Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countri

Question

Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countries rose to $167 billion in 1992,  which is 14 percent more than the previous year  and largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan.

(A) which is 14 percent more than the previous year
(B) which is 14 percent higher than it was the previous year
(C) 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure
(D) an amount that is 14 percent more than the previous year was
(E) an amount that is 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure

Economist · Accepted Answer

E for me.

A,B out for misplaced 'which'.
For C, there is no clear subject of the verb 'offsets'.
In D, 'previous year was' is a bad comparison.

zuberahmed · Answer

613. Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countries rose to $167 billion in 1992, which is 14 percent more than the previous year and largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan.

(A) which is 14 percent more than the previous year
(B) which is 14 percent higher than it was the previous year
(C) 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure
(D) an amount that is 14 percent more than the previous year was
(E) an amount that is 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure

If C were right:

Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countries rose to $167 billion in 1992, 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure and largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan

then "14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure"(noun modifier) is incorrectly modifying 1992.

A noun modifier always modifies the preceeding NOUN.

garimavyas · Answer

fine E is right and whatever, but can someone explain what precisely is wrong with C ? if you are sure , give your precise reason for rejecting C.

Schawjibb · Answer

which is 14 percent more than the previous year   was the wrong part. Here which is just after the Year and a comma. So, as if, which is indicating the year. But this is wrong. There has to be something that indicates the amount. C is directly mentioning the percentage without linking it with the amount of money. That's the reason why E is correct. Because, it's rectified the wrong-part given in the question stem.
Thanks!

mbaiseasy · Answer

By touch rule, "which" touching 1992 incorrectly modifies the year. Hence, eliminate A, B and C.
"plugging in an amount" explicitly shows which is being modified.

(A) which is 14 percent more than the previous year
(B) which is 14 percent higher than it was the previous year
(C) 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure

"an amount  " clearly modifies the amount and compares amount in 1992 and of the previous year. In D, "was" is unnecessary and redundant... .

(D) an amount that is 14 percent more than the previous year was

Answer: E

(E) an amount that is 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure

aviejay · Answer

Hi  egmat  /  GMATNinja ,

Please explain how is E correct. Don't we need a "that" in front of "largely offsets..." in order to maintain parallelism ?

blayel · Answer

Sometimes choosing the right answer is not aiming for the absolutely correct answer but to eliminate the bad answers.

A and B should be eliminated outright because which modifies 1992 directly (and falsely). C is very obscure in meaning because a modifier is usually placed right next to the thing it modifies. This leaves D and E.

By meaning, D is blatantly wrong because it compares the amount with the previous year.

By meaning (and also after elimination), E is the best choice.

Previously, I also doubted the strict parallelism rule. Yet, I remember reading somewhere about the current type of parallelism in the sentence and it is accepted. I think it depends on how clear the comparison refers to. This may be hard for non-native English speakers because the native speakers may "play by ear" in these types of sentences.

aviejay · Answer

Hi Blayel,

I really appreciate your response, but I would like to disagree with your analysis. Here is my analysis:

A: Here, "which" does not modify 1992 but rather it correctly modifies "$167 billion". I understand that ", which" directly modifies the noun before the comma but there are exceptions. Here "in 1992" modifies "167 billion" and thus ",which" modifies "$167 billion". The reason this option should be eliminated is there is a comparison error. This option compares the increase to "previous year".

A similar example is " I killed a snake with scales, which was entering the garden". This is a correct sentence. Logic precedes grammar.

B: This option should be eliminated because the option uses "it" in the phrase "higher than it was the previous year". The other side of the comparison uses "sales" which is plural

C: Hold. "14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure" correctly modifies "$167 billion in 1992". However, I also understand that in this case "Sales of United States manufactured goods to non industrialized countries" becomes the source of the list and that "rose to $167 billion in 1992" and "largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan." are the elements in the list, which are not parallel on grounds of verb tense.

D: Same as B. Comparison error

E: Looks correct but then I noticed that "that" was missing before "largely offsets...". "That" is needed here to maintain parallelism. Hence eliminated.

egmat  /  GMATNinja ,

Kindly let me know if my analysis approach is correct though I marked C, which is wrong. Please let me know where am I going wrong. Especially, please explain how is E correct.

