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605-655 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|                  
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EducationAisle
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 24 Jun 2021, 10:19
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SantoshN
In E Continue(Plural verb) takes Sale (Singular Subject) Is that Okay Iam Confused and thats why dint consider E Can you clarify that ?
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Hi SantoshN, sentences in future tense, always take the plural form of the verb.

For example:

Children will go to the school.
- Plural subject children takes the plural verb go

The child will go to the school.
- Singular subject "the child" again takes the plural verb go

The construct in the sentence under consideration is:

...the sale will continue....

Since the sentence is in future tense ("will"), we use the plural verb continue.
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 24 Jun 2021, 14:40
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Hi AjiteshArun GMATNinja

Although I choose A because as long as indicates times and with meaning it makes sense. starts at x time and ends at y time ( as long as )
But I think A is still not wrong just because it uses until

It is very normal to say end time based on some event.
The car will go on UNTIL/TILL the fuel lasts
here event is fuel lasts . time will continue till this event doesn't happen
I will continue to study till cracks GMAT


another way could be as in option E
The car will go on AS LONG AS fule lasts- here emphasis is on timings till event doesn't happen


So my query:

Is my understanding on A wrong? Please suggest.
We choose E because it is better or there is something really wrong in A .

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GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 24 Jun 2021, 23:20
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mSKR
We choose E because it is better or there is something really wrong in A .
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Hi mSKR,

Does this post help?
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 25 Jun 2021, 07:59
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Can we eliminate (C) by striking off the appositive "until the supply lasts", which would make the sentence "The sale ...will begin and will continue."?

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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 19 Sep 2021, 10:05
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Correct option : E
WOW! 2007 post

The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until the supply lasts.
Straight B, C, and D to be eliminated due to
Comma Before And That Joins Two Independent Clauses. The word and is a conjunction, and when a conjunction joins two independent clauses, you should use a comma with it. The proper place for the comma is before the conjunction. ... If you use a comma without a conjunction, you'll end up with a comma splice

(B) begins at 9 a.m., continuing until the supply lasts
(C) will begin at 9 a.m. and, until the supply lasts, will continue
(D) begins at 9 a.m. and, as long as the supply may last, it continues

Now between A, and E
(A) will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until the supply lasts
Until - is a preposition - upto - makes it grammertically incorrect

(E) will begin at 9 a.m. and continue as long as the supply lasts
as long as phrase means - during the whole time that, provided that - Correct idiom - Correct
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont Updated on: 02 Dec 2023, 09:48
Originally posted by Raman109 on 05 Sep 2023, 04:10.
Last edited by Raman109 on 02 Dec 2023, 09:48, edited 1 time in total.
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until the supply lasts.

Option Elimination -

A bit of basics on the usage of "until" and "as long as" first

1. "Until":
"Until" is used to indicate the point in time when an action or event will stop or a condition will be met. It suggests that something will continue to happen or remain true up to a specific time or event.

Example 1: "I will wait here until you come back."
In this sentence, the action of waiting will continue until the person returns. As soon as the person returns, the waiting will stop.

Example 2: "She studied until midnight."
This sentence means that the person studied continuously, and their studying stopped at midnight.

2. "As long as":
"As long as" is used to express a condition that must be met for something to happen or continue. It implies that if the condition remains true, the action or event will continue.

Example 1: "You can borrow my car as long as you return it by 6 p.m."
This means the person can borrow the car but only if they return it before 6 p.m. If they don't return it by that time, they may not be allowed to borrow it again.

Example 2: "I'll support you as long as you keep working hard."
This sentence indicates that the speaker will provide support, but only if the person continues to work hard. If the person stops working hard, the support may be withdrawn.

In summary, "until" is used to indicate the point in time when an action stops or a condition is met, while "as long as" expresses a condition that must be fulfilled for something to happen or continue.

Here, "supply lasts" means the duration or period of time during which a particular supply or resource remains available or in stock. So, we'll use "as long as." Had it been "supply ends or supply is depleted," then the usage of "until" would still be okay, as that would indicate a point in time, i.e., ends or depleted. But as we can't change "supply lasts" means the duration or period of time, we need to use "as long as" and not "until."

(A) will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until the supply lasts - not ok, as discussed above.

(B) begins at 9 a.m., continuing until the supply lasts - is this a perpetual action? No. Moreover, "until" is wrong.

(C) will begin at 9 a.m. and, until the supply lasts, will continue - the same issue of "until" with supply lasts.

(D) begins at 9 a.m. and, as long as the supply may last, it continues - the same issue as B.

(E) will begin at 9 a.m. and continue as long as the supply lasts - ok.
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The sale of government surplus machinery will begin at 9 a.m. and cont 06 Sep 2023, 12:09
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My understanding is that GMAT prefers simple tense over continuous or perfect tense.
Couldn't this activity be something that happens usually? In that case why not simple present tense?
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