The government predicts that, for consumers and businesses that make

I narrowed down to A and E. Unable to understand why E is wrong ?
Please help .

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Why the use of passive voice, In B, is unnecessary here?
And is it acceptable that the important information is set off by commas in option A?

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what is wrong in option B? Is it reasonable to strike it out solely on the basis of being passive voice?

Hi Deb, let's look at these two sentences similar to option B:

Deb and his family make a large number of long-distance calls by landline phone.
- How do Deb and his family make a large number of long-distance calls? Answer: by landline phone

Meaning: Deb and his family use landline phone to make a large number of long-distance calls.
- This meaning seems reasonable

Similarly, B says:

Consumers and businesses make a large number of long-distance calls by the Federal Communication Commission's telephone rate cuts.
- How do Consumers and businesses make a large number of long-distance calls? Answer: by the Federal Communication Commission's telephone rate cuts

Meaning: Consumers and businesses use Federal Communication Commission's telephone rate cuts to make a large number of long-distance calls.
- This meaning is clearly absurd.

Hence, B is incorrect.

The government predicts that, for consumers and businesses that make a large number of long-distance calls, the Federal communication's recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs, though some consumer groups disagree with the government's estimates, suggesting they are too optimistic.

Somebody please help and explain me what does this 'they' refer to....It seems to me it refers to government. So isn't there a SV agreement error in A.?

Doesn't the option A disobey the fundamental rule of grammar i.e. no comma(,) after "that" ?

Guys -

I find this sentence flawed for the following reason. What or Who is 'they' referring to in the non-underline sentence. Usually,optimism is for
the positive. Now, who is really optimistic here ? Is not the government optimistic that the rate cuts will reduce costs ? If that is the case, then are we not considering Government as plural here? Please let me know if i am missing something.

"The government predicts that, for consumers and businesses that make a large number of long-distance calls, the Federal communication's recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs, though some consumer groups disagree with the government's estimates, suggesting they are too optimistic."

Is there any issue with connecting two IC?
"The government predicts... , though some consumer groups disagree"

I've rejected A because of absence of FANBOYS as connector.. Am I wrong here and clauses are dependent?

You're right about the fact that the portion we see at the end is a dependent clause, as though is a subordinating conjunction there.

X says Y, though Z disagrees.

In E, is the introductory modifier "For consumers and businesses making a large number of long-distance calls" modifying Government and hence, giving an illogical meaning?

Can an expert please reply.

Can someone explain why in D and E, the placement of the modifier is wrong?

While the modifier placement in (D) isn't great, there's an even more concrete error: it has no main verb! It seems as though "the government prediction" will be the subject of the main clause, but then we get a lengthy "that" modifier and no corresponding action for this prediction to do. Because we have a fragment, (D) is out.

To see the problem with modification in (E), see our post above.

I hope that helps!

Please help with “the Federal communication's recent telephone rate cuts”.
My understanding is that this means the rate cuts of Federal communication as compared to “rate cuts made by Federal communication” in other choices
AjiteshArun GMATNinja

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I went through all the explanations as to why Answer Choice A is correct, the modifier misplacement in Answer Choice E and the usage of "THAT" twice is unidiomatic. But I came across this concept that essential information of a sentence shouldn't be separated by commas (I refer to the question in the URL below). So I assumed the same and felt in Option A if the sentence separated by commas is removed, then the sentence is more generalized and not as specific as in Answer Choice E.


https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-the-honeybee-s-stinger-is-heavily-barbed-staying-where-it-is-inser-78082.html

could you please elaborate on the dangling modifer in E]

E. For consumers and businesses making a large number of long distance calls

The government predicts that, for consumers and businesses that make a large number of long-distance calls, the Federal Communications Commission's recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs, though some consumer groups disagree with the government's estimates, suggesting they are too optimistic.

Option Elimination -

A. The government predicts that, for consumers and businesses that make a large number of long-distance calls, the Federal Communications Commission's recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs - ok

B. The government predicts that costs will be greatly reduced for consumers and businesses that make a large number of long-distance calls by the Federal Communications Commission's recent telephone rate cuts - "calls by the Federal Communications Commission's recent telephone rate cuts" is wrong.

C. The government prediction is, for consumers and businesses making a large number of long-distance calls, costs will be greatly reduced by the recent telephone rate cuts made by the Federal Communications Commission. "The government predicts" is a cleaner construction than"The government prediction is"

D. For consumers and businesses that make a large number of long distance calls, the government's prediction that the Federal Communications Commission's recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs - there is no verb for "prediction."

E. For consumers and businesses making a large number of long distance calls, the government predicts that the recent telephone rate cuts that the Federal Communications Commission has made will greatly reduce costs - two relative pronoun construction while not grammatically wrong, is inferior to option A construction. Moreover, the prepositional modifier causes a few issues. As it is an adverbial saying the government is prediction for consumers and businesses. The intended meaning is that the government predicts that the FCC's rate cuts will reduce costs for consumers.