Hello Everyone!

Let’s take a closer look at this question so we can narrow it down to the correct option.

The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economy grew at a brisk annual pace of 3.7 percent in the second quarter, but that while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply.

(A) unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply
(B) unsold goods were piling up on store shelves as consumer spending slowed sharply
(C) unsold goods had piled up on store shelves with a sharp slowing of consumer spending
(D) consumer spending was slowing sharply, with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves
(E) consumer spending has slowed sharply, with unsold goods piling up on store shelves

After taking a quick glance over each of the options, two major differences jumped out to me that we must address:

1. Linking the two events with the words “as” or “with”
2. The verb “slow”: is slowed/slowed/slowing/was slowing/has slowed

Which item would eliminate the most options quickly? Number 1 - using “with” or “as” to link together both events. No matter which one you choose, it will knock off either 2 or 3 options immediately, giving you a better chance of finding the right one!

Since we are talking about two events that happen at the same time, it is best to use the word “as” to link them together.

The word “with” forces writers to use gerunds or awkward phrases like “with a sharp slowing of” or “with the piling up of.” So let’s eliminate answers C, D, and E right away because they don’t use the best word to connect the two events.

This leaves us with only A and B to choose from, which should make this an easier choice! Let’s focus on A and B, and look closely for any glaring problems in one or the other:

(A) unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply

Okay, so I already see a red flag in this answer! This sentence is discussing events that all happened in the past, yet this sentence uses the present tense “is slowed.” This answer is INCORRECT because it uses an improper verb tense!

(B) unsold goods were piling up on store shelves as consumer spending slowed sharply

This leaves us with only one option left, and it is the CORRECT answer. Answer B uses past tense verbs throughout (“were” and “slowed”), and it clearly shows that both events were happening at the same time.

There you go - option B is the correct answer!


Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that businesses were expanding their production, but at the same time unsold goods were piling up on store shelves because consumer spending slowed sharply.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Tenses

• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.
• The simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that took place over a period of time in the past.
• The past perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".
• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "consumer spending is slowed sharply"; the passive construction of this clause incorrectly implies that some other entity slowed consumer spending; the intended meaning is that consumer spending slowed on its own. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "piled" to refer to an action that took place over a period of time in the past; remember, the simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that took place over a period of time in the past, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past. Moreover, Option A incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "is slowed" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

B: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "as consumer spending slowed sharply", conveying the intended meaning - that unsold goods were piling up on store shelves because consumer spending slowed sharply on its own. Further, Option B correctly uses the simple past continuous tense verb "were piling" to refer to an action that took place over a period of time in the past. Additionally, Option B correctly uses the simple past tense verb "slowed" to refer to an action that concluded in the past.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with a sharp slowing of consumer spending"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that unsold goods piled up on store shelves alongside a sharp slowing of consumer spending; the intended meaning is that unsold goods piled up on store shelves because a sharp slowing of consumer spending occurred. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had piled" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that consumer spending slowed sharply because of the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves; the intended meaning is that unsold goods were piling up on store shelves because consumer spending slowed sharply. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the simple past continuous tense to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the simple past continuous tense is used to refer to actions that took place over a period of time in the past.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with unsold goods piling up on store shelves"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that consumer spending slowed sharply because unsold goods were piling up on store shelves; the intended meaning is that unsold goods were piling up on store shelves because consumer spending slowed sharply. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "has slowed" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



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



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



To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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In E, is the only error the fact that it uses "with" instead of as? what about "consumer spending has slowed sharply" part of E, is that okay?
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Hello!

Thank you for your question, oasis90!

Here's the original question, in case others want to follow along:

In E, is the only error the fact that it uses "with" instead of as? what about "consumer spending has slowed sharply" part of E, is that okay?


You are absolutely right - that's not the only problem with option E. In fact, incorrect options on the GMAT often have more than one problem with them. Sometimes, we can rule out incorrect options from different angles, and that's okay! We don't have to catch ALL of the problems with each option - if we catch an option that has a glaring problem, we toss that option aside and move on to finding the correct one.

I chose to start with "as" vs."with" because it's easy to spot during a simple glance over the options, and it is even easier to narrow it down to fewer options. If you wanted to, you could start by ruling out options that use the wrong form of the verb "to slow." We know these are past tense events, so you could start by ruling out options that don't use past tense correctly:

(A) unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply --> WRONG (uses present tense)
(B) unsold goods were piling up on store shelves as consumer spending slowed sharply --> OK (uses past tense)
(C) unsold goods had piled up on store shelves with a sharp slowing of consumer spending --> WRONG (uses a gerund instead of a past tense verb; when you have a past perfect "had piled up," you need a past tense event that uses plain past tense to go with it to show these are two events that happen in a particular order)
(D) consumer spending was slowing sharply, with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves --> OK (uses past tense)
(E) consumer spending has slowed sharply, with unsold goods piling up on store shelves --> WRONG (uses present tense)

Either way you attack this GMAT question, you will still end up knocking out answer E because it has more than one problem with it.

