According to your analyzing, I saw there is an imbalance structure in the passage if the primary concern is “connection between innovation and patenting”, because Author shifted the flow to another topic-decline in quality- and discussed it
almost a haft of passage. I do not see the rest haft of passage support for “connection patenting and innovation”.
Please help.
Question 1 Answer Choice A, Explained
Nived wrote:
Hi! Have gone through all the responses above, but still not clear why A is not the answer for question 1.
(A) a study suggesting that the semiconductor industry’s approach to patenting during the period from 1982 to 1992 yielded unanticipated results
Because of patent, we would expect patenting activity to be directly related with becoming more innovative.
However, a study (Ziedonis and Hall) yielded results contrary to expectations (unanticipated results). Hence, I thought A is the answer.
Could it be that A is correct, but not the main idea?
An answer choice can be
a true statement while still being
an incorrect answer choice. That's because the correct answer choice is the one that best answers the specific question being asked. This is a minor distinction in wording, but it's a major difference in how we eliminate answer choices and select the choice that is truly correct for a given question. It's all part of the joy of test-taking in GMAT Land.

Quote:
1. The passage is primarily concerned with discussing
(A) a study suggesting that the semiconductor industry's approach to patenting during the period from 1982 to 1992 yielded unanticipated results
Like
answer choice (E), choice (A) on its own is true. However, is the author
primarily concerned with discussing a study and its results?
Nope. Instead, this passage is structured to:
- Introduce us to the original purpose of granting patents.
- Present studies on the semi-conductor industry (especially the study by Ziedonis and Hall) to illustrate the point that firms do not necessarily become more innovative as they increase their patenting activity.
- Analyze the findings of the Z&H study in the context of measuring patent quality.
- Suggest a possible explanation for why semi-conductor patent quality declined during the 1980s.
Studies, and in particular the Z&H study, make up a crucial piece of this passage. However, the author's overall purpose is to analyze the relationship between patents and innovation.
Quote:
(C) the connection between patenting and innovation in the semiconductor industry during the period from 1982 to 1992
Choice (C) best expresses this overall purpose.
Thanks for the questions, everyone! I hope this helps.