let us take a look at the answer options -

A - Incorrect.
"the absence" is singular. Hence, the usage of the verb "leave" is incorrect.
"no X and Y" implies that there wasn't (both X and Y), but there might have been either only X or only Y.
We need to "no X or Y" to indicate that there wasn't any of X or Y.
"nineteenth century of statistics" seems to imply that statistics had a 19th century and we are referring to that time period.

B - Incorrect.
"the absence" is singular.

C - Incorrect.
"statistics for women" is not idiomatic.
"either X or Y" is the correct construction.

D - Incorrect.
"the absence" is singular.
the conjunction "or" requires parallelism between X and Y. "of the jobs that women performed" (of + A noun phrase) is not perfectly parallel to "of how they survived economically" (of + clause).

E - Correct.
"what jobs women performed" and "how they survived economically" is more parallel than option D.
_________________

Whenever you attempt sentence correction questions you should first understand the meaning of the sentence.
Then check if the basic building blocks of the sentence are used correctly. Those blocks are as follows:
1) subject verb agreement
2) parallelism
3) pronoun
4) modifier

Back to the question:
If you read the question as stated you will realise that it a has subject verb agreement issue.
The absence (singular) ....leave (plural) us....

The correct form is - the absence( singular) ..... leaves(singular) us......

Using the above you can eliminate options A,B and D.

You can eliminate option C as it uses the incorrect idiom either...and. The correct idiom is either...or.

Option E uses the correct idiom. Therefore it is the correct answer.






Sent from my SM-G935F using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

The question can be nailed in less than one minute by meaning line of attack.

A) The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century - Normally we say absence of some data from records, but here absence from records distorts the meaning
B) repeats the error of A
C) D) E) - Meaning is correct
D) Out as absence is singular and .............century leave...leave is plural ---- SV error
Between C and E....either ....and......either goes with ...or...........C is elliminated
E is the correct answer.

-south city

Correct idiomatic usage of absence is - absence of

The last part of the sentence states they , so there must be a plural antecedent - In this case Women

The absence of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or how they ( Women ) survived economically.

(E) is correct grammatically and conveys the correct meaning of the sentence....
_________________

'and' or 'or' is a parallel marker.

'and how they survived' must be parallel to something in the underlined part.

A) from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and . Not parallel
B) from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or. 'leave' must NOT be plural as 'absence of statistics' is singular
C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of. either x and is a wrong idiom
D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of 'leave' must NOT be plural as in option B
E) of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or. Correct choice.
_________________

"Either" is used as a part of the paralllel structure "EITHER X OR Y".

The structure of option E is as follows:

The absence leaves us with no record of (EITHER X OR Y).

Here, X = what jobs women performed
Y = how they survived economically

The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.

A) from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and

B) from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or

C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of

D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of

E) of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs
women performed or

Clearly, The absence leaves and not Leave. Hence, A B and D are out.

Out of C and E, E makes a clear parallel structure. hence E is correct.
_________________

Hello jabhatta@umail.iu.edu,


I would be glad to help you with this query.


There is no issue in the usage of the phrase of the nineteenth century because the business and financial records pertain to the nineteenth century.

Let's take a look at the original sentence: The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.

The above-mentioned sentence says that the records pertain to the nineteenth century. It is not that the records were absent in the nineteenth century.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________

Merged topics! Please, search before posting!
_________________

The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.

A) from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and - "leave" does not go agree with "absence".. we need "leaves"
B) from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or - "leave" does not go agree with "absence".. we need "leaves"
C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of - "for women" is incorrect.. "either" needs "or"
D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of - "leave" does not go agree with "absence".. we need "leaves"
E) of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or - CORRECT, "leaves" agree with "absence" + "either" .. "or" + "what jobs" fits in well with "how they"
_________________

Imo E
The Correct idiom is absence of
The absence of statistics about women is a singular subject , so we have to use singular verb leaves .

The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave
us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.

A. from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us
with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and
Of course there are other meaning based issues due to misplaced modifier phrases, but the most apparent issue is the subject verb number agreement ..
“The absence” – singular should have singular verb “leaves” and NOT “leave”

B. from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us
with no record of what jobs women performed or
Same as A

C. of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with
no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of
Parallelism error ..
Either X or Y .. (X and Y are NOT parallel here)
X = the jobs that ..
Y = of how they …

D. of statistics on women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leave us with
no record of the jobs that women performed or of
Subject Verb number agreement error as A

E. of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us
with no record of either what jobs women performed or
Correct option
Parallelism error of option C is corrected here with both X and Y parallel now ..
Subject Verb agrees in number..
_________________

Gotta be careful with this sentence- there's two things to note: the correct idiom is "the absence of" and the absence of requires a singular verb.

E

I understand why E is the OA. My question is around the usage of "statistics about vs on". Can someone please explain if statistics about is correct (in case we have to make a choice btw on vs about)?

It looks like that there is no hair-splitting difference between 'on' and 'about'. At best, one may say one may use statistics 'on' something to make a temporary or casual reference while use statistics 'about' a deeper study.


However, this question is more about 1. whether we use a parallel clause on the right wing of the conjunction or/and to match a similar clause on the left in the underlined part 2. use an appropriate verb to match the singular 'absence'.
_________________

The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.


A) from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and
B) from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or
C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of
D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of
E) of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or

The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.


A) from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and
B) from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or
C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of
D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of
E) of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or
Chose E, Either X or Y

Sentence Analysis
The sentence says that the absence of statistics about women from some records leaves with no record of two things:

the jobs that the women performed
how the women survived economically
As you can see, I missed mentioning some details. However, when you trying to understand the gist of a sentence, you should try to skip the details just as I did: I compressed “business and financial records of the nineteenth century” into “some records”. Doing so, I believe, is very helpful since it allows you to cut through the details and focus on the essence of the sentence. Otherwise, I have seen many people getting lost in the details of the sentences and not able to figure out the main idea of the sentence.

Now, having understood the intended meaning of the sentence, we can look at the errors in the sentence.

“of statistics about women” should come right after “absence”. Why? Because it is much easier to read and understand “absence of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century” than the given structure. The part “of the nineteenth century of statistics about women” in the original sentence is confusing and difficult to understand. Right?
The subject “absence” is singular while the verb “leave” is plural.
Lack of parallelism: The absence leaves us with no record of:
the jobs that were performed by women
and how they survived economically.
The above two elements need to be parallel since they constitute a list. Since the second element is in the non-underlined part, the first element should preferably be changed into a noun clause.

The simple way is to eliminate A, B and D for missing on the SV number agreement. C faults in using the wrong idiomatic 'either… and '. Therefore E.
_________________