If I were to continue with this, I would go back to the "with" vs. "as" issue, and that would still leave me tossing out option D. Even if we attack this question from different angles, we can still get to option B is the correct option.

I hope this helps! There is not a singular "right way" to answer a GMAT question, as long as it eventually leads to the right answer!
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GMATNinja
daagh
chetan2u

Can you please throw more light on why Option D and E are wrong.

I am really stuck at these options. Please help!

While businesses were expanding,.....
So we are talking of two SIMULTANEOUS actions. Thus the second action should parallel the first and should start the clause.
We can PARALLEL businesses with unsold goods, but businesses with consumer spending - may not be correct in the context here.
Although the verb tense is correct in D - was slowing, the sequence is not correct..
Unsold goods were piling up as consumer spending was slowing and not the other way as the choice D conveys. Consumer spending lowered with piling up of ...

Choice E is wrong in tense usage ..
Present perfect HAS is wrong and not PARALLEL with earlier verb.
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GMATNinja, need your help here. I've read all the explanation but still confused why D is wrong.



in D : "with the pilling up of...." explains (or shows a result of) "a slower consumer spending". For me this relation still makes sense.
If we connect also with the previous statement: "while business expanding...", we can see the correlation also.

Wdyt?
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Hi, let me try to explain this.

As per the original sentence, two things happened simultaneously.

1. Businesses were expanding their production
2. Unsold Goods piled up on the store shelves.

Notice the very important use of "as" here. This is trying to explain the reason why #2 happened. unsold goods piled up on store shelves as[because] consumer spending is slowed sharply.

Hence the sequence is -
1. Businesses were expanding their production
2. Unsold Goods piled up on the store shelves. [because] 3. consumer spending is slowed sharply

Option D uses "with" that again states #2 and #3 came up together or they happened together, and that is not the intended meaning as per original sentence.

GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo Hey guys, can you please explain what "that" is doing in my sentence?
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I do not see any error in choice D
is this question from official source.

Dear GMATNinja ,EMPOWERgmatVerbal

As for option A, if I change "is slowed" into "slowed", the sentence reads: "... while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending slowed sharply." Is this new version correct? If it is, the structure with "while" is not paralleled: while businesses + verb in past progressive, unsold goods + verb in simple past.

Thank you
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Thanks for the question Tracy95!

If you changed "is slowed" to "slowed," it is better, but it fixes only one problem. In option B, we see that this option also fixes the parallelism issue between "were expanding" and "were piling up."

So while it's better, it's still not a fully corrected option.

I hope that helps! Feel free to tag me at EMPOWERgmatVerbal with any more questions you have!
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This one is fun, huh?


Yup, it's from the OG! I occasionally hallucinate things in the OGs, but Bunuel verified it, and he does not make mistakes. (Also: mosquitos refuse to bite him, just out of respect. And the last time he went to Spain, he chased the bulls.)


I see what you did there! Nicely played, MikeScarn.

The second "that" might feel a little bit unnecessary, but it's there to emphasize the parallelism:

"The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economy grew at a brisk annual pace of 3.7 percent in the second quarter, but that while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves..."

So the Commerce Department reported two things: (1) "that the nation's economy grew..." and (2) "that while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves..." So the word "that" just subordinates the two clauses, and clarifies that both clauses are things that "the Commerce Department reported." Fair enough. (More on "that" in this article and this video.)


Yeah, the "with" thing is tricky. Let's go through all of the answer choices, just to be safe.


The verb tenses make no sense here. Businesses "were expanding" (past progressive tense, if you like jargon -- basically, an ongoing action in the past), but then consumer spending "is slowed sharply" (present tense). There's no good reason to mix those tenses here. (A) is out.


I have no problem with this. It's all in past tense: "business were expanding their production", "unsold goods were piling up", and "consumer spending slowed." That actually makes sense.

Let's keep (B).


The verb tense doesn't work in (C), for starters. The past perfect tense "had piled up" must describe an action that logically occurs before something else in the past. And that just doesn't work here: the action "unsold goods had piled up on store shelves" doesn't happen before "business were expanding their production." That's enough to eliminate (C).

The "with" is also goofy, but I'll say more about that in (D), since that one has attracted more questions.


