The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surp

Question

The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.

(A) The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.

(B) The report of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, and they announced the first in a series of price cuts that they intend to increase sales further.

(C) Surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, the report of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings, and, for the purpose of increasing sales further, they announced the first in a series of price cuts.

(D) The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, and announcing the first in a series of price cuts for the purpose of further increasing sales.

(E) The computer company, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, reported strong second-quarter earnings, while announcing that to increase sales further, there would be the first in a series of price cuts.

(D) The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings, while announcing the first in a series of price cuts for the purpose of increasing sales further that surpass Wall Street’s estimates.

daagh · Answer

sajon

1. Could you kindly elaborate why 'surpassed' and 'announced' are parallel? Surpassed belongs to the relative clause 'that surpassed Wall Street's estimates". "Announced" is the second verb of the main clause. Are they required to be parallel?

2. How ambiguity is removed by putting a comma before the and". The comma before and is not put in a list containing just two items. What follows 'announced' is not a clause but a simple predicate.

Or have I misunderstood your question?

sajon · Answer

Actually my confusion lies in the structure of this sentence. 
X that surpassed ... and announced ....
Moreover, after "That" there are two verbs in parallel form. it seems that is modifying both the verb. 
although "Computer company" should be the subject of announced. but the construction of this sentence seems to me that is working as the subject of announced. 
That's why I am not failing to relation computer company and announced.

daagh · Answer

sajon,
'Surpassed" is the verb of the relative clause " that surpassed the WS's estimates" . Perse, 'that' is a relative pronoun that stands as the copy of the subject namely the earnings. You can know that the relative clause is a modifier since even if you remove the relative clause, the sentence makes perfect sense.

But above all, logic is the cornerstone of the structure here because one can never say that the earnings announced some future plans. Only the company can.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  sajon ,

You're right. There is some ambiguity there. However, we should keep in mind that ambiguity is not a  major  problem on the GMAT. As long as the other options are worse than option A, we won't really worry about any minor issues in the correct option.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.

(A) The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.

(B) The report of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, and they announced the first in a series of price cuts that they intend to increase sales further.

(C) Surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, the report of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings, and, for the purpose of increasing sales further, they announced the first in a series of price cuts.

(D) The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, and announcing the first in a series of price cuts for the purpose of further increasing sales.

(E) The computer company, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, reported strong second-quarter earnings, while announcing that to increase sales further, there would be the first in a series of price cuts.

This is a fairly easy question that tests you on modifiers and pronouns.
There’s no error in the sentence as it is. Let’s look at other options to see if we have a contender.

B- The report of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings,  surpassing Wall Street’s estimates , and  they  announced the first in a series of price cuts that they intend to increase sales further.

surpassing Wall Street’s estimates,- What is this modifying?
The entire preceding clause. This is incorrect. 
What surpassed Wall Street’s estimates? - second-quarter earnings of the company
The pronoun “They” cannot be used to substitute “The computer company”- incorrect. Eliminate B

C-  Surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, the report  of the computer company showed strong second-quarter earnings, and, for the purpose of increasing sales further,  they  announced the first in a series of price cuts.

The participial phrase-  Surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, ends up modifying the report as it placed right after the participial phrase- Eliminate  
 Incorrect usage of pronoun “they”- same as B

D- The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings,  surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, and announcing  the first in a series of price cuts for the purpose of further increasing sales.

surpassing Wall Street’s estimates,- ends up modifying the entire preceding clause. To modify only earnings, we use the relative pronoun “that” instead.

and announcing- incorrect.
The company reported (V1) and announcing (V2)- Incorrect 
 The company reported (V1) and announced (V2)- correct

E- The computer company,  surpassing Wall Street’s estimates , reported strong second-quarter earnings, while announcing that to increase sales further, there would be the first in a series of price cuts.

surpassing Wall Street’s estimates- incorrectly modifies the company and not earnings.

Vishnupriya
CrackVerbal Prep Team

Jack386 · Answer

I have a questions maybe somebody can explain to me what I am missing. 
But "that" starts a relative clause that is restrictive. As such it should logically modify a noun that can be further specified into a subset. 
For example, it would not make any sense to say "Mount Everest  that  is the tallest mountain on Earth has many visitors". Since there is only one Mount Everest there is no need to further restrict it, thus "which" would be appropriate. 
I wonder why in this example it is acceptable to say "second-quarter earnings that...". Now I assume it is because there are multiple second-quarter earnings possible, although it implicitly assumes that this specific company existed for at least a year (which we cannot know for sure).

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Let's consider the alternative.

The company reported second-quarter  earnings, which surpassed Wall Street estimates , and announced the first in a series of price cuts.

The above version conveys a meaning different from that conveyed by the choice (A) version. Now, the meaning is not that the company reported earnings that surpassed estimates but, rather, that the company reported earnings, and by they way, they surpassed estimates.

Either one is fine, but the choice (A) version does convey a meaning that is distinct from the meaning conveyed by the above version and that makes sense.

EducationAisle · Answer

Yep..you just answered your own question Jack!

p.s. Don't really remember coming across any official question where  this  difference ( essential  vs  non-essential  aspect of  that vs which ) is the  only  aspect getting tested between two options.

linuschoudhury · Answer

"The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that 
surpassed Wall Street’s estimates 
and 
announced the first in a series of price cuts 
intended to increase sales further."
Wouldn't that 'and' require parallelism, which in turn means subject of both the actions(surpassed and announced) has to be same?
 EducationAisle

EducationAisle · Answer

Well, the structure actually is:

The computer company  reported  X and  announced  Y.
 
