The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surp

PLUTO "While announcing" (in both D and E) implies that the company reported strong earnings at the exact same time as its announcement about price cuts (perhaps as part of the latter announcement). There's no sensible reason to say this, but that's not the main problem with E. The real trouble is the placement of the modifiers. "Surpassing Wall Street's estimates" should not come between the subject and the verb. This implies that they were already surpassing the estimates when they began to report. (Compare to "The criminals, fearing a trap, ran for safety.") We also can't say "to increase sales further, there would be . . . price cuts." The modifier "to increase sales further" implies a purpose that someone would have, so we need a proper subject, e.g. "To increase sales further, the company will institute price cuts."

Hello expert, can give shade to my below doubt.
Doesn't it seem the surpassed and announced in the parallel form which creates ambiguity. should there be any comma before "anounced" to separate it from surpassed?
Thanks in advance

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?

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

"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

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.

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.

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.

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):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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 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?

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.".

GMATNinja, KarishmaB, Other Verbal Experts

Is the structure "The computer company [Noun], surpassing Wall Street’s estimates [Present Participial Phrase],..." 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?