Maybe I'm missing something, but I can think of two major uses of the word "with":

1. To indicate that one thing or person is accompanied by another: "Tim went with Ron to see a nine-hour documentary about weiner dogs."
2. To modify or describe an action: "Milena ate an entire pizza with great enthusiasm." The phrase "with great enthusiasm" just describes the action, "Mila ate."

The problem with (D) is that neither usage of "with" really applies here. It makes no sense to say that spending was slowing accompanied by "the piling up of unsold goods," the way Tim was accompanied by Ron. And it's not logical for "the piling up of unsold goods" to describe the slowing spending.

Contrast this with (B), in which "as" indicates that the slowing of spending and the piling up of goods are happening at the same time. This is perfectly logical, and much, much clearer.

So given the choice between (D) and (B), (B) wins.


Welp, (E) has the same "with" problem as (D). Also, the verb tense still doesn't make a whole lot of sense: "has slowed" indicates an action that starts in the past but continues in the present, but then the non-underlined portion of the sentence is still in the past. It's not necessarily a crime to mix verb tenses, but in this case, there's no good reason to do it.

So (B) is the best we can do.
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GMATNinja According to Manhattan Prep, the use of "with..." in E is acceptable. Do you agree? Take a look bellow:

The lack of a comma before with in answer choice (C) indicates that the modifier will modify a noun. However, with a sharp slowing of consumer spending does not logically modify any of the nearby nouns, such as shelves or unsold goods. Eliminate answer (C).

In answer (D), the modifier is with the piling up of unsold goods. When a with modifier is structured as with the [-ing word] of [noun], the modifier generally describes the cause of the clause it’s attached to. For instance, the following is correct:

With the slowing of consumer spending, unsold goods piled up on store shelves.

However, because the piling up of goods did not cause the slowing of spending, the with modifier is used incorrectly in answer (D).

Note: In answer (E), the modifier is with unsold goods piling up on store shelves. When a with modifier is structured as with [noun] [-ing word], there does not need to be a causal relationship between the modifier and its clause. Therefore, the with modifier in answer (E) is acceptable

Interesting question! There's a difference between arguing that an answer choice has an unclear meaning and arguing that a certain usage is inherently, mechanically wrong.

Manhattan is claiming that the usage in (E) isn't a definitive error. I don't disagree with this -- you can't eliminate (E) because it definitively violates a rule, but I don't think there's any contradiction in arguing that a construction is both technically acceptable and somewhat illogical. My explanation above doesn't claim that "with" is grammatically incorrect -- just that it doesn't seem to make much sense, and is unclear at best.

Put another way: if an answer choice isn't fundamentally wrong, but has a meaning that's less clear or coherent than an alternative, then you can eliminate that option from contention.

I hope that helps!
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal GMATNinja
"While" here plays the role of "Although" or does it represent simultaneous actions?

Good question. Here's the really important thing: it doesn't matter at all! "While" isn't underlined, so there's nothing you can do about it -- and if you were facing this question on an actual exam, there would be no value in thinking about it at all.

For whatever it's worth, I don't think it's clear whether "while" means "at the same time" or "although" in this particular sentence. It's true that these actions are happening simultaneously, so "at the same time" is a reasonable interpretation: "business were expanding their production" at the same time as "unsold goods piled up on store shelves."

It's also true that there's a counterpoint going on, so "although" is also a reasonable interpretation: "The Commerce Department reported... that [although] businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods were piling up on store shelves..." That also makes perfect sense.

Bottom line: it's very rare for this distinction to be a key issue on a GMAT SC question, and it's definitely a non-issue in this one.

I hope this helps a bit!
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generis MentorTutoring VeritasKarishma

I know option B makes much more sense than option D but can you help me in eliminating D on some grounds
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Hello, warrior1991. It is really that with prepositional phrase that kills (D), for the very reason that GMATNinja has outlined in the Most Helpful Expert Reply. Look at the sentence again, with (D) inserted:

The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economy grew at a brisk annual pace of 3.7 percent in the second quarter, but that while businesses were expanding their production, consumer spending was slowing sharply, with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves.

If we want to draw attention to a causal relationship, pointing out that the lack of consumer spending led to unsold goods piling up on store shelves, then we would use direct language, not the with phrase; if we wanted to outline a concurrent event, namely that consumer spending was slowing even as unsold goods were piling up on store shelves, then again, we would use direct language, without this with phrase. Choice (B) fits the bill nicely. There is simply no compelling reason to justify the use of the with phrase in (D).

I hope that helps. Thank you for drawing my attention to the question.

- Andrew
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