The most prominent characteristic of High-performance

Question

The most prominent characteristic of High-performance marketing firms is  that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with  other marketing firms.

A) that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with
B) that they tend to concentrate more executives to a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than toward
C) that they have a tendency to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to
D) that they tend to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more carefully selected number of important businesses than do
E) the tendency to concentrate a greater number of executives on a careful and small selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to

fameatop · Accepted Answer

The most prominent characteristic of High-performance marketing firms is  that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with  other marketing firms.
A) that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with
 - Completely awkward, Illogical, Incorrect placement of Adjective

B) that they tend to concentrate more executives  to  a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than toward
-  Although this option is not ambiguous but the use of "TO" is incorrect

C) that they have a tendency to concentrate  more  executives on a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to - 
 This option is ambiguous in meaning: moreover use of MORE is also confusing

D) that they tend to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more carefully selected number of important businesses than do -   CORRECT

E)  the tendency  to concentrate a greater number of executives on a careful and small selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to - 
 THAT is Necessary otherwise it will change the meaning to "characteristic of X is their tendency". Completely illogical

Thus the answer has to be D & it is definitely a   700+ level question

Hope this explanation helps.
(Kindly expression appreciation by pressing Kudos button)

Fame

nm01 · Answer

The most prominent characteristic of High-performance marketing firms is  that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with  other marketing firms.

A) that they have a tendency to have  concentrated greater executives  in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with  -- use of 'greater' is not correct  
B) that they tend to concentrate more executives to a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses  than toward   ---this construction wrongly suggests that more executives are concentrated on important businesses than towards marketing firms. This option changes the intended meaning of the sentence  
C) that they have a tendency to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to  here 'tendency' is compared with 'other marketing firms' 
D) that they tend to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more carefully selected number of important businesses than do  Correct  
E) the tendency to concentrate a greater number of executives on a careful and small selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to   Same as C, moreover construction is awkward

Vercules · Answer

Nice explanations Piyush and Fame; I am updating the post with the OA and my OE.

A) that they have a tendency to have concentrated greater executives in the direction of a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than is the case with

The comparison is correct in the original sentence but it is unnecessarily wordy because in its use of
“they have a tendency”
"in the direction of"
and the present perfect “have concentrated” is inappropriate to express a regular feature of marketing firms; simple present will be better, moreover "greater" is used incorrectly.

B) that they tend to concentrate more executives to a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses than toward

This choice is clear and concise. However, in its use of “toward other marketing firms,” this choice does not draw the correct and logical comparison between the behavior of top marketing firms and the behavior of other marketing firms. Instead, this choice illogically compares the level of resources concentrated on certain important customers and the resources directed toward other marketing firms. Finally, the construction “concentrate more resources to” is unidiomatic; the appropriate idiom is “to concentrate on.”

C) that they have a tendency to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more careful selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to

This choice incorrectly draws a comparison between the level of resources concentrated on a number of important customers and the resources directed towards other marketing firms in its use of “as opposed to other marketing firms.” The correct comparison is between the behavior of top marketing firms and that of other marketing firms.

D) that they tend to concentrate more executives on a smaller, more carefully selected number of important businesses than do  -- correct

This choice correctly draws a comparison between a characteristic of top marketing firms and that of other marketing firms, and is clear and concise.
 
E) the tendency to concentrate a greater number of executives on a careful and small selection of a number of important businesses as opposed to

This choice incorrectly draws a comparison between the level of resources directed toward a number of important customers and the resources directed toward other marketing firms in its use of “as opposed to.” The correct comparison is between top marketing firms and other marketing firms.

philipssonicare · Answer

I found this a difficult question to complete quickly ??? it seems foolish to eliminate an option because of awkwardness or longer constructions, so each option needs to be read individually. It took me 2min48sec to complete on a CAT. How to increase speed on these types of questions (no clear splits, preferable constructions and not completely wrong splits)?

singhkniraj · Answer

Thanks for such a brilliant explanation. 
Is it also the case that correct usage here would be concentrate "on" a smaller .... rather "in" or "to" smaller .... Also could you please share more about how option C with more is ambigious ?
Cheers

VerbalBot · Answer

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The most prominent characteristic of High-performance

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The most prominent characteristic of High-performance

What is the difficulty level of this question

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