Here is a video in which the answer is explained.


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If you read the sentence after cutting the flab - eg cutting off participal phrases, adjectives and focusing only on the Subject - predicate - structure.

The sentence reads - The Rising [of Costs] ----XXXXXx---YYYYYY---created a growing opportunity - ZZZZZ---ZZZZ to provide same services more efficiently and at lower cost.

Now when you read this - Subject is "The rising", doer action is "created" - now rising on its own cannot create anything, thats incomplete.

So as a proper subject to the verb "created" - option C provides us a complete subject - "The rising cost" created a growing opportunity to provide same services more efficiently and at lower cost!!!

Hope it makes clear for you now.

Let me take this wonderful opportunity as a best friend of you all and explain the intricacies of what I call - The Subject-verb-modifier/quantifier agreement rule.

verbs and modifiers such as adjectives/adverbs need to take different forms depending on singularity or plurality of the nouns and relative pronouns, especially for count and non-count nouns. for a count noun, the modifier becomes plural and thereby verb needs to be plural, likeways with non-count nouns. sometimes quantifier/modifier is singular such as each, every etc while the noun may be a count noun or plural in nature, verb becomes singular following the quantifier/modifier. Also, a conjunction such as "and" is required between two singular nouns to create a plural verb. sometimes, quantifiers may be used incorrectly. replacing with appropriate quantifier may solve the sentence correction.

In the given sentence, noun is operations (countable) but quantifier is assigned to cost (verb) and that is rising (adverb). Rising is singular so "costs" has to become singular. Also, there is no hard-and-fast rule that nouns alone can be subjects of the sentences. The "of" is connecting the actual intent of the sentence with something related to it - "The rising cost of data-processing operations" thereby, "rising cost" becomes the subject, which is entirely singular and therefore, "has" is used.

The Answer is undoubtedly C.

"The rising of cost" ( a singular subject ) ........ has(singular verb) ........

so clearly the answer is C

Even if you consider ' of ... operations ' -- a raise in their price is still a singular subject

so C is undoubtedly correct

Costs is plural. So to fit with has only A or C will be right.

A sounds awkward to me. A of B of C.
We have a better option in answer choice . i.e C.
Rising cost is more appropriate than A. ( though A is grammatically correct too)


My answer is C.

The answer will be Option "C".

The word we are looking for is "Cost" and not "Costs". As it is also mentioned at the end of the sentence "at lower cost". This eliminates Options A, B and E.

Out of Options C and D, Option C sounds better.

Dear goodyear2013,
I'm happy to help.

First, let's get the lay of the land with this sentence:

______________________ of data processing operations at many financial institutions has created a growing opportunity for independent companies to provide these services more efficiently and at lower cost.

First of all, we have a long infinitive phrase at the end. For more on infinitive phrases, see:
http://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/infinitive ... -the-gmat/
I'll mark this in a separate color:
______________________ of data processing operations at many financial institutions has created a growing opportunity for independent companies to provide these services more efficiently and at lower cost.
(The "for" preposition is contains the subject of the infinitive phrase.)

Now, also set the prepositional phrase off in parentheses and mark them in color:
______________________ (of data processing operations) (at many financial institutions) has created a growing opportunity for independent companies to provide these services more efficiently and at lower cost.

We see we have only one main verb, and this main verb needs a subject. The blank at the beginning must be a noun or something that can play the role of a noun. Both (D) & (E) are out.

Choice (A) is super-awkward, so that is out. I'm quite intrigued that official material would leave us with a split that depends only on the presence or absence of the definite article. That's what we have in the split between (B) & (C).

With the definite article, choice (B), "rising costs", would be appropriate if we were speaking in general, if for any reason, we weren't interested in specifying anything about the nature of these "rising costs." For example, "rising costs are a problem for doctors in private practice." This is not an appropriate choice in this sentence.

Here, we know in tremendous detail the nature of the costs. From the sentence, we can answer with tremendous precision the question, "the cost of what?" This means that we need the definite article. That's why (C) is the best answer.

Does all this make sense?
Mike
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What confused me in this question is that it is difficult for me to understand when I need to use cost and when costs with plural sentences. Would like to get opinion of our experts.

Actually rising is used as (what is called) a gerund here, and not a participle. Summarily, participles are adjective forms of the verb, while gerunds are noun forms of the verb.