KarishmaB · Answer

It is not necessary to repeat "that". We can assume that it exists for both. "... that A and B" is fine. "... that A and that B" is fine too. "... that A, that B and C" is not correct. If you repeat it for one of the other elements, you must repeat for all. Else you repeat for none. Sometimes you might need to repeat some words to show which elements are parallel to which. Here is a post that explains this: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2018/0 ... lism-part/ (E) is correct.

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo E

A very good example of the absolute phrase .
In original sentence we have two absolute phrases connected by and .
A is out for using which incorrectly 
B Again same error as A 
C We have noun missing to have proper Noun + modifier phrase 
D Incorrect comparison and parallelism 
E correct

gmatway · Answer

Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countries rose to $167 billion in 1992,  which is 14 percent more than the previous year  and largely offsets weak demand from Europe and Japan.

NOTE = % IS ALWAYS HIGHER / GREATER 
there are high chances that part after comma is a noun+ noun modifier because 
HINT 1 = THE PART AFTER comma is not independent clause
HINT 2 = there is no proper connection between these two clauses 
HINT 3 = part after comma talks abt noun used in first clause . NOUN MODIFIER doesnt abide touch rule . So it can modify ANY NOUN in previous clause.

(A) which is 14 percent more than the previous year -- REJECT
(B) which is 14 percent higher than it was the previous year - REJECT
(C) 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure -REJECT NOT A NOUN MODIFIER 
(D) an amount that is 14 percent more than the previous year was - AN AMT has been compared with YEAR . we need year's amt /fig 
(E) an amount that is 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure- CORRECT

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Both  Options D and E  use the  absolute phrase  to describe the amount $167 billion, making it superior to the Options A, B, and C.

We can  eliminate A and D  for  comparison  errors as it takes  amount  and  previous year  into consideration.

Eliminate B  for the suspect  which  – ambiguity.

Eliminate Option C  for having no preceding  subject . This can escape us if we don’t substitute it back into the question and read what follows: 14 percent higher than the previous year’s figure and largely offsets weak demand from E and J.

E is the best option!

Hope this helps!

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

It is not necessary to repeat "that". We can assume that it exists for both. "... that A and B" is fine. "... that A and that B" is fine too. "... that A, that B and C" is not correct. If you repeat it for one of the other elements, you must repeat for all. Else you repeat for none. Sometimes you might need to repeat some words to show which elements are parallel to which. Here is a post that explains this: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2018/0 ... lism-part/ (E) is correct. when we have two that clauses , dont we use ---- That... A , and that.. B ... Similarly, which... A , and which... B . I have seen such usage on official question , could you please clarify ? Tagging experts VeritasKarishma GMATNinja IanStewart

SizzlingPoptart · Answer

Since "amount" in answer choice E refers to the $167 bn, shouldn't amount be replaced with "number" because 167 bn is clearly countable? I thought the answer had to be entirely correct.

pk6969 · Answer

Why cant which modify 167 billion as "in 1992" acts as a prepositional modifier? Many questions have previously seen this.

svasan05 · Answer

Hi

For which to act as a prepositional modifier modifying "167 billion", the verb following which should make it unambiguous that "which" acts in such a way. In this instance, both "sales...167 billion" and "1992" are singular, and the verb after "which" is also singular("is"). In such a case, we should consider "which" to modify the nearest noun/noun idea.

Hope this helps.

Hoozan · Answer

KarishmaB is "more than" correct in (D) Or do we need to use "higher than" in this sentence? Please could you help me understand when to use more/less than and when to use higher/lower than? I thought "less than, more than" are sed for uncountable nouns. And since "amount" is uncountable we need "less than" GMATNinja gave an example in this post https://gmatclub.com/forum/even-though- ... l#p2432151

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Hoozan ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, both "more than" and "higher than" can be used to refer to uncountable nouns, although both are not suitable for all such nouns.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

yannichc · Answer

since the , which rule isnt absolute would this option work:

which is 14 percent higher the previous years figure?

Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countri

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Sales of United States manufactured goods to nonindustrialized countri

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