Unlike most other mergers in the utility industry, which have been

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 the merger of the nation's leading gas company and its leading electric company is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open their utility markets to competition.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Verb Forms

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "leading gas and electric company"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the merger is between the nation's leading gas and electric company and itself; the intended meaning is that the merger is between the nation's leading gas company and the nation's leading electric company. Moreover, Option A further alters the meaning of the question through the phrase "with states opening"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question alongside or by using states that are opening their utility markets to competition; the intended meaning is that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question at the time when the states open their utility markets to competition.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "merger" with the plural verb "are intended".

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "merger" with the plural verb "are intended". Further, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with states opening"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question alongside or by using states that are opening their utility markets to competition; the intended meaning is that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question at the time when the states open their utility markets to competition.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "merger" with the plural verb "are intending". Further, Option D alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "merger...are intending"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the merger intends to create a huge marketing network; the intended meaning is that a separate entity intends to use the merger to create a huge marketing network. Moreover, Option D further alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with states opening"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question alongside or by using states that are opening their utility markets to competition; the intended meaning is that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question at the time when the states open their utility markets to competition.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "merger" with the singular verb "is intended". Further, Option E uses the phrase "leading gas company and leading electric company", conveying the intended meaning - that the merger is between the nation's leading gas company and the nation's leading electric company. Moreover, Option E uses the phrase "merger...is intended", conveying the intended meaning - that a separate entity intends to use the merger to create a huge marketing network. Additionally, Option E uses the phrase "as states open", conveying the intended meaning - that the merger is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question at the time when the states open their utility markets to competition.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

This question is based on Subject-Verb agreement and Construction.

The sentence makes a comparison between “most mergers in the utility industry” and the merger of two particular companies. Since it’s a merger, there must be two companies. However, Option A conveys the idea that there is only one company – one that is both a gas and electric company. So, Option A is incorrect.

In Option B, the verb doesn’t agree with the subject. The subject is “the merger” which requires the singular verb ‘is’ and not the plural verb ‘are. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C contains the same subject-verb disagreement as in Option C. The option is also wordy. So, Option C can also be eliminated.

Option D also contains the same subject-verb disagreement. This option also contains the verb in the continuous tense, which is unnecessary in this sentence. So, Option D can also be eliminated.

In Option E, the verb ‘is’ agrees with the subject ‘the merger’. The parallelism of comparison is also maintained in this sentence because the mergers in the utility industry is correctly compared to the merger of the leading gas company and leading electric company. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

the subject 'merger' should have a singular verb 'is'. This leaves us with A and E.

I will choose A against E - because, 'with states opening' sure makes more meaningful sense compared to 'as states open'

E

In A:
gas and electric company
incorrect. should be companies. moreover introducing clause with "as" in E is better than prepositional phrase begginning "with" in A.

“The merger” requires a singular verb ( “is” instead of “are”) hence Choice B C D are out.

As for choice A, a merger requires two companies. Here the phrase “leading gas and electric company” indicates only one company. Hence this is wrong.

Choice E is corrects all the errors. Hence is the correct answer

Hi
Pl help. I marked ans A but the ans is E.
I had brought it down to A & E only because of singular "is" then got confused and marked A

Unlike most other mergers in the utility industry, which have been driven by the need to save money and extend companies' service areas, the merger of the nation's leading gas and electric company is intended to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question with states opening their utility markets to competition.

A. and electric company is intended to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question with states opening
B. and electric companies are intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open
C. and electric companies are intended to create a huge network that will be marketing the utilities in question, with states opening
D. company and electric company are intending to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question, with states opening
E. company and leading electric company is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open

Dear Tanmay,

Pay close attention to the meaning of the sentence. The sentence is talking about mergers.

When we are talking about "merging", logically at least two entities should be present.

However, Option A says "the merger of the gas and electric company". This is illogical. There needs to be at least another company for this company to be merged with. Option A is incorrect for this reason.