Indeed, in this case, rising is used as a participle.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the distinction between Participles and Gerunds. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.
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Hi Ergenekon, since the verb has is in the non-underlined portion, the subject should be a singular subject. rising is the subject in A and cost is the subject in C (since rising is used as a participle in C). So, both A and C use singular subject and qualify this criterion.

Now coming to the difference between A and C.

However, if a verb-form has a pure play noun form available, generally GMAT idiomatically prefers to use it, rather than the -ing form.

For example, rising has a pure play noun form available: rise. Hence, GMAT would generally prefer to use rise in costs rather than the rising of costs.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this issue of verb-form preference, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.
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EducationAisle, my question was a general one. When we need to say costs of operations and when cost of operation?

Hi Ergenekon, the general recommendation is that when we are looking at a grand total, then we use cost, while if there are several components, then we use costs.

For example: Costs of various components used in the manufacture of a car, add up to the total cost of the car.

Having said that, I am not sure whether GMAT worries about (or even adheres to) this puritan aspect; in fact, I am reasonably sure that this discussion would be of academic interest only, because I can't see GMAT testing you on nuances between costs Vs cost (when cost/costs is used as a noun); of course GMAT can extensively test you on cost/costs as from a subject-verb agreement perspective.

This sentence that we are discussing is from Verbal review, and the OE does not even mention any difference between cost and costs, in arriving at the right answer.

Interestingly, while this sentence has the OA: The rising cost of data-processing operations, another official sentence has the construct: rising costs of malpractice insurance.

But as I said, I don't see GMAT testing you on this.
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EducationAisle, thanks for your reply. I encountered one question where gmat tests this concept. That is why it confused me in this question. combining-enormous-physical-strength-with-higher-intelligenc-87777.html

Hi Ergenekon, I understand, though cost/costs tends to get more amorphous than path/paths.

In that case as well, the fundamental distinction remains the same: If we are talking about individual separate paths by each/various Neanderthals, then we should use paths; if we are talking about just one path taken by the entire species (as is the case in the Neanderthals sentence), then we use path.
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Wait ...

So if the "rising" cannot create something, how about if we replaced "rising" with "rise" ? If "rise" would be acceptable as a subject, what is fundamentally different between "rising" and "rise" that makes one invalid as a subject and the other valid?

Your point makes sense. "The rising of costs " is a complex gerund which can as well be used as the subject of a sentence. Grammatically there is no problem with option A - the meaning conveyed is also alright. Nonetheless we are asked to find the best answer of the 5. Compare A and C - both are grammatically correct and convey the same meaning. Nonetheless C conveys the same meaning more economically, i.e. using less no. of words. As a last resort this reason is good enough to eliminate an answer choice when no grammatical or meaning error can be found in more than one answer choices.

Hi HiLine, I don't believe that A is incorrect because rising cannot create something. OE also just terms the rising of costs as wordy and awkward.

Let's take another example; which one of the following would you choose:

(i) The increasing of crimes is a bane on society.

(ii) Increase in crimes is a bane on society.

Hopefully it is evident that increase in crimes is more articulate than the increasing of crimes. In general, if there is a pure-play Noun form available (for example, increase), that structure is more elegant than the corresponding gerund form (the increasing of).
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(A) The rising of costs
The rising............has. (the cost has created.. NOT the rising)

(B) Rising costs
This choice makes us learn that we should read the full sentence. "has" is used as a verb in non-underlined portion, hence costs is wrong. we need singular subject COST.

(C) The rising cost
Singular subject and rising modifies the cost correctly.

(D) Because the rising cost
because is a subordinating conjunction. usage of because makes the sentence a dependent clause, which cannot stand alone. so we need an independent clause to connect also. but there is no independent clause. hence wrong.

(E) Because of rising costs
same as E
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Well I guess there is some smart work we can do before we get down to answer choices.
Since the non underlined part already contains "has" which is a singular verb, we must eliminate all answer choices which have a plural subject i.e. "rising costs" & above all we need a correct subject for the sentence to make logical sense.
So A, B & E are ruled out. Also in A "rising of costs" is unidiomatic. It should always be rising cost or rising costs.
Between C & D, C wins because using "Because" in choice E changes the intended meaning of the sentence.
Choice C means that the rising cost (i.e. the noun subject, rising modifying the specific feature of cost as a noun) has created opportunities for the companies...blah blah
In choice D Because creates dependent clause which means there is cause - effect relationship. However, in the sentence there is no such thing. The sentence is not trying to say that Because A happens B happens or it leads to B etc.
Hope this helps all those who could not get this question right?