One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices shoul

Hi divineacclivity,

Thank you for the post.

Let’s do the sentence structure and meaning analysis for the original sentence and option C to find out why option C is wrong.


ORIGINAL SENTENCE

• One view of the economy contends
o that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to
• lowering interest rates, as well as lowering fears about inflation,
• a rally in stocks and bonds,
• and a weakening of the dollar.

As shown, the drop in oil prices should lead to three things:

1. i) lowering interest rates
ii) as well as lowering fears about inflation

2. a rally in stocks and bonds

3. and a weakening of the dollar.


Now, let’s do the same for option C.


OPTION C

• One view of the economy contends
o that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to
• a lowering of interest rates, along with fears about inflation,
• a rally in stocks and bonds,
• and a weakening of the dollar.

According to this option, the drop in oil prices should lead to three things:

1. i) a lowering of interest rates,
ii) along with fears about inflation

2. a rally in stocks and bonds

3. and a weakening of the dollar.


This choice says that a drop in oil prices will eventually lead to fears about inflation. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence. This change in the meaning happens since “of interest rates” is not parallel to “along with fears about inflation”. Let’s now see how this parallelism is correctly maintained in option B.



OPTION B


• One view of the economy contends
o that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to
• a lowering
o of interest rates
o and of fears about inflation,
• a rally in stocks and bonds,
• and a weakening of the dollar.

In this option, “of interest rates” is parallel to “of fears about inflation”. So, the lowering effect is applicable on both.


Hope the above discussion helps!
Regards,

Deepak.
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Can't really tell you if it is unidiomatic or not. It is an OG question so I assume it is fine.
You can arrive at the right answer by POE , see below:

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates, a lowering of fears about inflation, a rally in stocks and bonds, and a weakening of the dollar.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Grammatical Construction + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• The "comma + conjunction" construction is used to join the last element in a list with the other elements; the other elements are all linked through commas.
• All elements in a list must be parallel.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the "comma + conjunction ("as well as" in this sentence)" construction to join the first and second elements of a list with more than two elements - "lowering interest rates" and "lowering fears about inflation"; remember, the "comma + conjunction" construction is used to join the last element in a list with the other elements; the other elements are all linked through commas. Further, Option A uses the needlessly indirect and wordy construction "lowering interest rates, as well as lowering fears about inflation", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice uses the phrase "and of fears about inflation", conveying the intended meaning - that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and a lowering of fears about inflation. Further, Option B maintains parallelism among "a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation", "a rally in stocks and bonds" and "a weakening of the dollar". Additionally, Option B correctly uses the "comma + conjunction ("and" in this case)" construction to link the last element in a list with more than two elements to the rest of the list. Besides, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "along with fears about inflation"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and lead to fears about inflation; the intended meaning is that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and a lowering of fears about inflation. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the "comma + conjunction ("along with" in this sentence)" construction to join the first and second elements of a list with more than two elements - "lowering of interest rates" and "fears about inflation"; remember, the "comma + conjunction" construction is used to join the last element in a list with the other elements; the other elements are all linked through commas.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "along with fears about inflation"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and lead to fears about inflation; the intended meaning is that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and a lowering of fears about inflation. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism among "interest rates being lowered", "fears about inflation", "a rally in stocks and bonds", and "a weakening of the dollar"; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel. Additionally, Option D uses the passive construction "interest rates being lowered", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "interest rates and fears about inflation being lowered", "a rally in stocks and bonds", and "a weakening of the dollar"; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel. Additionally, Option E uses the passive construction "interest rates and fears about inflation being lowered", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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I'd go with (B), because a lowering is parallel with a rally and a weakening.

Hi,

This is a parallelism error & the first clue to that is " lowering interest rates, as well as lowering fears about inflation, a rally in stocks and bonds, and a weakening of the dollar. "

Thus the answer choice must have a lowering interest rate => narrow down to B & C

B has a parallel structure " a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation," hence is correct

C is wordy & awkward

IMO B,

It tests parallelism.Hence statement B is correct.
B. One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation, a rally in stocks and bonds, and a weakening of the dollar.

I know statement B is correct but "fears about inflation"... doesn't seem to be idiomatic.Please explain why this is correct??

Vote for B

Reason:

"lowering" should be gerund [a lowering] - parallel to other options - so we narrow down to ans: B and C

Now in B the preposition "of interest rate and of fear" is parallel to non underline options
for C - ",along" introduces a subordinate clause and so is not parallel structure.

THe correct answer here is B.

