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23 Jun 2022, 14:55
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jabhatta2
First of all, "will be certain" isn't a passive construction -- it's just the simple future form of the verb "to be," which links the subject (the policy makers) to an adjective describing those policy makers (certain).
And this is definitely an important difference between (A) and (D):
- If the policy makers "will be" almost certain to leave interests rates unchanged, does that mean that at present they are NOT almost certain to do so? At what point in time will they become almost certain?
- The simple present used in choice (A) makes a lot more sense, especially since the main clause is modified by something about how those policy makers view the economy NOW. If they currently view the economy as balanced, why aren't they currently almost certain to leave interest rates unchanged?
Is that enough to eliminate (D)? Maybe. But it's not a very concrete error, so you're better off, as always, looking for as many decision points as possible. (Remember, it's not about looking at one sentence in a bubble and labeling it right or wrong -- it's about comparing your options and choosing the best one.)
Luckily, (D) has another glaring issue:
- (D) says that policy makers "view the economy to be balanced between the economy of moderate growth and low inflation."
- So what exactly is the economy balanced between? It might make sense for an economy to be balanced between (1) an economy of moderate growth and (2) an economy of low inflation, but it doesn't make as much sense for an economy to be balanced between (1) the economy of moderate growth and (2) low inflation.
- You might be thinking, "Wait, you got the parallelism wrong! It's 'the economy of (1) moderate growth and (2) low inflation'!" But that would mean that the economy is balanced between a single economy, and that doesn't make any sense. How can anything be balanced between just one thing?
- (A) avoids this issue altogether: the policy makers view the economy as balanced between (1) moderate growth and (2) low inflation, and that makes perfect sense.
Lastly, the -ing modifier ("now viewing") in (A) seems a bit better than the noun modifier ("who now view") in (D). In (D), the modifier appears to be a miscellaneous fact about the policy makers -- something unrelated to the main verb of the sentence ("are almost certain..."). The -ing in (A) makes it clearer that the modifier describes the main clause: it tells us WHY the policy makers are almost certain to leave interests rates unchanged.
With two (and a half) votes against (D), we can safely eliminate it.
I hope that helps!
23 Jun 2022, 16:05
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Solenja
Sure! The problem with (C) becomes apparent when you remove the comma-separated modifier in the middle:
i got the correct answer but can you please explain why c is wrong?- "Many financial experts believe that policy makers at the Federal Reserve who are almost certain to leave interests rates unchanged for the foreseeable future."
Notice that the verb "are" is tied up in the noun modifier ("who are almost certain...").
If we strip out that noun modifier, we're left with:
- "Many financial experts believe that policy makers at the Federal Reserve."
See the issue? There's no verb for the "that" clause ("that policy makers at the Federal Reserve"). This doesn't work because the experts believe that the policy makers are almost certain to do something.
And, stripping out the comma-separated part, that's exactly what we get in (A):
- "Many financial experts believe that policy makers at the Federal Reserve are almost certain to leave interest rates unchanged..."
Experts believe that policy makers ARE almost certain to do something. This makes sense now that we have a verb ("are") in the "that" clause.
I hope that helps!
27 Jun 2022, 08:23
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arrowsup
It's true that if an "-ing" modifier immediately follows a noun phrase, the "-ing" will modify that phrase. Here, have an example:
- "The Boston Celtics, needing an upgrade at small forward, traded Jason Tatum for Juan Toscano-Anderson."
In this case, the modifier "needing" describes the noun phrase, "The Boston Celtics."
It would be a different story if we had this one, though:
- "Tim gave his children 40 cupcakes, leading to the massive sugar crash that derailed the family vacation."
In this example, it isn't quite right to say that "Tim" is leading to a sugar crash. It's the fact that he gave his kids so many cupcakes. So the "leading" modifier is describing the entire previous clause, not just the subject of that clause.
I hope that clears things up!
