The loss of confidence among consumers [u]led to a sudden reduction in

My answer is (B). It took me 02:59. I took relatively long time because I eliminated (B) in the first pass. I end up solving this question twice.

First Pass
(A) We see the possibility of a list: led to ..., caused ...
But to form a list, we expect to find the third item "and verb-ed ..."
The only item we can find, however, is "resulting..." (Present participle).
Moreover, it is strange to see ", and disruption of trade" in the middle of the sentence. This strangeness causes me to eliminate (B) in the first pass.

(B) I find the use of ", and disruption of trade” unexpected and jarring.
Ultimately, I realize that the author meant to say that
The loss of confidence
causing
dramatic drops in demand and credit
and disruption of trade

Yet we do not need a comma in "X and Y".
It is true that in this particular construction, X ("dramatic drops in demand and credit") already contains an "and". Yet adding a comma before Y is not a good solution. More below in second pass discussion.
A good GMAT sentence should not confuse readers. I eliminated (B).

(C) Not a sentence.
The subject seems to be "The loss of confidence among consumers that led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending"
but there is no main verb in the rest of the sentence.
(C) is eliminated.

(D) There are two major issues.
(1) "caused" seems to be the main verb for the subject, but the comma before "caused" should be removed.
(2) How to interpret "resulted"? If it is considered a peer with "caused", a conjunction such as "and" should be added in front of it. Alternatively, it can be changed to be "resulting".

(E) Since I had eliminated (ABCD), I hoped this is the right answer.
But it basically suffered the same problems above.

Surprise! I eliminated all answers!
Now, because I did not take notes of why I eliminated any answer or how convinced I was with any elimination. I had to
> Readjust my criteria to be a bit loose / tolerant.
> Reexamine every option, thus needing additional time.

I happen to develop a strategy that, in order to give me a fresh mind set (and to improve efficiency in most cases), I will switch to examine answer choices from (E) to (A) if I get stuck in one option. So, for the second pass, I did the reverse order, a decision that increased my time to hit (B) again.

Second Pass
(EDC) Eliminated for the same reasons in the first pass. Additional time expended nevertheless.

(B) With lower standard for lucid writing, I can defend this version. It is a simple sentence followed by two participle phrases.
Typically speaking, two participle phrases one after another that are not in parallel is a bit annoying. But I am not against such use.
Adding the comma before "and disruption of trade" is not recommended at all, if not flat wrong altogether. If this is not an intentional trick to make this question more challenging, the author should be advised to consider the following fixes.
(1) A nested list "causing dramatic drops in demand and credit and disruption of trade" is still better than the current version.
(2) Or "causing dramatic drops in demand and credit as well as disruption of trade"
(3) Or "causing dramatic drops in demand and credit and disrupting trade"
(4) Or restructure the sentence to avoid the awkwardness.

Option (B) is the answer.

The loss of confidence among consumers led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting in widespread unemployment.


A) led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting - Here along with he verb 'spending' & the resultant word 'caused' is not flowing with the sentence as the tense of the sentence is changing from present continuous to past tense.

B) led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, causing dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting - Here the tense with 'spending' and 'causing' flows correctly. Hence this is correct.

C) that led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, causing both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting - Here, the tense is incorrect. The fact that the sentence starts with a past tense 'that led to a...' . This is incorrect.

D) that led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulted - Same as (C)

E) leading to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused dramatic drops in both demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulted - Here, 'leading' and 'caused' are again different tenses. Hence, incorrect.

It took me 52 seconds to get the right answer.

My process of going about this medium-level SC problem was
quick reading and visualizing the sentence
while predicting what might come next in the sentence,
breaking down the sentence in a logically,
and only then
proceeding toward options to analyze and select the right one.

The loss of confidence among consumers led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting in widespread unemployment.


The loss of confidence among consumers
led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending,
caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade,
ultimately resulting in widespread unemployment.

sth led to ...A&B... causing both X and Y, resulting in sth this structure indicates that there was a chain of events in which one effect becomes the cause for the next, and it started with the loss of confidence among consumers-->leading to a reduction in two consumption and investment spending ---> causing both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption---> ultimately resulting in widespread unemployment.

once the sentence structure is clear and meaning and logic are understood, option choice analysis was a task that didn't even take a few seconds.

I picked option choice B right away.



"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" Dare to dream and visualize to put in your efforts in the most optimum way, Best Wishes

The loss of confidence among consumers led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending, caused both dramatic drops in demand and credit, and disruption of trade, ultimately resulting in widespread unemployment.



led to a sudden reduction in consumption- makes sense
led to a sudden reduction in investment spending- makes sense
led to a sudden reduction in disruption of trade- doesn't make sense

caused dramatic drops in demand- makes sense
caused credit- doesn't make sense


led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending- makes sense
led to a disruption of trade- makes sense

causing dramatic drops in demand- makes sense
causing dramatic drops in credit- makes sense


The usage of "that" conveys that the consumers themselves led to all of the consequences. However, it was a loss of confidence that led to all the consequence.

causing dramatic drops in demand- makes sense
causing credit- doesn't make sense


The usage of "that" conveys that the consumers themselves led to all of the consequences. However, it was a loss of confidence that led to all the consequence.

caused dramatic drops in demand- makes sense
caused credit- doesn't make sense


The usage of "leading" conveys that the consumers themselves led to all of the consequences. However, it was a loss of confidence that led to all the consequence.

Hello team,

I did not get why option A is wrong?
Please explain...I have gone through zhanbo's post as well but still not clear.

placing comma after "demand and credit" in answer choice B is an error.
The correct version should say: "causing dramatic drops in demand and credit and disruption of trade"

Am I wrong?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello Foreheadson,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in Option B "causing dramatic drops in demand and credit" is extra information about the action "led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending...and disruption of trade"; thus, it is offset by two commas.

In other words, the loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending and led to a disruption of trade, and in doing so caused dramatic drops in demand and credit.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Oh, I see it now. Thanks for making it clear.