The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated afte

Question

The Federal Reserve announcement said  that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few  signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

(A) that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

(B) growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

(C) that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little

(D) growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little

(E) that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

souvik101990 · Accepted Answer

The Federal Reserve announcement said  that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few  signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

A. that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

B. growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

C. that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little

D. growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little

E. that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original is correct. The equivalent elements, “that growth had accelerated...” and “that the policy makers remain...,” are parallel clauses beginning with "that." The verb tenses are also correct; the action that occurred in the most distant past (“had picked up pace”) uses the past perfect; the later past event (“statement also said”) uses the simple past. Also, “few” is correct, since it modifies the quantifiable noun "signs."

(A) CORRECT. This choice is correct as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice is not parallel; "that" is required before “growth had accelerated...” to make it parallel to “that the policy makers remain..."

(C) This choice is not parallel; “that growth had accelerated...” is not parallel to “the policy makers remain...” Moreover, “little” is incorrect; since “signs” are countable, “few” is required.

(D) This choice is parallel, but the syntax is incorrect. "That" can be colloquially omitted after the verb "said," but not in formal writing. Also, "little" should be replaced by "few."

(E) This choice is parallel, but incorrectly uses the simple past, “accelerated.” This action is the earlier past event, as it must have occurred before the Fed commented on the trend. The earlier of multiple past events must use the past perfect.

plumber250 · Answer

Hi Nikhil,

Let me see if I can help.

The part of the passage pertinent to your question is this
 
The Federal Reserve announcement  said  that growth  had accelerated

I've highlighted the two verbs.

The key thing as you say is the difference with whether you need 'had'. And you're also correct in the meaning of the two different tenses.

What you've missed is the connection between 'said' and 'accelerated' - the acceleration needs to have happened prior to the saying - or else that would not make sense.

Said is simple past, so accelerated needs to be in the tense that indicates it was done before the simple past. So you need 'had'

James

RaviChandra · Answer

The Federal Reserve announcement said   that  growth  had accelerated  after slowing in the
second quarter and  that  the policy makers  remain concerned  about the prospects of inflation,
even though there are few  signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so

The answer choice is A, But im not clear with 2 things.

1) Usage of Had.. 
 as per my understanding the growth accelerated after the after slowing. (meaning that growth is not the first action)

2) Parallelism: Are  had accelerated  &  remain concerned   parallel. 
i mean shouldn't they be  had  accelerated   &   remained  concerned

Swoosh617 · Answer

Here's my reasoning:
1) The accelerated already occurred before the Federal Reserve announcement, so that's why you use "had accelerated." I'm not sure you compare the time frame to the slowing.

2) Policy makers continue to be concerned (it's present tense because they are still concerned) so you can't have "had remained"

pqhai · Answer

" That " is required ==> only A, C, E remain.
Because the Fed  said  that <== past tense. Thus, the past perfect tense - " had accelerated " - is correct

The Federal Reserve announcement  said    that  growth  had accelerated  after slowing in the second quarter and  that  the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few  signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

•  that  growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and  that  the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
  Correct.

• growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
Wrong. Parallelism problem.

• that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
Wrong. Parallelism problem.

• growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
Wrong. Need "that".

• that growth  accelerated  after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
Wrong. Tense problem.

Hope it helps.

jugglerG2 · Answer

A. that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

B. growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter   and that   the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
-> Missing that in the beginning which is required to maintain parallalism with second that(highlighted)

C. that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
-> I would not consider "signs" as uncountable noun and hence would reject "little"

D. growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
-> I would not consider "signs" as uncountable noun and hence would reject "little"

E. that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
-> "had" is required as "said" indicates one instance in past and any situation before that should be referred with a "had"

chetan2u · Answer

ans A..
that is required with announcement so b and d out..
signs shuold have few and not little, so c also out..
the growth is being talked over two periods so 'had' is required.. e is also out..

techiesam · Answer

My question is:If we change the "little" to "few" in answer choice C,will it be considered correct?
I think that option C will stand as correct then cause either the author or the fed reserve can say that the policy makers remain silent.So we don't need to follow the parallelism X said that...and that ....

sayantanc2k · Answer

In that case you would have a comma before "and" - for joining two independent clauses, comma + conjunction is required.

