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The fragile markets were caught off-guard Friday by an

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aditya8062

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07 Jan 2016, 06:24

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I will deal with 2 WRONG options B and C

B says: an event that renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States----->this is a typical "COMMA+ ABSTRACT NOUN+ MODIFIER" construction. the problem with this construction here is we CANNOT be sure as to what "AN EVENT" refers; does it refer to "The fragile markets were caught off-guard on Friday" OR "unexpected drop in retail sales for May"

options C says : and renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.--> the DEFAULT PARALLELISM in C makes a MEANING ERROR in C. NOW it APPEARS that THE MARKET DID TWO things with EQUAL importance viz

1)the market were caught off guard
2)the market renewed concerns

PLEASE NOTE that "RENEWING CONCERNS" is BYPRODUCT and hence must be placed as modifier

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07 Jan 2016, 11:10

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chotepandit

chetan2u

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The fragile markets were caught off-guard Friday by an unexpected drop in retail sales for May, which renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.

A. which renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
B. an event that renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
C. and renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
D. renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
E. renewing concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.

Hi,
lets see the choices..

A. which renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
which does not have a proper antecedents

B. an event that renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
close but an event modifies the market being caught off guard, which is not the meaning

C. and renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
and' creates problem by bringing parallelism where there is none

D. renewed concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States.
this has run on sentences problem

E. renewing concerns about the pace of the recovery in the United States
CORRECT... ing participle correctly modifies the preceding clause

ans E
hope it helps

Please explain what is this 'ing' rule ?

'ing' also called participial modifier modifies the entire phrase that precedes it. In this case 'renewing' modifies the entire preceding clause and not just retail sales of May.

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08 Jan 2016, 21:16

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zoombiee

chotepandit

chetan2u

Please explain what is this 'ing' rule ?

'ing' also called participial modifier modifies the entire phrase that precedes it. In this case 'renewing' modifies the entire preceding clause and not just retail sales of May.

But wasn't it the retail sales in May that "renewed the concerns"? Not the fragile market... which would mean A is correct.

chetan2u

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08 Jan 2016, 21:22

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gmatser1

chetan2u

But wasn't it the retail sales in May that "renewed the concerns"? Not the fragile market... which would mean A is correct.

Hi,
you are correct 'which' points towards 'retail sales of May'....
but it is not 'retail sales of May' but the an unexpected drop, which has renewed the concerns..

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22 Feb 2016, 07:16

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this is simiar to gmatprep question.

the event dose not renew concern but
the fragile market renew concern by the market's caught off.

this is intended meaning.

very hard one.

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22 Feb 2016, 07:35

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the subject is "fragile market" so "an event" cant refer this
"renewing" is better as it shows that what when market caught off guard on friday
So E
rest are wrong as " and renewed" cant be used.. this isnt about parallelism. it ruined the meaning
D is run on

abhishekmayank

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23 Jul 2020, 03:34

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supratim7

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I couldn't eliminate (B). Can anyone explain why (B) is incorrect?

Many thanks.

Here, B and E are the contenders for the correct answer choice and the winner is E.

As per the explanations and analysis in the replies, we are ruling out the option B because it is being treated as appositive modifier and hence it is not following the touch rule appropriately.

But, I think that it is an absolute phrase, and it is modifying the entire clause.

Moreover, I have see that comma + ing-modifier doesn't go well to modify the passive clause as the subject is not direct in the passive clause

Could the expert let me know as to why option E is better that option B ? Thanks for your help

Hi VeritasKarishma, could you clarify on it, given egmat is very elaborate on the subject of comma + ing-modifier

KarishmaB

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27 Jul 2020, 22:57

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abhishekmayank

supratim7

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I couldn't eliminate (B). Can anyone explain why (B) is incorrect?

Many thanks.

We need to look for the best option.

(B) has ambiguous meaning at best.

A was caught off guard by (an event) B, an event that did C.
an event that did C - is an appositive modifier. It renames the event B and tells us more about it. It is not an absolute phrase.

comma + present participle modifier tells us something more about the previous clause or is the result of the previous clause.
What renewed concerns about the pace of recovery? The point that fragile markets were caught off guard (so perhaps they tanked). This renewed concerns about the pace of recovery. The result of getting caught off guard was renewed concerns.
Hence, comma+present participle makes perfect sense.
Option (E) is correct.

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28 Jul 2020, 03:21

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VeritasKarishma

abhishekmayank

supratim7

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I couldn't eliminate (B). Can anyone explain why (B) is incorrect?

Many thanks.

Thanks VeritasKarishma for the clarification !!

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