Observe that Option E corrects this error by saying "the merger of gas company and electric company".

Hope this helps

Regards,
Krishna

I know the best option is E but what I know is that during comparison using like or unlike, both the two entities should either be plural or singular, Here one is plural "mergers" and second is singular "merger" , Doesnt that make the question wrong itself?

IMO both entities for this kind of comparison should be noun. And this question satisfies that condition.


Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

i am not sure on this. you are saying that the below sentence is correct?

Unlike the white cats, the black cats are fearless.

I know both are nouns but I dont think we can compare plural with singular. Can anyone else opine here?

Hello utkbits,

I will be glad to help you out with this one.

Take a look at the original sentence:

Unlike most other mergers in the utility industry, which have been driven by the need to save money and extend companies' service areas, the merger of the nation's leading gas and electric company is intended to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question with states opening their utility markets to competition.

The two compared entities highlighted in the above-mentioned sentence lie in the non-underlined portion. Hence we cannot change these entities.

This usage makes it very clear that singular entities can be compared to plural entities. The number of the noun entities compared does not affect the comparison. What we must make sure is that the compared entities must be grammatical - must play the same function in the sentence - and logical - they must be logically comparable.

Official sentences are not only for practice. Such usages in official sentences help us learn new usages that we may not be aware of.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Unlike most other mergers in the utility industry, which have been driven by the need to save money and extend companies' service areas, the merger of the nation's leading gas and electric company is intended to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question with states opening their utility markets to competition.

A. and electric company is intended to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question with states opening - illogical meaning -- for a merger we need two entities ;
"with states opening..." is incorrect. when you have an -ING WITHOUT COMMA modifier, like this one, it's a RESTRICTIVE ("essential") modifier. this means that we're only talking about those states that are "opening their utility markets to competition", the implication being that only some states are doing so. the intended meaning is better conveyed by "as states open..
B. and electric companies are intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open - Subject-verb agreement issue -- merger is singular and thus needs is
C. and electric companies are intended to create a huge network that will be marketing the utilities in question, with states opening - same as B
D. company and electric company are intending to create a huge marketing network for the utilities in question, with states opening - same as B
E. company and leading electric company is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open - Correct

Answer E

GMATNinja can you please advice on this question as to why option A is incorrect

The key is to think about what, exactly, is being merged. The only thing that could make sense is to have a merger of two different companies -- in this case, the leading gas company AND the leading electric company. They're two separate entities, right? But in (A), it sounds like we're somehow just merging a single "gas and electric company", and that doesn't make sense.

I hope this helps!

The subtle meaning is that a merger could only happen between two distinct entities and not between two departments of the same company. That consideration will come later. Before that

The subject is the singular merger and therefore the plural verb 'are' is a childish mistake. Drop C, D, and E in a single slash

Between A and E, we can see that the diction makes it clear that it is a merger between two different companies and not between the two arms of the same company as can be inferred in A.
E is the correct choice.

Hi, I wanted to understand is the usage of both "with states opening" in option A and "as states open" in option E correct?

As daagh noted, we don't have to worry about the construction in (A) because it doesn't make any sense for a merger to consist of a single entity.

For whatever it's worth, I think you can argue that "with states" is, at best, confusing. At first, it sounds as though the the author is referring to a "question with states" or a "network...with states," neither one of which is logical. If you read it a few times, you can probably figure out what the author intended to convey, but we had to filter out some illogical interpretations to do so.

In (E), we have "the merger of the nation's leading gas company and leading electric company is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open their utility markets.." "As" indicates that one action ("the merger is intended") is happening at the same time as another action ("states open their utility markets..."). This is crystal clear, and there's no other plausible way to interpret the sentence.

If you have to re-read one answer choice several times to understand it, but the other answer choice is clear and logical, the clear and logical one will be the winner. So (E) is still better, even if we ignore the other major problem in (A). (And we wouldn't!)

I hope that helps!