X: strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates 
and 
Y: the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further

If the intent was to depict what you mention in your post, GMAT would generally use a structure as:

The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and   that   announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.

Not that the above sentence makes sense, because earnings themselves cannot announce anything; it is the  company  that announced something.

100mitra · Answer

The computer company 
-  reported  strong second-quarter earnings that 
-  surpassed  Wall Street’s estimates and 
-  announced  the first in a series of price cuts 
-  intended  to increase sales further.

Sneha2021 · Answer

KarishmaB   GMATNinja

Why E is incorrect?
(E) The computer company, surpassing Wall Street’s estimates, reported strong second-quarter earnings, while announcing that to increase sales further, there would be the first in a series of price cuts.

Surpassing estimates seem correct? The action of surpassing happened at the same time as reporting. Why it is wrong?

Please help. Thanks.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Sneha2021 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option E incorrectly modifies "The computer company" with "surpassing Wall Street’s estimates", incorrectly implying that   the company itself   surpassed the expectations; the intended meaning is that   the company's earnings   surpassed the expectations; remember, in a “noun + comma + phrase” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.

To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx_5LxK5Bh0

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GMATNinja · Answer

Two issues. First, as Experts Global noted, there's a modifier problem -- the company isn't surpassing estimates. The earnings are.

Also, I can't make any sense of the phrase "there would be the first in a series of price cuts." If there are a series of price cuts, it seems pretty self-evident that there would have to be a first one, right? It makes sense to  announce  the first of a series. And you could say, "there would  be  a series of price cuts." But "there would be a first in a series?" That's nonsense.

I hope that helps!

parashcr7 · Answer

In option (A), the use of restrictive modifier  that  in  "earnings  that  surpassed Wall Street’s estimates"  conveys the flawed meaning that the company reported   only  those earnings which surpassed the WS estimates .
Wouldn't it make more sense to use non-restrictive "which" set off by commas since we are talking about earnings in general?

GMATNinja · Answer

The GMAT doesn't really test restrictive vs non-restrictive modifiers, probably because it's such a gray area. (More on that  here  if you're curious.) More importantly, we don't have "which" as an option, so clearly they don't want us to worry about it here.

In this case, there's obviously only one set of second-quarter earnings to report, and those earnings are modified by a "that" clause. The meaning is clear and logical enough, so you should leave (A) in the running and look for other decision points.

rs24 · Answer

GMATNinja   GMATGuruNY

Could you please help me understand how the usage of  that  (singular) to modify  earnings  (plural) in  that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates  is correct. Shouldn't we use  those ?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi rajatsiwach,

As a normal pronoun or as an adjective (more precisely, "determiner"),  that  does have a plural form ( those ), but as a relative pronoun,   that  does not have a plural form . In other words, when we use  that  as a relative to describe some noun before it,  that  never changes form.

Here's a quick look at  that :
 1.    That  was a tough question.   |    Those  were some tough questions.   |     That  were some tough questions.   ←  That  is used as a pronoun here, and has a plural form,  those .

2.     That  question  was tough.   |     Those  questions  were tough.   |      That  questions  were tough.   ← As a determiner,  that  has a plural form.

3.    A question   that  was tough...   |    Questions   that  were tough...   |     Questions   those  were tough...   ← As a relative pronoun,  that  does  not  have a plural form.

4.   The question was not   that  tough !   |    The question was not   those  tough !   ← Again, no plural form when  that  is used as an adverb.

5.   She did {something}  so  that   she...   |    She did {something}  so  those   she...   ← No plural form when we use  that  to introduce a dependent clause, so we can't replace  so that  with  so those .

6.   The  colour  of the car matches  that  of the motorcycle.  ← This kind of  that  is supposed to be read as "the {previously mentioned singular noun}" (the  the  isn't too important, depending on context): "The  colour  of the car matches  the colour  of the motorcycle".

7.   The  economies  of Asia are more resilient than  those  of Europe.  ← In (6), we can use  those  as the plural of  that  to mean "the {previously mentioned plural noun}": "The  economies  of Asia are more resilient than  the economies  of Europe.".

Guest96 · Answer

GMATNinja ,  KarishmaB , Other Verbal Experts

Is the structure "The computer company  , surpassing Wall Street’s estimates  ,..." correct in GMAT?

I have seen most sentences placing the present participial phrases 
(1) before the noun 
(2) after the verb
(3) after the end of the clause

Whenever I see such a structure, should I assume that it has the same role as an Introductory Noun Modifier?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi SlowTortoise,

1.  Participles are not always used as introductory modifiers, so yes, we can absolutely expect to see {subject, participle modifier, verb}. The problem in E is that it's not very clear what  surpassing  is referring to. The  earnings  were what surpassed Wall Street’s estimates ( earnings   |   estimates of the earnings  makes sense), but option E seems to suggest that the company itself, or the act of reporting by the company, is what surpassed Wall Street's estimates.

2.   While  is wrong because we don't want to say that the company reported the earnings while (meaning ~during the time) announcing something about price cuts. This is a meaning call.

3.  Another reason to remove E is that the last part ("announcing that to increase sales further, there would be the first in a series of price cuts") is awkward.

The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surp

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The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surp

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