Stocks and portfolio investment failures have caused many

Question

Stocks and portfolio investment failures  have caused many concerned investors to move major accounts, such as 401-K and other retirement accounts.
(A) Stocks and portfolio investment failures
(B) Failures of stocks investments and portfolio investments
(C) Failures in the investment of stocks and other portfolios
(D) Failures of stock and other portfolio investments
(E) Portfolio investment failures, including stocks

BKimball · Accepted Answer

dokiyoki,

Great question! You need the word "other" there because stocks are a type of portfolio investment. Think of the following example:

"Dogs and household animals require a lot of work." --> This implies that dogs are not household animals, so this would be incorrect.
"Dogs and cats require a lot of work." --> This is just fine, since dogs and cats are two unique things that both require a lot of work."
"Dogs and other household animals require a lot of work." --> This is fine also, since saying "other household animals" correctly implies that dogs are a type of household animal.

Or try this example:

"I like to drink Coke or soft drinks with dinner." --> Doesn't make sense, right?
"I like to drink Coke or other soft drinks with dinner." --> This does make sense. Coke is a type of soft drink, so you need that "other" there.

Make sense?

Brett

dokiyoki · Answer

Thanks alot Brett !!

Could you also please throw some light on why choice A is incorrect ? Also, for eliminating other AC's, is my reasoning correct ?

BKimball · Answer

dokiyoki,

Choice A says:

"Stocks and portfolio investment failures have caused many concerned investors to move major accounts, such as 401-K and other retirement accounts."

The implication here (think parallelism!) is that there are two things that caused concerned investors to move major accounts: stock, and portfolio investment failures. However, "stocks" by themselves did not cause the investors to move accounts; stock failures did. As such, the meaning of A is nonsensical.

B) is wrong because it says "stocks investments and other..." If there were three things in this list, you would need a comma between stocks and investments. But that still wouldn't make sense. When we take "stocks investments" as a subject, it doesn't make any sense. So there is no way to make the subject correct here.

Your reasoning for D) is fine.

In E) we have "Portfolio investment failures, including stocks have caused." If we're trying to make "including stocks" part of the investment failures, we would need a comma after "stocks." As it is, it doesn't make any sense.

Hope that helps!

Brett

dokiyoki · Answer

Thanks Alot Brett. That really helped

Warlock007 · Answer

Dear brett please help why D is incorrect also the explanation of dokiyoki for the same...........

jlgdr · Answer

You need the word "other" there because stocks are a type of portfolio investment. In A stocks is not a bad thing. In B portfolio investments aint a bad thing. In D what is failures of stock? This is unidiomatic. In E, again stocks aint a bad thing, we want to say that failures in the investment of stocks is what is causing concern. C is the only correct answer choice

Just my 2c

Cheers
J

gmatprav · Answer

Is C not changing the meaning of original sentence? Also What is "failures in investment of stock & other portfolios"?

D seems meaningful in the context of the complete sentence.

HarveyS · Answer

I am still not clear with the explanation... On exam day, I would go with D. In C, i read and understood like this- " that investors failed to invest in Stock and other portfolio that caused many ...... " - this changed the meaning of sentnce and that's why i reject D.

mejia401 · Answer

D doesn't make any sense. You would never say, "I'm a failure of Math." You'd only say, "I'm a failure  in  Math." Idiomatic.

gmatprav · Answer

Hi mejia thanks for the reply. I understand the grounds you gave to reject D. However, doesn't C change the intended meaning of the sentence?

What does "Failures in investment of stock & other portfolios" mean? it seems to say the (process of)investing of stocks itself has failed. or something similar, it does not seem to mean

Failures in stock and other portfolio investments have led to xyz...

C doesn't seem clean either.

prasi55 · Answer

Beware of using nouns such as "stocks" and "portfolio" as adjectives. Also note that "stock," when used as an adjective (in "stock investments" in D) actually means "typical."

gmatter0913 · Answer

I don't think the above can be the basis to eliminate option D . We also say 'The failure of the missile fuel tank caused great loss.'

RahulSingh13 · Answer

Thanks for your explanation. Although, I still have a lingering doubt regarding the intended meaning of the sentence here. Are we talking about the failure in the investment of stocks and other portfolios? Or are we talking about the failure of stocks and other portfolios that have already been invested in?

daagh · Answer

The verb 'have caused' amply indicates that this is about those specific instances of those investments already made and failed. This is not a generalization. If one wants to generalize, the verb has to be changed to simple present ' cause'

RahulSingh13 · Answer

In that case you don't agree with the OA? What's your pick?

daagh · Answer

What is the relevance of OA ‘C’ with the verb part? The verb ‘have caused’ is not underlined and therefore, is common for all the five choices. My pick is C. 
I specifically answered your query whether it refers to the investments in general or only to those that have been made and failed

RahulSingh13 · Answer

The wording of C i feel is such that gives the impression that the failures were in the process of investing which never led to the investment and this failure to invest has caused many concerned investors to move major accounts

Since you confirmed that the failure is not in the process of investing but the invested stocks and other portfolios themselves, that's what's confusing me. Would really appreciate if you could explain this.

Thanks

daagh · Answer

Not that way. If you mean that failures occurred in their attempt while doing investments, then the correct preposition would be failures 'during' investments. Secondly, logically, why would anyone fail while making the investment? It is only in hindsight much later one will know whether the investment is good or bad. I feel you have stretched it a little long.

RahulSingh13 · Answer

Ok cool. Maybe I'm over-analyzing. Thanks Daagh!

Stocks and portfolio investment failures have caused many

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