The companys efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will

Question

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its chief rival,  one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions .

(A) one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions

(B) which will determine more how efficiently each company can produce computers than their visions

(C) which will determine more how efficiently each company can produce computers than by its visions

(D) one that will be determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than its visions

(E) one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers as by its vision

DmitryFarberMPrep · Accepted Answer

I don't think the GMAT would use "their" the way it is used in A, but the other answers are really egregiously bad, so as long as we know who "their" is supposed to refer to, it still looks like the best choice. If I were going to defend this answer choice, I'd say that the antecedent is there in compound form: the company and its rival. However, since "company" isn't even used in non-possessive form, I'm not too inclined to defend this answer.

Throw it out!

Zarrolou · Answer

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its chief rival,  one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions.

B and C use " which ", but it refers to the " chef rival ":
B-C) which (  chief rival  ) will determine more 
this is logically not correct

a) one determined   more by   how efficiently each company can produce computers   than by   their visions.
 d) one that will be determined   more by   how efficiently each company can produce computers   than its   visions.
 e) one determined   more by   how efficiently each company can produce computers   as by   its vision.

Only A mantains a proper structure, hence is correct.
"their" refers to the companies, and more than one company is discussed in the passage "their visions" is required.
If I say "its vision" than I' m talking about a singolar company and the strcuture would not be correct, for example:
 "determined by (how A and B produce) and by (how only A sells)"  .

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice conveys the intended meaning of the sentence and maintains proper idiom use throughout the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice B:  This answer choice incorrectly modifies the noun "chief rival" with the phrase "which will determine..." due to the use of the word "which". The modifying clause "which will determine..." also causes an error of meaning, as its construction implies that the modified subject shall affect the companies' computer production. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C:  This answer choice repeats the errors found in Option C. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D:  This answer choice fails to maintain the proper idiomatic construction "more by...than by". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice repeats the error found in Option D. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

One important thing to note here is that the use of the possessive pronoun "their" is perfectly correct in this sentence. This pronoun refers to the respective "visions" of "the company" and its "chief rival"; thus a plural possessive pronoun must be used.

To understand the concept of "Use of Which, Who, Whose, Where on GMAT" you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0M_MYzDfMk

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

ankurgupta03 · Answer

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its chief rival, one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions.

a) one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions.
 Correct
Correclty uses the idiom more by X than by Y 
b) which will determine more how efficiently each company can produce computers than their visions
 which modifies the touching noun, hence incorrect 
c) which will determine more how efficiently each company can produce computers than by its visions
 which modifies the touching noun, hence incorrect 
d) one that will be determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than its visions.
 should be than by its visions, parallelism error 
e) one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers as by its vision.
 more by X as by Y is idiomatically wrong,
it should be more by X than by Y

maaadhu · Answer

Zarrolou, I agree that A maintains parallelism but I have a few questions. Please clarify

In A, " each" is singular. And also the sentence says the "Company's" but not "companies". So isnt the use of "thier" incorrect in A?

Zarrolou · Answer

Yes, you're correct but the not underlined sentence talks about two "subjects/companies", so if we want to refer to both of them "their" is required.
The sentence talks about more than one company, so " their " is correct, even though the word "companies" does not appear in the sentence

The   company  ’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its   chief rival

Hope it's clear

varun4s · Answer

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its chief rival,  one determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions .

Here, the first part of the sentence focuses on  company's efforts  even though sentence uses antecedent  ITS  in the sentence . But the second part of the sentence begins with "one" that refers to "efforts" put by the company. As we have  more X than Y idiom  in the second part, X uses by how efficiently  each  company. Here word  "each"  talks about more than one company, so to keep other part also parallel we must use "their."

Hence A

Kudos please..... if you like my explanation.

mohnish104 · Answer

Can somebody explain what this sentence means? I have no clue what the underlined portion wants to convey.

pqhai · Answer

Hi mohnish

This question uses structure Noun+noun modifier. ==> Noun + noun modifier can modify:
(1) Preceding noun
(2) Preceding clause
(3) Any noun in the preceding clause.

