EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Pack 3, Question 4 of 5
Leading up to the dot com crash, company mergers, lawsuits, and accounting scandals raised fears that internet companies would be unable to maintain their market share
.
A. that internet companies would be unable to maintain
B. that there would be internet companies unable to maintain
C. of internet companies unable to maintain
D. of internet companies that would be unable of maintaining
E. of internet companies that are unable to maintain
Meaning: Just before the dot com crash happened, company mergers, lawsuits and scandals raised some fears. The fears were that internet companies would not be able to maintain their market share
Analysis:
1. Use of would - To denote a future action from a past time - correct
2. Raised fears that - idiomatic use of that - correct
Option A - seems okay
Option B - Distorts the meaning. The main sentence is speaking about interent companies in general. This choice is speaking about a few interent companies
Option C - Use of "of" is unidiomatic
Option D - Use of "of" is unidiomatic. Plus similar to option B this choice too distorts the meaning
Option E - The main sentence intends to predict a future action. By using present tense the choice is speaking about companies that have already lost their market share
Hence, answer - A