxford comma that people get passionate about, but that can't be seen as universally correct or incorrect because so many reputable publications have chosen different sides.

kapurajay23 · Answer

stuck between the has/ have issue in choice C and D. The statement says countries like Denmark. Should'nt the Subject for this be countries and thus, Have be used?

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In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are

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In relocating to countries in Europe or Asia, U.S. companies are

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