Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in

Rising inventories is plural because inventories is plural. In this sentence, rising acts as adjective. It just describes the noun - inventories.

This usage is different from the following usage

eating healthy foods is good.
Here eating represents an action. This action is performed on the thing - healthy foods.
This complete expression constitutes a phrase which now is singular.
Also note that the complete subject is "eating healthy foods", where "eating" is an action performed on "healthy foods"

On the other hand, when you say rising inventories lead to..., the subject of the sentence is inventories. Now "rising" only describes these inventories.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Aman

The answer is E for this question:

A. Upon reading this answer choice in the sentence, I found it very confusing and awkward. First, I noticed that the word "when" is used. Usually "when" modifies a time or date, but it in this case, it is modifying the noun "inventories." Since I wasn't sure if this was correct or not, I kept looking for other mistakes. I noticed that "correspondingly" is used as an adverb, but what word is it modifying? This seemed ambiguous to me. Finally, the use of unaccompanied did not sound right. Therefore, I ruled out this answer choice.

B. The subject "rising inventories" does not agree with the singular verb "leads."

C. The use of "were" suggests that this event or statement took place in the past and is no longer valid in the current time frame. This cannot be true since the main verb of the sentence is "can lead" suggesting that it is a general statement that continues into the present.

D. There is a problem with subject verb agreement here.

E. This answer seemed to be the correct choice. The sentence has changed the adverb "correspondingly" into an adjective "corresponding." The use of the adjective here makes more sense. There is no subject verb agreement error and no tense issues.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Tenses + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• “if” is used to refer to phrases that lead to a “then” clause and “whether" is used for showing alternatives; "whether" generally wins over "if" on GMAT.
• “when” is only used to refer to a point in time.
• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses "when" to refer to a phrase that leads to a "then" clause; please remember, “if” is used to refer to phrases that lead to a “then” clause, and "when" is only used to refer to a point in time. Further, Option A uses the needlessly indirect phrase "unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "inventories" with the singular verb "leads". Further, Option B incorrectly uses "when" to refer to a phrase that leads to a "then" clause; please remember, “if” is used to refer to phrases that lead to a “then” clause, and "when" is only used to refer to a point in time.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb phrase "were unaccompanied" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "inventories" with the singular verb "leads". Further, Option D uses the needlessly indirect phrase "correspondingly increased sales", leading to awkwardness.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "inventories" with the plural verb "lead". Further, Option E correctly uses "if" to refer to a phrase that leads to a "then" clause. Additionally, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Option C, as it uses the past participle phrase "not accompanied" rather than an active verb, such as "were unaccompanied" in Option C. Besides, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Rising inventories, blah blah, can lead to blah blah.

We can re-write this sentence as 'Inventories that are rising blah blah can lead to ...
Hence, inventories is the subject and rising is an adjective.

Having good friends is a wonderful thing.

We cannot re-write this as, 'Friends that we have are wonderful things'. This sentence has a different meaning.
Here, the subject is not friends. The subject is 'having good friends'.
Hence, it is a noun phrase. And 'Rising inventories' is not.

first of S.V.AG.
inventories ..... can lead( plural needs plural verb)
b,D out Left with A,C,E
unaccompanied is awkward.( not accompanied is correct usage)
left with E.
in when and if case.
use when in modifying events,time .if is used subjunctive hypothetical .and we have 5 common pattern ,in which we use if
1-if present ,then (can be omitted)present
2-if present ,then may present(not certain)
3-if present,then future
4-if past simple,then past conditional(in this question)
5-if past perfect,then conditional +present perfect

The solution lies in understanding what meaning the sentence is trying to communicate.
The sentence means that
IF INVENTORIES RISE,then sales should INCREASE by the SAME quantity.
If Inventories increase by a huge proportion, then sales should increase by a huge proportion too (not small proportion) else there will be cutbacks in production.
so we are trying to modify the "increase in sales" not sales not unaccompanied but the "increase in sales"
so E

Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.


A)When unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead
B)When not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads
C)When they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
D)If not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads
E) If not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead

lat part split is 'lead' and 'leads'

Subject is 'Rising inventories', so 'leads' is out.
B and D are out
In C, Rising inventories, when they (they is used unnecessarily)...out


In A, Rising inventories, when..........., can lead 'Vs' In E, Rising inventories, if..........., can lead

Lets look at some of the constructions used to to describe a condition and an outcome

1. If you work hard, you get a good score (fact)
2. If you work hard, you will get a good score.(prediction)
3. If you work hard, you may/can get a good score(probability/possibility)

In these construction, 'if' can be replaced by 'when' only when outcome is a fact

Let look at outcome in these options

In the options, outcome has can, it shows a possibility
therefore in this case we cannot have when in the condition
Therefore A is wrong
E is correct

My Answer is E and here is why

(A) when unaccompanied {Awkward }correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead
(B) when not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads { plural need singular}
(C) when they were {plural }unaccompanied {Awkward }by corresponding sales increases, can lead
(D) if not accompanied by correspondingly {unnecesssary }increased sales, possibly leads
(E) if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead




Kudos if you like my answer

Choice A: Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks.
To determine whether the modifier "correspondingly" is placed appropriately or not, read the sentence and ask yourself, what should correspondingly modify.

