The Engineering Department, one of the newest departments in the

Question

The Engineering Department, one of the newest departments in the University, has more extensive facilities than  every department, due to their graduates’ demand for industry and their correspondingly higher salaries .

(A) every department, due to their graduates’ demand for industry and their correspondingly higher
(B) every other department, because of its graduates’ demand in industry and their correspondingly higher
(C) every department, because of its graduates’ demand for industry and their higher corresponding
(D) every other department, due to their graduates’ demand in industry and their higher corresponding
(E) every other department, because of their graduates’ demand for industry and their higher corresponding

daagh · Answer

Nice practice question. The cue for the correct solution is the combo use of the singular possessive pronoun "its" to denote the department and the correct idiom 'demand in the industry' rather than 'demand for the industry'. B fits in blithely. The pronoun ' their' is no issue logically, as it refers to the plural graduates. One can't describe it as 'its demand " as a department can have no demand in the industry.

kivalo · Answer

Also we have because of vs due to split.

The Engineering Department  has  more extensive facilities  because of ... (due to modifies noun or noun phrase)

onkargm · Answer

Daagh ,

I didn't understand in  "their correspondingly higher"  what  "their"   is referring to. What I figured out is  graduates' demand  is singular. Is my understanding correct ?

sleepynut · Answer

"Their" refers to ONLY graduates.

Sujeet07 · Answer

What is the difference between "Every other X" & " Every X" . Please explain with e.g.

thanks,
Sujeet

StaicyT · Answer

'more than every other' compares The Engineering Department with other deps of university; so using 'every', which combines all the deps of the university, can't be logical

mohitbahl · Answer

Engineering department is singular, so "its" and not "their" . Eliminate A , D,E We are comparing Engg dept with every other department and not every deptt. Hence, B is the answer ! 8-)

Please provide kudos if you like my post. Thank you

matt882 · Answer

This rule - use "other" to compare something with other member of the same group - is often tested in GMAT, but it's also often misunderstood. +1 Kudos for you

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
Split #1: "every" vs. "every other". The Engineering Department is a department, and it can't have more extensive facilities than itself! The appropriate comparison is between this department and "every other" department. Choices (A) & (C) make this mistake.

Split #2: the "due to" mistake. The word "due" is an adjective, a noun modifier, so it must modify the noun it touches. The noun "every other department" is not "due to" anyone's demand for anything. We are trying to modify the action of the previous clause, and a noun modifier cannot perform this task. We need the verb modifier "because of." Choices (A) & (D) make this mistake.

Split #3: idiom with "demand". The idiom "P's demand for Q" means that P is the actor doing the demanding and Q is the thing demanded. Thus, "its graduates' demand for industry" in (C) would mean that the graduates were demanding industry—that's so wrong that it's not even clear what it would mean. Choice (C) is wrong.

The reverse construction in (A) & (E), "industry's demand for their graduates," gets the logic correct: yes, industry has a demand—industry is demanding the graduates.

An alternate way to express this is to say "its graduates' demand in industry," the version in (B) & (D). The construction "demand in" is not really an idiom by itself. It's just that the graduates experience a demand, and this demand is taking place in industry. This is a perfectly fine way to express this. Only (C) makes the idiom mistake.

Split #4: pronoun agreement. The "Engineering Department" may have many members, both faculty and students, but it's a singular collective noun, and we need to refer to it by a singular pronoun: "it". Choices (D) & (E) use the incorrect plural pronoun. In fact, (E) makes that mistake, and then it makes the double-whammy mistake of using the same pronoun, "their," to refer to two different antecedents back-to-back, first the "Engineering Department," then the "graduates. This is a second pronoun mistake: choice (E) is a train wreck in terms of pronoun rules.

Split #5: the correspondence. What corresponds to what? the graduates have a higher demand in industry and this corresponds to the higher salaries they receive. Higher corresponds to higher, so we need to modify the adjective "higher"—we need the adverb to modify the adjective: "correspondingly higher." Only choices (A) & (B) have this correct.

The only possible answer is (B).

suelahmed · Answer

Isn't correspondingly act as a correct form of adverb, modifying adjective higher. Please correct me if I am wrong.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The Engineering Department, one of the newest departments in the

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