zz0vlb wrote:
Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.
A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed
kassim wrote:
Dear Mr. Mike,
Can you please help me understand the below question.
Thanks in Advance. Kassim
Dear Kassim,
I'm happy to respond.
Like many official questions, this is a very good question, very well-written.
Let's look at the answers one at a time.
A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedThe only answer beginning with "
that." Normally, in the formalism of the GMAT, "
that" is always used after cognitive verbs, but this is not a strict rule. The structure "
since sales ... are poor" sounds awkward. The "
they" is an ambiguous pronoun --- what is being closed? All the stores? Only a 1/4 of them? The pronoun is unclear. This answer cannot be correct.
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesThe "
is" violates sequence of tenses. See here:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/Also, the antecedent of "
which" is unclear --- again, all the stores? only 1/4 of the stores? This one cannot be correct.
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesClear, and no obvious errors. A promising candidate.
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesThe opening infinitive is unidiomatic: we announce
that P is Q; we don't announce
P to be Q. The phrase "
on account of poor sales" is needlessly wordy. This cannot be correct.
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closedThe gerund at the beginning is a complete disaster. The "
will be" also violates the sequence of tenses rule. This one cannot be correct.
The only possible answer is
(C).
Thank you for the wonderful explanation as always.
However i want to ask whether C distorts a meaning of the initial sentence even though subtly.
The initial sentence suggests that since sales of up to 1/4th of the stores are poor , those stores will be shut down.
This is what i thought when i was initially going through the answer choices.
Option C suggests that up to 1/4th of the stores are being closed because of poor sales but it is general about which stores are these.
Can you please suggest me if where i was incorrect in my analysis of the choices.
Looking forward to your reponce.