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense  new phase  with its chief rival,  one  determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers than by their visions.

In the underlined portion, "a new phase" is replaced by "one". The meaning is: The company's  efforts  start a new phase, which is determined more by  how efficiently each company can produce  computers than by their visions.

The blue parts keep the two parts of the sentence parallel in meaning.

Hope it helps.

ashutoshr · Answer

Hi,

I am really confused about option A.

In the MGMAT SC Book, it is clearly mentioned that when 'each' precedes a subject / compound plural subject, it always takes a singular verb.
For example -
Each of these shirts is pretty.

When it follows, it has no bearing on the verb form.
For example - 
They each are great tennis players.

Could some MGMAT expert please explain how this sentence is an exception?

Thanks!

PrakharGMAT · Answer

Hi  chetan2u ,

Can you please assist, how could A be OA. I agree that all other options are incorrect but its the first time that I come across with a question in which the antecedent of "their" is not Explicitly written.

As far as I have learned that antecedent MUST exist. I am not able to understand the usage of "their" in correct sentence.

Can you please help..Is it a GMAT level question..?

Thanks and Regards,
Prakhar

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

manhasnoname , if you read through the thread above, you'll see that the pronoun issue has been discussed quite a bit. I'm inclined to agree with you, although that leaves us with no correct answer!

Poorvasha · Answer

Hi  VeritasPrepKarishma ,

Can you please look into this one ? "their" in option A does not seem to have a clear antecedent mentioned in the sentence. Also, the sentence mentions company in possessive form. Although it is implied that their refers to the rival companies however do we see such a sentence construction on the actual GMAT ?

KarishmaB · Answer

"Their" is a possessive adjective. It refers to the visions of the company and its chief rival. 
Since we are discussing two companies, the use of plural "their" is justified. It is obvious that we are talking about the vision of each company (company and its chief rival).

Will2020 · Answer

Here is the official answer:

Solution: A

Explanation: The key in this problem is to make sure the correct answer contains a logical and parallel comparison. (B) and (D) can be quickly eliminated because they seem to be modifying “chief rival” (and create illogical meaning even if they were modifying the “new phase”). In (D) the “by” is required to make the construction parallel and “its visions” needs to be the plural “their visions”. In (E) the construction “more…as” is incorrect as it should be “more…than”  While at first glance, the pronoun "theirs" in (A) might seem numerically incorrect, it is referring back to the visions of the two competing companies and therefore is correct. Answer is (A).

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

GuilhermeAzevedo  The official explanation shows that whoever created the original question/explanation was a bit confused. The antecedent for "their" can't be "visions." The phrase is "their visions"! So the question is, "whose visions?" While it's pretty clear what the author is trying to say--it's the companies' visions--the word "companies" (plural) does not appear in the sentence, leaving us no actual antecedent for the word "their."

pearljiandani · Answer

Yes, I have the same question, the MGMAT guide clearly states that "each", "every" is used with a plural subject as in examples given above  VeritasKarishma  Can you please clarify?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

There's a very simple answer. This question is no good!

I've tried to discourage folks from studying it, and I'll do so again. Let's lock this thread and retire this unofficial q!

KarishmaB · Answer

pearljiandani  - We do not suggest you to learn "rules" and then try to apply them in every context. When it comes to the higher level SC questions, conveying accurate meaning becomes the focus (along with correct grammar of course)!

Here is the sentence:

The company’s efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will set off an intense new phase with its chief rival, one determined more by...

First think - what will be determined...? The new phase, right? 
The company's efforts will set off a new phase with its chief rival.
The phase will be determined more by A than by B.

A - how efficiently each company can produce computers
B - their visions

The new phase with the chief rival, I hope you agree, will logically depend on the visions of both - the company as well as its chief rival. 
But we are told here that the new phase will be determined more by how efficiently each company can produce computers.

So the new phase will be determined more by how efficiently they can produce computers than by their visions.

Hence, the use of "their visions" is accurate.

The companys efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will

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The companys efforts to seek advance orders for its computers will

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