blayel wrote:
Sometimes choosing the right answer is not aiming for the absolutely correct answer but to eliminate the bad answers.
A and B should be eliminated outright because which modifies 1992 directly (and falsely). C is very obscure in meaning because a modifier is usually placed right next to the thing it modifies. This leaves D and E.
By meaning, D is blatantly wrong because it compares the amount with the previous year.
By meaning (and also after elimination), E is the best choice.
Previously, I also doubted the strict parallelism rule. Yet, I remember reading somewhere about the current type of parallelism in the sentence and it is accepted. I think it depends on how clear the comparison refers to. This may be hard for non-native English speakers because the native speakers may "play by ear" in these types of sentences.
aviejay wrote:
Hi
egmat /
GMATNinja,
Please explain how is E correct. Don't we need a "that" in front of "largely offsets..." in order to maintain parallelism ?
Hi Blayel,
I really appreciate your response, but I would like to disagree with your analysis. Here is my analysis:
A: Here, "which" does not modify 1992 but rather it correctly modifies "$167 billion". I understand that ", which" directly modifies the noun before the comma but there are exceptions. Here "in 1992" modifies "167 billion" and thus ",which" modifies "$167 billion". The reason this option should be eliminated is there is a comparison error. This option compares the increase to "previous year".
A similar example is " I killed a snake with scales, which was entering the garden". This is a correct sentence. Logic precedes grammar.
B: This option should be eliminated because the option uses "it" in the phrase "higher than it was the previous year". The other side of the comparison uses "sales" which is plural
C: Hold. "14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure" correctly modifies "$167 billion in 1992". However, I also understand that in this case "Sales of United States manufactured goods to non industrialized countries" becomes the source of the list and that "rose to $167 billion in 1992" and "largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan." are the elements in the list, which are not parallel on grounds of verb tense.
D: Same as B. Comparison error
E: Looks correct but then I noticed that "that" was missing before "largely offsets...". "That" is needed here to maintain parallelism. Hence eliminated.
egmat /
GMATNinja,
Kindly let me know if my analysis approach is correct though I marked C, which is wrong. Please let me know where am I going wrong. Especially, please explain how is E correct.