AkshdeepS · Answer

My concern is option E. Is "accelerated" working as a Verb-ED modifier or it is a VERB here. Most of the times such verbs must be preceded by helping verbs. I am not clear about this rule. If "accelerated" is a modifier then can we consider the sentence as a phrase, and if "accelerated" is a verb then then sentence is a clause. Please see the highlighted portion.

MartyTargetTestPrep, AjiteshArun

Please help. Hope the query is clear.

MartyTargetTestPrep ,  AjiteshArun

Please help. Hope the query is clear.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Accelerated  is a verb in the following construction:

The Federal Reserve announcement   said  that  growth   accelerated ...

You can actually see two subject-verb pairs here: (a)  announcement  and  said  and (b)  growth  and  accelerated .  Accelerated  is in the simple past tense (active), which is why you don't see any helping verbs.

1.   Growth   had accelerated ... 
Past perfect, and therefore there is a helping  had  here.

2.  The  process  of climate change  is accelerated  by... 
Passive voice, and therefore there is a helping  is  here.

3.  A  process  accelerated by human activity  is known  as... 
Here  accelerated  is a modifier.

The sentence you are looking at has multiple subject-verb pairs. If we focus on the portion before the  even though , we see this "sentence":

The Federal Reserve announcement said that that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation. 
The main clause is formed by  announcement  and  said , and then we see two dependent clauses introduced by  that , with the following subject-verb pairs: (a)  growth  +  accelerated  and (b)  makers  +  remain .

The dependent clauses introduced by  that  can be replaced by  X  and  Y , so we get
 The Federal Reserve announcement said X and Y.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

In (E) "accelerated" is the main verb of the noun clause "that growth accelerated ..."

If "accelerated" were a modifier, then what follows "accelerated" would be a phrase, and the sentence would be quite flawed. That "accelerated" is not a modifier is made clear by the context in which it appears.

In some cases, "accelerated" has to be preceded by a helping verb, such as "had" in order for a sentence to make sense. In other cases, using a construction such as "growth accelerated," which does not include a helping verb, would be better. Which to use depends on the context and the meaning to be conveyed.

In this case, the use of the helping verb "had" is necessary, as, in order for the sentence to clearly indicate the sequence of events, we need the past perfect form of "to accelerate," which is "had accelerated."

To more clearly understand when "had" must be used, you could learn about the past perfect tense.

sinkingbot · Answer

Still a bit confused about the use of past perfect here. usually when two actions occur in the past we use past perfect to describe the first event. In this case 'growth accelerated after slowing' implying that the first action is the slowing and the second action is the acceleration.

Not sure where I'm wrong

Not sure where I'm wrong

EducationAisle · Answer

Correct. These two actions are:
(i) The Federal Reserve announcement 
(ii) Growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter

Since (ii) obviously happened  first , it is expressed as past perfect ( had accelerated )

rohitasthana51 · Answer

Hello

I am new to GMAT and studying SC from Manhattan Prep SC guide. On the page 217 in Chapter 11 (GM/S-V/Parallelism: Extra) the book reads 
 Quote 
The main exception to this pattern seems to be the verb say. Somewhat oddly, the GMAT does not
require you to put that after the verb say.
Right: The water was so cold that people SAID polar bears would shiver.
The GMAT does not explain why this omission is acceptable, but the reason is probably that there is
very little chance of confusion:

Unquote

Please help me understand this paradox, Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

shabuzen102 · Answer

Dear Expert,

I'd like to get some clarifications with this question. Yes, it's about the past perfect tense again.

1. How can we be certain that the action of acceleration happens before the announcement? Couldn't it happen at the same time?