Thought process: Inventories are rising...the sentence indicates that if these rising inventories are not accompanied by increases in sales, then something happens...So rising inventories-corresponding increases in sales. Thus, corresponding should modify the increases in sales.

Now, lets check what "correspondingly" modifies - it seems to modify the verb - unaccompanied and hence the placement is not correct.

Choice D: Rising inventories, is not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads to production cutbacks.
In this sentence, correspondingly modifies increased sales. However, notice that in the original sentence, the author is talking about trends - rising inventories and increases in sales. Choice D, on the other hand, talks about trend in inventories but a specific value of sales - INCREASED sales. Thus, it does not communicate the intended meaning of the original sentence. And hence is incorrect.

Hi,
more to add.

how to determine whether the phrase like RISING INVENTORIES is singular or plural...

It depends on which of the two words is actually forming the subject.

For example,

Growing children need extra energy.
Planting trees is a good idea.
Slashing the deficit is essential.
Stunning shots were played.

And yes, not accompanied is a better way of expressing the negation.

take a look at this:

Removing inefficiencies is important (you CAN remove inefficiencies).
Having good friends is a wonderful thing. (your example, you CAN have friends)
Reading books gives us knowledge and pleasure. (your example, you CAN read books)

and now,

Rising inventories leads to... (you CANNOT rise inventories... the correct word is raise)
Rising inventories lead to...

And yes, not accompanied is a better way of expressing the negation.

Answer C is incorrect because it uses the past simple form "were" in the first clause whereas the second part of the sentence is in the present simple ("can"). The two parts of the sentence speak about the same period of time - the present and thus both clauses need to be in the present tense.

In this problem, you can just pass through D and E(saves at least 20-30 seconds if not more), because I was under the impression that "when" for GMAT is best used to modify a location or time period. In this case, when is modifying "rising inventories".

Consider a Kudos if you like this post

Hi Cheryn, in choice E, accompanied is not used as a verb but as a past participle.

The sentence could be interpreted as follows:

If (Rising inventories are) not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.

Increases is singular only if we use it as a verb.

1 This strategy increases the company's debt significantly. ← This is fine. Strategy is a singular noun, and it takes a singular verb (increases).
2 These strategies increase the company's debt significantly. ← If we switch to a plural subject (strategies), we'll need a plural verb (increase).

However, when used as a noun, increases is plural.

3 The increase in the company's debt is a sign of... ← Here the subject is increase (singular noun), and it needs a singular verb like is.
4 The increases in the company's debt are a sign of... ← Here the subject is increases (plural noun), and it needs a plural verb like are.

You're right that corresponding increases is inside a prepositional phrase. That preposition is by. Think of that part of the sentence as saying "if not accompanied by X".

by corresponding increases in sales...

Both corresponding and in sales point to increases. So within the noun phrase corresponding increases in sales, we have another prepositional phrase, in sales. We can again look at it as in X. In this case, the X is sales (noun).

And yes, we should be able to use either increase or increases. I like increases more though.

Rising inventories, if not accompanied by a corresponding increase in sales... ← This one seems to refer to one increase in sales.
Rising inventories, if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales... ← This one fits better with corresponding. That is, there is an increase in sales to "match" every increase in inventory levels. That makes more sense (to me), given that this sentence appears to be discussing the impact of rising inventories on the entire economy.

This question doesn't test that though, as there is no option with increase.

AjiteshArun already wrote a couple of great responses to this, so my post is probably a waste of space. But I wrote this offline a week ago, and stupidly never posted it. So here you go, just in case it's useful to hear this stuff in a different voice...

This is entirely about context and meaning. The plural subject, "rising inventories," suggests that we're talking about multiple businesses. If more than one business experiences an increase in sales, we'd have multiple increases, right? So "increases" makes perfect sense - the rising inventories should correspond to multiple increases in sales.

Better yet, we can see immediately that (B) and (D) have a clear subject-verb agreement error: "rising inventories... leads," so we can eliminate those answer choices. (A), (C), and (E) all contain "increases," so this isn't an issue we need to evaluate at all. Better to focus on the differences among the remaining options.

I hope that helps!

There are various kinds of nouns that act as subjects. To start with, you may have a single- word proper noun or a pronoun that may start a sentence, acting as the subject.
Ex: Tom, Dick or Harry, Jack and Jill, New York, the United States, he, she, it, they, I, we, and so on.

Then, there may be simple noun phrases that are modified by an adjective before them: Ex; Rising inventories, increased pressure, Oil price, share market, tall structures, etc, etc. Some of the adjectives are nouns by themselves though acting as adjectives. In this construction, the verb is always decided by the attributes of the true noun that follows the adjective.

There is one more kind of noun known as the substantive noun; this involves a phrase with a long series of words that may comprise a participle, a gerund, an infinitive, a relative subordinate clause or some such similar thing. For sure, these substantive noun phrases that act as singular subjects will always be followed by a singular verb.
Ex:
Consuming one full pint of alcohol a day is sure to land one in the hospital bed one day.
Swimming against the tide of a river gives enormous strength to body muscles.
Being branded as a national champion is a dream of many.
To be branded as a national champion is a dream of many.
That they have been selected to play for their country in the Championship Trophy is a great honor to them
That they won the one- day World Cup match was the beginning of Sri Lanka's rise to stardom in Cricket.

You might see many of these substantive nouns may comprise plural words, but still, the noun is usually only singular