However i am confused how come below 2 clauses are parallel

1. a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation
2. a rally in stocks and bonds
3. and a weakening of the dollar

1 and 3 are parallel, but 1 and 2 is not. Shouldn't 2 be a 'rallying stocks and bonds' for it to be parallel?
Please help to clarify. Thanks in advance.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Ankur,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

1. a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation
2. a rally in stocks and bonds
3. and a weakening of the dollar

First of all, just a correction in understanding here. These three entities are not clauses. they are phrases. Clauses must have Subjects and Verbs. None of these entities have a Subject or a Verb. So they are all phrases.

Now, if you carefully notice, the last two entities in the parallel list lie in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. That means they are correct. here itself we see that entity two - a proper noun entity - is parallel to entity three - a verb-ing of noun entity. So this is accepted in GMAT. Why? The answer to that is verb-ing noun form of a word acts as a noun only (gerund, if you are more familiar with this term), and hence a two noun entities are grammatically parallel.

Now, here one thing we must pay attention to that is the verb-ing word must be a noun form of a word in order to be grammatically parallel to another noun entity. In case, the verb-ing word is a modifier then it CANNOT be grammatically parallel to a noun entity. This is the case with the original official sentence.

This error has been rectified in choice B.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Why is option C wrong?
c: a lowering of interest rates, along with fears about inflation
thanks in advance

i am just thinking that theoretically, a lowering rates will probably lead to inflation, right? little bit confused. Do we need to consider this problem?

Not sure whether I understood your query correctly - the parallelism structure is as follows:

Drop in oil prices will lead to:
1. Lowering
1a. lowering of interest rates
1b. lowering of fears
2. Rally
3. Weakening

Hi can any one help me in this question.

Can second of in OA B be removed?

Will the deletion of second of in answer B lead to change in meaning?

Hi Arvind, indeed, deletion of second of in answer B wlll lead to change in meaning.

B says:

One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation,....

Notice that the Right hand side of parallelism indicator (and in this case) is of. So, it will match with the corresponding preposition (of) on the Left hand side. So, the parallel structure is:

One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering
i) of interest rates and
ii) of fears about inflation,....

So, basically there will be lowering of fears about inflation.

If we remove the second of, then option B would be:

One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to a lowering of interest rates and fears about inflation,....

Now we have a bit of a problem, because the above sentence can be interpreted as:

One view of the economy contends that a large drop in oil prices should eventually lead to
i) a lowering of interest rates and
ii) fears about inflation,....

So, basically it will lead to fears about inflation! This is exactly the opposite of the intended meaning.
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Basic principle - verb-ing of noun // noun
Simple verb-ing IS NOT PARALLEL TO noun

(A) lowering interest rates, as well as lowering fears about inflation,
- Parallel elements - lowering interest rates (verb-ing) , lowering fears ... (verb-ing) , a rally (noun) , weakening of dollar (verb-ing of noun).
-Thus only 2nd and 3rd elements are parallel
-Wrong

(B) a lowering of interest rates and of fears about inflation,
- Parallel elements - interest rates and inflation - noun - noun = correct
- Parallel elements - lowering of interest rates and fears (verb-ing of noun), a rally (noun) , weakening of dollar (verb-ing of noun).
- all elements perfectly parallel
-Correct

(C) a lowering of interest rates, along with fears about inflation,
- Parallel elements - lowering of interest rates, (verb-ing of noun), fears (noun), a rally (noun) , weakening of dollar (verb-ing of noun). - Correct
- Meaning - Original choice says the drop will lead to lowering fears. This option instead says that the drop will lead to fears - Wrong
-Wrong

(D) interest rates being lowered, along with fears about inflation,
- use of "being" is wrong
-Meaning error similar to that present in option C
-Wrong

(E) interest rates and fears about inflation being lowered, with
- Use of "being" is wrong
- "interest rates and fears ... lowered" - clause + rest of the elements = noun phrase
-Wrong

Answer: B

GMATNinja egmat daagh VeritasKarishma

DmitryFarber TommyWallach


Can you please help me to understand as to why A is wrong.

Option (A) has parallelism issues.

... a large drop in prices will lead to A, B and C
A, B and C need to be in parallel.

B - a rally in stocks and bonds
C - a weakening of the dollar

So A needs to use a noun too.
"a lowering of..." is correct.

Option (A) uses "lowering" as an adjective to describe interest rates and fears about inflation. That is not correct.

Option (B) correctly uses
- a lowering of interest rate and of fears ... (both things lowered)
- a rally ...
- a weakening of ...


"lowering" in is used as a participle for interest rates.
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VeritasKarishma

Thanks Ma'am your reply helps a ton.

Kindly let me know whether "lowering" as an adjective to describe interest rates is wrong for illogical meaning or such usage is grammatically incorrect as well.

"Lowering interest rates" would be correct in other situations such as:

Lowering interest rates is not the right strategy in the current political climate.

Here it is correct. "lowering" acts as a noun here.

In our original sentence, it is not parallel to the other elements.
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