The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political

Question

The supply of oil being finite has become an economical  and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

(A) The supply of oil being finite has become an economical

(B) The finite supply of oil has become an economical

(C) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economical

(D) The supply of oil being finite has become an economic

(E) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic

Source :  The Official Guide to GMAT, 1984

My ans: D

Reasoning: The correct phrase would be 'economic and political consideration'. Eliminates A, B, C. I find E to be rather complex, whereas D expresses the same idea in a lucid way.

VeritasPrepBrian · Accepted Answer

Hey everyone,

Looks like this thread is a real blast from the past - 4 years old! Like the World Cup, though, I think it makes sense to bring it back up every even-numbered-but-not-divisible-by-4th year!

To add to the "be wary of the word 'being'" mentality, let me show you why it's not a great word choice here (and how it fits into the well-known GMAT error hierarchy):

"Being" is the present-tense form of the verb "to be"; you'd use it when something is currently (but not always) happening:

My daughter is being a brat. ---> That's correct; she's not ALWAYS a brat, but is just being that way right now.

Being female, my daughter... ---> That's not correct. She's not temporarily "being" female - she just "is" female.
As a female, my daughter... ----> That's correct, a way of restating the previous modifier to make logical sense.

Now, as far as this question, the difference between D and E is that D says:

The supply of oil being finite...

and E says:

That the supply of oil is finite

Is the finite supply a temporary thing? No - "finite" is a permanent condition; if it were to become "infinite" than the original classification of "finite" is completely wrong. "Finite" is an essence thing...it either is or it isn't, but that won't change (much like using "ser" instead of "estar" in Spanish - "ser" is a permanent, essence-based condition; "estar", with its potential for change, is the "being" form of "to be").

So D is DEFINITELY wrong - not because "being" is awkward or less preferred...because it's in an illogical, incorrect verb tense here. That's why E is correct.

vivek123 · Answer

hkm,

'B' actually is very concise but ...I guess use of "economical" is wrong.

"economical consideration" - consideration is economically good OR cheaper.

"economic consideration" - consideration w.r.t. economy of the country.

vivek123 · Answer

I think 'E' is the best! (Actually I selected 'B' first

)

giddi77 · Answer

Pradyot, I also had the same problem. I have convinced myself with the following explanation,

"The supply of being finite" is a participle phrase (a fancy name for  -ing  form + some modifiers) and it can be only an adjective. It cannot be noun.

Either you need to add a noun to this sentence for e.g,
The supply of oil being finite, they decided to import some more from Iraq!

OR you need to a that, which, who ... called a relative pronoun to this phrase above to make it a proper modifier 

 That  the supply of oil ....

HTH.

hkm_gmat · Answer

I think B should be it. It is very concise and conveys the meaning well. OA / OE pls

shahnandan · Answer

I went with E for 2 reasons

1. the diff between "economical" and "economic", the former implies being cheap, which ofcourse is not what the sentence wishes to convey and "economic" implies something to do with economics - which is what we want, so A,B and C are ruled out

2. the sentence implies that the nations "realized" about the finite supply of oil and so the usage of "that"

E satisfies both.

zisis · Answer

RULE: economic is for issues related to the ECONOMY/SOCIETY economical is for financial management / "personal finance" related issues (eg my car is economical) thus eliminate A,B,C...voted for D, but believe E is better....not sure exactly on which rule i base it.....more than happy to accept objections on my rule ;-)

rahuljaiswal · Answer

Hmm..E
Reading the answer options vertically we realize that "economic i.e. monetary" is the word we should be looking for rather than "economical i.e. efficient".
Therefore that brings down the ans option to D & E.

Now between D & E, it is preferable that we be wary of "being" (Source - MGMAT SC) in a sentence unless the sentence with "being" is the only grammatically correct one.

Therefore the preference of E over D.

R J

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Kudos??? Kudos?? Kudos? Kudos!

Dinkar1910 · Answer

The supply of oil being finite has become an economical  and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

(A) The supply of oil being finite has become an  economical 
(B) The finite supply of oil has become an  economical 
(C) That the supply of oil is finite has become an  economical 
(D)  The supply of oil being finite has become an economic  -Awkward construction, the supply has not become a concern 
(E)  That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic - Clear and correct

Ss6479118 · Answer

D is wrong because ‘being; is the incorrect verb form. It is used for situations where the action or state of being is not permanent but that the supply of oil is finite is permanent. ‘economical’ is the wrong adjective. It does not mean ‘relating to the economy’ it means ‘affordable’. This means that A B and C are also out.
 
E is the right answer.

Aman1012 · Answer

Hi Daagh or gmatninja .
can any one help me with this one. According to me it should be D.
I rejected E because GMAT avoid the use of THAT THE as starting they always prefer that should be followed by some verb. So can any one help me on this why E is right

strepanier · Answer

@Aman1012-

In this sentence "that' is a demonstrative pronoun used as a specifier/modifier to supply- which supply? That supply. GMAT allows the use of demonstrative adjectives when they come right before the subject they modify- which in this case it does.

Hope that helps- let me know

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  lakshya14 . Although it can be tempting to force  economical  into a parallel construct with  political , and, furthermore, people sometimes use the terms  economic  and  economical  interchangeably, the extra letters on the end of the latter change the meaning of the word to something akin to  sparing  or  frugal . An economical decision, for instance, would be one in which only the essentials were emphasized; an economic decision, on the other hand, would be one that pertained to the economy, to material resources, to finance, or the like. You can read more about the split in  this article  from Dictionary.com.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, let me know.

- Andrew

VerbalBot · Answer

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The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political

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