2. If the answer to the above question is that something has to happen before you say it happens, then what about examples of sentences we say all the time, "He knew he was right" "He said he saw the car coming in" etc. Shouldn't they be "He knew he had been right" and "He said he had seen the car coming in" etc.?

3. From a few creditable resources (Manhattan and Magoosh), we've acknowledged that we wouldn't have to use past perfect if that tense is understood from the context. If by using "said" to describe an action, we should immediately know that that action must have happened before saying. That means the past perfect tense is understood. Then wouldn't "had accelerated" be redundant?

4. If reported speech in the past requires past perfect tense for the thing described, then is it the general rule that there's not EVER any question that uses perfect tense in both, and something like "The authority said that the economy slowed down" or "The officials reported that people liked the recent data" would always be wrong?

Thank you!

GMATNinja · Answer

As the Manhattan guide notes, the question of whether it's preferable to use "that" really comes down to whether the meaning is clear without it. There's no hard rule here. Consider the following example:

"Tim recommends  that  you try his two-month-old sushi, unless you're worried about intestinal parasites and vomiting."

Here, you'd probably want to use "that." Not because it's required, but because without "that," the sentence becomes slightly more confusing.

"Tim recommends you try his two-month old sushi, unless you're worried about intestinal parasites and vomiting."

Is this a definitive grammatical error? No. But because Tim could also recommend "you" for something, you might have to read this sentence more than once to figure out that Tim isn't recommending a person, the way you might recommend someone for a job; he's recommending that the person  do  something. The word "that" clarifies the meaning in the first example, so it's better, even if the second example isn't technically wrong.

When it comes to "said" there's less ambiguity. For example:

"Tim said you should avoid eating rotten food in general, and if you don't, it's not really his problem."

Here, even without "that" no reasonable reader would interpret this sentence to mean that Tim said the word "you." The reason, of course, is that when we're trying to capture an exact quote, we use, well,  quotes . So again, this is not officially a rule, but because this scenario lacks the same kind of confusion that we see in the examples with "recommend," the GMAT accepts it.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja · Answer

Sorry for the delay!

It wouldn't really make sense for the action of acceleration to start at EXACTLY the same time as the announcement. How can you announce something that hasn't happened yet?

Now we can certainly announce an  ongoing  process, but in that case we would want something like, "The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth  was accelerating ..." - that would imply that the acceleration was still happening at the time of the announcement, but we don't have that option here.

As for your examples, "He knew he was right," actually conveys a slightly different meaning than "He knew he had been right":

"He knew he was right." - The action of being "right" doesn't stop before the action of "knowing". Being "right", in this case, is a continuous action. 
 "He KNEW he had been right when he answered the question on the exam, so he was surprised when he saw an "F" on the graded exam." When did the action of "knowing" happen? At some point in the past (the moment he saw that "F" on his exam). When did the action of "being right" happen? At a DISTINCT time in the past (well before the exam was graded). This construction stresses the difference in the timing of the two actions.

We don't need to make that distinction in conversation, but there's a difference between what passes in day-to-day speech and what's correct on the GMAT! And remember, that the GMAT isn't about coming up with hard and fast rules to blindly apply to future problems. We have to compare the five choices and "select the answer that produces the    most    effective sentence."

Here we have to choose between "had accelerated" and "accelerated". The use of the past perfect ("had accelerated") makes the chronology crystal clear: the acceleration happened in the past (after the slowing), and the announcement happened at a later point in the past. That makes perfect (no pun intended) sense!

The use of the simple past ("accelerated') is less clear and allows for an interpretation that doesn't make any sense (that the acceleration started at the same time as the announcement).

Does this mean we can carve some rules in stone when it comes to the past perfect and apply those rules to every other sentence we see? Absolutely not. But among the five choices on THIS question, (A) is the best.

Diya52 · Answer

As far as I understood past perfect tense, it is used to denote the earlier action and the two events must be related. How is that we are relating the two events announcement was made and the growth had accelerated. How are these two events related?

The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated afte

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The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated afte

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