Hi Skywalker18,

This sentence cannot be broken down into "X is Y" -- "making" here needs to be interpreted either as a part of the verb ("has been making") or as a modifier (which cannot be the subject or object of a sentence). Consider this sentence:

Skywalker was studying for the test all night.

The verb here is "was studying", not just "was". If we invert this sentence:

Studying for the test all night was Skywalker.

we end up with a Yoda-like sentence (which is unfortunately not correct). Alternately, we could use "studying" as a modifier:

Studying for the test all night, Skywalker was determined to get a good score.

However, this only works because we have a separate independent clause (Skywalker was determined...).

I hope that helps!
-Carolyn
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Hello Everyone!

Let's take a closer look at this question and tackle it, one problem at a time! Before we dive in, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance.

(A) has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided
(B) there is general market inactivity, if not paralysis, lately it has provided
(C) general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has lately provided
(D) lately, general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has provided
(E) is that lately general market inactivity, if not paralysis, which provides

After taking a quick glance over the options, there are two main things we can focus on:

1. What comes before the phrase "if not paralysis"
2. What comes after the phrase "if not paralysis"

This sounds like too much to focus on, right? Let's think about this in a different way:

1. Proper placement/use of a non-essential phrase or interjection ("...,if not paralysis,...")
2. Modifier Placement (the phrase "Making things even more difficult" is a modifier)

Let's tackle #1 on our list: non-essential phrases or interjections. In this sentence, the phrase "if not paralysis" is considered an interjection. It's a phrase that's added in to sound more conversational or to add more detail that's not 100% vital to know. For non-essential phrases, they are always put in between commas to indicate that they're not necessary for the sentence to make sense.

To test this, we can cross out the non-essential phrase and check to see if what's left is both a complete sentence and retains its intended meaning. Let's take a look at each option, but with the non-essential phrase crossed out:

(A) Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis,which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance. --> INCORRECT
(What's left over is a run-on sentence, which means the phrase isn't in the right place or the wording in the rest of the sentence is wrong.)

(B) Making things even more difficult there is general market inactivity, if not paralysis, lately it has provided little in the way of pricing guidance. --> INCORRECT
(What's left over is a run-on sentence, so this is also wrong.)

(C) Making things even more difficult general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has lately provided little in the way of pricing guidance. --> INCORRECT
(This can't stand alone because it needs a comma between "difficult" and "general" to separate the modifier from the subject.)

(D) Making things even more difficult lately, general market inactivity, if not paralysis,has provided little in the way of pricing guidance. --> CORRECT

This is our CORRECT option because it's the only one that uses the non-essential phrase and modifiers correctly!

(E) Making things even more difficult is that lately general market inactivity, if not paralysis,which provides little in the way of pricing guidance. --> INCORRECT
(This is actually a very long sentence fragment! If it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence without the non-essential phrase, it's not the right choice.)

There you have it - option D is the correct choice! It's the only that uses a non-essential phrase correctly, which is a common problem on the GMAT you can easily spot and test out!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Did you mean option C (or maybe B)?

Punctuation is tested on the GMAT. What we don't have to worry about too much is style. So, for example, there is no (reliable) way to remove an option just because it has (or does not have) a comma before an and. Different people have different recommendations on how to handle style issues, but the need for a comma in C is not that kind of an issue.

Working quickly, he did something. ← This sentence is okay.
Working quickly he did something. ← This sentence is incorrect, and there is no real debate about it. That is, we won't find a significant number of people arguing that the sentence is fine without a comma.
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(A) Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance.

if not paralysis is an interjection. It adds color to the sentence.
which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance is a modifier. It tells us more about INACTIVITY
If we ignore the interjection and the modifier, we get: Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately

Here's a similar sentence: Standing on the corner has been Joe.
While we can say Joe has been standing on the corner, the sentence Standing on the corner has been Joe illogically makes the modifier (Standing on the corner) the subject of the sentence.
Answer choice A shares the same illogical construction.
ELIMINATE A
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Answer choice B is a total word salad. I doubt many students choose B
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(E)Making things even more difficult is that lately general market inactivity, if not paralysis, which provides little in the way of pricing guidance.

if not paralysis is an interjection. It adds color to the sentence.
which provides little in the way of pricing guidance. is a modifier. It tells us more about INACTIVITY
If we ignore the interjection and the modifier, we get: Making things even more difficult is that lately general market inactivity
This sentence is incomplete. Where's the verb that should accompany the noun ACTIVITY?
ELIMINATE E
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We're left with C and D

With answer choice D we get: Making things even more difficult lately, general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has provided little in the way of pricing guidance.
Here, we start with a modifier Making things even more difficult lately,,
When a sentence begins with a with noun modifier (as it does in the above sentence), stop at the comma and ask the question that the modifier raises.

So, once we read, Making things even more difficult lately, we should stop and ask . . . WHAT is making things more difficult lately?
Keep reading.... general market inactivity
Ah! general market inactivity is making thing more difficult.
Make perfect sense
Keep D.


With answer choice C we get: Making things even more difficult general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has lately provided little in the way of pricing guidance.

It LOOKS like we're starting the sentence with the modifier Making things even more difficult but the omission of a comma tells us that this, alone, is not the modifier.
Keep going until the comma...."Making things even more difficult general market inactivity, "
What?!?!
ELIMINATE C


Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent
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Making things even more difficult has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided little in the way of pricing guidance.

(A) has been general market inactivity lately, if not paralysis, which has provided

Use of Which is wrong.

(B) there is general market inactivity, if not paralysis, lately it has provided

There is refer to ? Not clear. amigious

(C) general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has lately provided

No verb use. So sentence fragment

(D) lately, general market inactivity, if not paralysis, has provided

Correct one.

(E) is that lately general market inactivity, if not paralysis, which provides

Same error as A.

Option C doesn't have a comma after making things even more difficult.

Making things even more difficult_general market inactivity has lately provided little in the way of pricing guidance.
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