In the textbook publishing business, the second quarter is historicall

A.

low and high appears parallel than:
low : higher


however it looks like we need "while" to show contrast :
revenues are low while marketing expenses are high

B and E should be out due to ambiguous "they" and "their"
C: "preparation" should be "preparing" , also "for" is correct preposition for "prepare" but incorrect preposition for "preparation"
Between A and D : i pick A coz "because X and Y" looks better.

Go for A.

Between A and D i picked D because it brought out da contrast with da use of while...so i guess i should give priority to parallelism over contrast? I don't see how 'and' is better than 'while' though.

Thanks for contributing!. the OA is A.

In addition 'A' is clear in stating the 'cause & effect' relationship.

"revenues are low and marketing expenses are high as companies prepare for the coming school year"...

Late, but A. Same reasoning at Duttsit.

A ist the most logical here.

Revenues are low + marketing expenses high is parallel
and then the reason is given: as companies prepare...

little late but A is the only choice.

I think D is the best in terms of providing the meaning desired. However, as mentioned earlier, the adjective higher is a little vague. "Higher" than what exactly??

I chose D too, but see why A is the best answer.

there and they have no antecedent. Hence, BE are out. E is wordy and awkward. C uses noun form preparation. Besides the usage of with changes the meaning. Its trying to say the low business is because on increased marketing expense. D totally changes the meaning by using infinitive A wins

One good learning is that if you see a comparative form like 'higher', 'more', 'lower', we must immediately look for 'than'

I don't, however, understand why high and low need to be parallel..

In the textbook publishing business, the second quarter is historically weak, because revenues are low and marketing expenses are high as companies prepare for the coming school year.

A. low and marketing expenses are high as companies prepare
B. low and their marketing expenses are high as they prepare
C. low with higher marketing expenses in preparation
D. low, while marketing expenses are higher to prepare
E. low, while their marketing expenses are higher in preparation

Almost fell for the "while" trap.

Can someone please help clarify something:

I was hung up between A and D for a reason other than "higher than". Maybe you guys can help me clarify:

A) ... because revenues are low and marketing expenses are high as companies prepare
D) ... because revenues are low, while marketing expenses are higher to prepare

Two questions:

1) Why don't we require contrast which is provided by "while"?
2) What about the use of "and" vs. ,while. Assuming everything else was the same, would ",while" and "and" both work? I'm assuming the latter part doesn't need to be an independent clause because there is no coordinating conjunction.

Thanks a ton!

Hi russ9,

In D, the commas surrounding "because...low" set it off from "while marketing...high", which contrasts instead with the main clause: "The second quarter is historically weak". That is, the sentence in D means:
1) The second quarter is weak [because revenues are low]
2) (Contrast) While/Although marketing expenses are high/higher to prepare ...

This contrast is inappropriate and suggests that the second quarter is weak even though the marketing expenses are high.

Secondly, "while" is used in many contexts to mean "at the same time as", so using it to provide contrast as is provided in D makes the construction ambiguous.

Finally, "to prepare" in D does not have a clear subject. "Who" prepares for the coming school year?

--Prasad

Thanks, prasi55 . Makes total sense.

Remember Parallelism is darling of GMAT.

OA is A

wrong usage of they and awkward sentences - b,c,d,e