Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more

Question

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people looking for a first investment.  


 A Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people as a first investment. 
B Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing attraction to real estate as a first investment. 
C Rather than buying stocks and bonds, which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people looking for a first investment. 
D Rather than buy stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional instruments for those new to financial planning, young people have turned increasingly to real estate as a first investment. 
E Instead of stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing attraction to real estate as a first investment.

jerrywu · Answer

which in (A),(B),(C) has modifier problem...

caught bewteen (D) and (E)...

I like "rather than"

bet on (D).......

GMATT73 · Answer

Obviously an SC of MGMAT quality.

Rather than for comparing actions...

Stocks and bonds are plural. 

Correct modifier, young people...

(D)

sumitsarkar82 · Answer

A/B/C are wrong bcos it should be which are instead of which is E, modifier problem.... young people instead of stocks and bonds... :no

D corrects these... :yes

buzzgaurav · Answer

D for above explainations.
Typical Modifier SC.

karlfurt · Answer

I don't agree with you. "rather than buying ..., which is...". Is refers to the act of buying, not to the stocks and bonds.

kripalkavi · Answer

I picked B. 
I don't think that B has a modifier problem with 'which':
'which' refers to  buying  stocks and bonds.

Can anyone please clarify this for me?

redbeanaddict · Answer

My answer is E, but I'm kinda stuck with stocks and bonds being an "approach"
What's the OA?Why did you guys choose D?
The reason I didn't choose D is when you reverse the order of the sentence it's not parallel:

Rather than buy stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional instruments for those new to financial planning, young people have turned increasingly to real estate as a first investment. 

Young people  have turned  increasingly  to real estate  as a first investment rather than  buy stocks and bonds , which are the more conventional instruments for those new to financial planning.

turned to real estate is not parallel to buy stocks and bonds...

londonluddite · Answer

i agree with kripalkavi & karlfurt, i don't see a problem with 'is', it is referring to the action of buying, not stocks and bonds:

 Buying   groceries  is  a tiresome exercise.

 Stocks and bonds   are  usually bought by experienced investors.

edit: i'll go for B

ps_dahiya · Answer

Must be D.

A,B and C are wrong because "stocks and bonds" is plural and we should use "which ARE"

E is comparing "stocks and bonds" to "attraction to real estate".

D is correctly comparing "buy stocks and bonds" with "turned to real estate"

ps_dahiya · Answer

In GMATLand, "which" 
1. ALMOST ALWAYS refer to noun just preceding it.
2. Must be preceded by a comma

londonluddite · Answer

without wishing to be rude, i agree with the rule but disagree with your interpretation.

consider this:

Shooting ferrets, which is the most popular pastime for hillbillys, has been banned by the government.

would not make sense as:

Shooting ferrets, which are the most popular pastime for hillbillys, has been banned by the government.

haas_mba07 · Answer

D. Rather than buy stocks and bonds, which are the more conventional instruments for those new to financial planning, young people have turned increasingly to real estate as a first investment. 

A and C have ||ism problem, where you have:

instead/rather than buying X, Y has become...

Become to who/whom?

SV problem: stocks and bonds (compound plural). Requires "are"

B and C have modifier problem.

ps_dahiya · Answer

In your example, use of which is absolutely correct.
"Shooting ferrets" is a noun phrase.

"Rather than buying stocks and bonds" is not a noun phrase but its a prepositional phrase.

"which" can refer to noun phrase but not to a prepositional phrase.

Swagatalakshmi · Answer

can you post OA with OE ?

karlfurt · Answer

:wow 
I am not blind and think a little about other people who would like to post.

anyway the OA is D and the OE is

The original sentence contains several errors. First, if we remove the clause "which is the more conventional approach for someone new to financial planning", we have "Instead of buying stocks and bonds, real estate has become increasingly..." This is not parallel. We need to find a replacement that indicates the alternative to buying stocks and bonds. Second, on the GMAT "instead of" is reserved for nouns and "rather than" for verbs. So in this case, it would be better to say "Instead of stocks and bonds" or "rather than buy stocks and bonds."

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice incorrectly uses "instead of" to introduce a verb ("buying").

(C) The phrase "rather than buying stocks and bonds" is not parallel to the phrase "real estate has become . . ."

(D) CORRECT. This choice correctly uses "rather than" to introduce the verb "buy" and sets up the proper comparison between buying stocks and bonds and turning to real estate.

(E) This choice incorrectly pairs "instead of stocks and bonds" with "young people have shown . . ." This illogically implies that young people, instead of stocks and bonds, have shown an increasing attraction to real estate.

redbeanaddict : 
 


It is for the same reason that I didn't choose D. Has someone an idea?

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more

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