Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.

(A) of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that
(B) of their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because
(C) of their sales a year earlier being as bad as because
(D) their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
(E) their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that

This questions tests a very popular structure that the Gmat loves to test - Because and Because of.
Notice here that there is a split of 3:2 between because and because of in the answer choices.

Usage of "Because"
Jack came late to office because he was working till late last night.

Because X , Y - here X is a dependent clause and Y is the independent clause.

There are two main uses of Because
1) Because -> Modifies a clause.
2) Because -> Takes a clause.

Difference between "Because of" and "Due to"

Delay in the match was due to heavy rain

So the construction of "Due to"
1) Due to modifies noun or noun phrase (here Delay)
2) Due to takes noun or noun phrase

Match was delayed because of heavy rain

So the construction of "Because of"
1) "Because of" modifies Clause
2) "Because of" takes noun or noun phrase

Lets come back to the answer choices now

A. of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that
- Because of should take a noun or noun phrase but here Because of is taking a clause hence incorrect.

B. of their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because
- Because of should take a noun or noun phrase but here Because of is taking a clause hence incorrect.

C. of their sales a year earlier being as bad as because
- Because of should take a noun or noun phrase but here Because of is taking a clause hence incorrect.

D. their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
- Because takes a clause and here that is correct.
Also here the parallel structure Because X ... as Because Y is there hence this seems a correct choice.

E. their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that
- Because is taking a clause correctly but the structure - Because X ... as that Y is not correct hence this is the incorrect answer choice.

because of is wrong so A), B) and C) are out

Between D) and E), D) is better

A & C out for being

If you look at first part of the sentence it says Retailers reported (past tense). We are talking about an event an year before. So we clearly need a past perfect. So B & E out. D remains

Also look at E, their sales of a year is different from their sales a year earlier. their sales of a year counts the total earnings of the year. The intent is to compare the current sales to an year earlier not to the entire year earlier. E can be taken out.

Another reason why E possibly is wrong. IMO, 3 as's in one sentence is almost always wrong. one as balances out the other as. What is the dangling as referring to??

Just make it as simple as possible. It is // structure question. As much ~ as...since as much because is used upfront, we need to have "as because" in place later. Simple it is...^*

Answer: D

Strike 1
Parallelism - 'of' is redundant. It should be 'as much because [something] as [something]' -> eliminate A, B and C.

Strike 2
Rule: event/matter should immediately be followed with the 'when' info. E.g. 'I had a huge cake for my birthday last year' and not '..for my birthday of last year'.
It should be 'their sales a year earlier'. Again, 'of' is redundant. -> eliminate E

Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.

1) We're looking for the structure as much because...as because...2) "because of + noun/-ing verb or because + noun + verb is correct. "their sales of a year earlier being bad" is a very awkward phrase that functions like a noun but should be stated better (with because + subject + verb). Eliminate A, B, C.

D. their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
E. their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that past perfect (had been, not were) is needed to describe an action in the past that happened prior to another action in the past. First the sales were bad and then it was reported.

Concepts Tested :
i) as much x as y ( x n y parallell) ==> as much because…..as because
ii) "because of" is followed by noun or noun phrase

A. of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that --> wrong usage of "because of"
B. of their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because --> wrong usage of "because of"
C. of their sales a year earlier being as bad as because --> wrong usage of "because of"
D. their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because --> Correct both errors : "as much because X as because Y"
E. their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that --> "Incorrect structure - as much because X as that Y"

In D "a year earlier" is an adverb (adverbial phrase) referring to the verb "had been": The sales had been bad a year earlier.
In E, an adverb cannot be used - a noun is required since here the usage is as an object of preposition:
OF + noun/ noun phrase... correct
OF + adverb/ adverbial phrase... wrong.
Thus "of an year earlier" is wrong - should be "of the earlier year": "the earlier year" is a noun phrase, but "an year earlier" is an adverbial phrase.

Hi GMATNinja, sayantanc2k, RonPurewal, Hope you're well. I've a query about D. As far we know that pronoun ambiguity is not tested in GMAT. So, my question is how ''their'' is sometimes used for ''retailers'' and sometimes used for ''shoppers''. Isn't it pronoun ambiguity? thanks...