According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect grow

A Correct.
B "To come" is not parallel with "avoid."
C "To come" is not parallel with "avoid."
D "To come" is not parallel with "avoid."
E "Coming" is not parallel with "avoid."

GMATNinja, Please explain the use of "that" in the original sentence.

As I understand, first "that" refers to the clause "the economy will avoid the recession" and second "that" stands for "recession". Please correct if this is wrong.

This is an example in which I see multiple use of "that" in one sentence. On the similar lines, is below sentence also correct?
It is great to take part in the GMAT Club forum as it has many experts like GMATNinja

Original sentence again:

You're on the right track! The first "that" ("that the economy will avoid the recession...") is just telling us more about the "growing confidence." The second "that" ("that many had feared earlier in the year") is just describing "the recession." Both are fine.

And its perfectly fine to see multiple "thats" in a single sentence, too. A full rundown of the various uses of "that" can be found here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html



I'm not completely sure which part of this sentence has inspired your question, but in most cases, the GMAT would prefer "such as" instead of "like", since you're introducing an example of an expert (albeit a lazy one who has done a totally crappy job of keeping up with questions this summer!). Personally, I don't like the sound of "as it has many experts...", but I don't think that there's anything inherently wrong with it on the GMAT.

I hope this helps!

[/quote]

But isnt it wrong to use 'ínstead' before a clause?[/quote]

Usage of "instead of" is restricted to nouns, whereas usage of "rather than" is more flexible. "Rather than" can be used with nouns or verbs / infinitives /participles. The reason is that "instead of" ends with the preposition "of" and hence requires a noun.[/quote]

hi sayantanc2k
I am also confused about the usage rather and instead of here.
If instead is used with noun, isn't it wrong in option A?

Hello pra1785,


I will be glad to help you with this one.

The phrase instead of is followed by a noun because a preposition is ALWAYS followed by a noun.

The original sentence that is also the correct sentence uses only instead - an adverb - that correctly precedes the verb come in.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Just to clarify the word earlier in the year invariably refers that the fear occurred earlier in the year and that the growing confidence in the economy showed that there was a soft landing. And since fear occurred earlier in the year we use past perfect??

Hello longhaul123,

I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Here is my response nonetheless.


You are correct in saying that the usage of the phrase earlier in the year prompts the usage of past perfect tense verb had feared.

If we put all the events in the chronological order, we will find that:

Event 1: Many had feared recession earlier in the year.
Event 2: Analysts said.
Event 3: the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence
Event 4: the economy will avoid the recession and come in for a 'soft landing'
Event 5: The business activity will gradually increase.


Since, between the two past events - Event 1 and Event 2, the action of had feared took place earlier, usage of past perfect tense is correct.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

EMPOWERgmatVerbal

Could you please provide an explanation for this question?

This question can be solved solely based on the part of speech usage. If someone can remember the rules, many 700+ level sc can be solved with ease.

Lets look at the last word split. Option B,C and D can be eliminated as "come"( a verb) is preceded by "to"(a preposition). What should follow preposition is a noun/pronoun.

E.g. Sam is going to(Preposition) home(noun).

Option E can be eliminated as instead(adverb) is preceded by a coming(Noun,Gerund). Adverbs can precede a verb (as you see in answer choice A,last two words of underlined portion) or a preposition. Eg. I chose ISB instead(adverb) of(preposition) IIML(Noun).

To can also be an infinitive marker, in which case it is normal for us to see the basic form of a verb after it. For example:

Sam is going to come home soon.

instead come in for a 'soft landing'
This might be a very silly question what is the subject of -instead come in for a 'soft landing'- in the above sentence.
AjiteshArun

There's no such thing as a silly question.

The subject of instead come is the economy. Just watch out for the will in front of avoid though.

... the economy will (a) avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and (b) instead come in for a 'soft landing'...

If we didn't have a will there:

... the economy (a) avoids the recession and (b) comes in for a 'soft landing'...

Dear experts,
egmat mikemcgarry GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo AjiteshArun @empowergmat
Please help me clarify whether the reasons behind eliminating the different options are correct:

Option b. A connector behind "rather" is missing. "Rather" signifies preferrence over the other. However in this sentence the "soft lamding" is replacing the other effects of recession. Hence use of "rather is incorrect.

Option c. In one of the post, it is mentioned that "earlier in the year modifies recession", while it should modify "fear". Can you please clarify this statement and the reason to eliminate option C.

In addition to that, number of posts mention parallelism to eliminate all the incorrect options. I would like to understand what is wrong in the use of "to avoid" and "to come" in option B.

Appreciate your help!

Here's the full sentence, with choice (A) and choice (C) inserted:



Now let's look at a couple differences between (A) and (C):

(1) Confidence in vs confidence that

Here are stripped down versions of each:

(A) "The gains reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession ... and instead come in for a 'soft landing'..."
(C) "The gains reflect growing confidence in the economy's ability to avoid the recession... and instead to come in for a 'soft landing'...".

So we essentially have:

(A) "... confidence THAT the economy will (1) avoid the recession and (2) come in for a soft landing..."
(C) "... confidence in the economy's ability (1) to avoid the recession... and (2) to come in for a 'soft landing'...".

There's a difference in meaning here. With (A), there is confidence THAT something will happen. With (C), there is confidence in the economy's ABILITY to do X and Y. Which makes more sense: there are gains in the stock market because we feel confident in the economy's ABILITY to do something? Or there are gains in the stock market because we feel confident that X and Y will actually happen? I'd go with the latter.

Also, compare these two:

• "We are confident THAT the economy will come in for a soft landing, followed by a gradual increase in business activity"
• "We are confident in the economy's ability to come in for a soft landing, followed by a gradual increase in business activity"

The latter makes it sound as though the economy has the ABILITY to be followed by something. The former simply expresses that we are confident that something will take place after the soft landing. The latter makes more sense, so (A) looks better so far.

(2) "(A) ... the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year... " vs "(C) ... the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared."

In choice (A), there is no question that "that many had feared earlier in the year" modifies "recession". In (C), the modifier "something earlier in the year many had feared" is a bit more ambiguous: is the recession the thing that many had feared? Or is the economy's ability the thing that many had feared? Obviously the latter wouldn't make any sense. The construction in (A) is clearer, so that's another vote for (A).

Even though (C) doesn't have any definitive grammatical errors , when we stack it up against choice (A), (A) is clearer and more logical, and therefore our winner.

I hope that helps!

VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

Please explain the usage of past perfect in question

Posted from my mobile device

According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come in for a 'soft landing', followed by a gradual increase in the business activity.

(A) that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come

I don't understand. If you use past perfect tense here, how can you say "reflect growing confidence"? if you assume that "According to some analysts" equals to "analysts said", then you can't use "reflect" either, it should be "reflected"

confused

Hi user8275, growing confidence in this context implies that confidence (that the economy will avoid the recession) has been growing for the past some time.

Before this time (before that confidence started growing), many analysts had feared recession.

Since we are talking about two times (time when the confidence started growing and the time before it when many analysts had feared recession), the event attributed to the earlier of these two times is expressed as past perfect.

You can watch our video on Past Perfect.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Past perfect tense, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.