Because of Elnath Industries posting a second consecutive

Question

Because of Elnath Industries posting a second consecutive quarter of losses, its stocks tumbled 20% in the last three days.

(A) Because of Elnath Industries posting
(B) Because of Elnath Industries having posted
(C) Because Elnath Industries posting
(D) Because Elnath Industries posted
(E) Because Elnath Industries had been posting

For a full discussion of "because" vs. "because of", as well as an analysis of this question, see this blog:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-idiom ... ecause-of/

Show Answer

Official Answer

D

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

That's 100% correct. Because of is a preposition, which means (1) is it followed by a noun (or by something taking the role of a noun --- e.g. a gerund) (2) outside of the prepositional phrase, the sentence needs a main clause --- a prepositional phrase can be no more than a modifier The preposition "because of" followed by an ordinary noun: He is upset because of the stock market . The preposition "because of" followed by a gerund phrase: He is upset because of losing the game . The preposition "because of" followed by a substantive clause: He is upset because of whatever she said on the phone . More on gerunds: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-phrases/ More on substantive clauses: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/substantiv ... -the-gmat/ Because is a subordinate conjunction, which means (1) it must be followed by a full clause with a bonafide + structure --- with "because", these form a subordinate clause (2) outside of the subordinate clause, you need an independent main clause for the sentence overall. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

rajathpanta · Answer

a happened because b happened is the right usage here.
because of usage is slightly different say, the match is cancelled because of rain. 
Because is a conjunction and connects two clauses.
Because of has a preposition 'of' which should be followed by a noun on a phrase.
Is this correct?

Narenn · Answer

Choice D is correct.

A)  Because of  should be followed by noun or noun phrase and not the clause as did in this case.

B) Changes the intended meaning and implies Stock tumbled because of  elnath industries  and not because  its losses.

C) Ungrammatical tense shift  because x doing y, z happened.

D) Correct and concise construction.  Because x did y, z happened.

E) Use of past perfect continuous  had been posting  in place of simple past  posted  creates concision issue. Because the sentence doesn't seem to emphasize the ongoing nature of action and it rather expresses the cause of a another past action, this can be done in simple past very well.

Dear Mike Sir,
please let me know if my analysis is wrong somewhere.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear NarentheIndian , I would just add ---- in both (B) & (C), in addition to the problems you cited, we have the construction: The GMAT does not like this construction. Essentially, we are trying to cram the complete action of a clause into the confines of a prepositional phrase. If you want to talk about a full action, use a subordinate conjunction (such as " because "), which can accommodate a full + clause. Does that make sense? Mike :-)

rohitgupta86 · Answer

Can we have a simpler approach to this?

I picked D, because it's the only option which completes the entire sentence in simple past tense...

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear rohitgupta86 , It sounds as if you have a good "ear" for grammar, and here, trusting your sense for verb tense is enough to get to the answer to this question. I would caution you, though, the issues at play in this question are important to understand, because there will be other SC questions in which you "ear" is not enough, and you will need to think through and analyze some of these other points. Yes, this question itself is a relatively simple question, but don't downplay what you could learn from it and how that might wind up helping you on a considerably more difficult SC question. Does that make sense? Mike :-)

alexeykaplin · Answer

Mike,

Hello, sir

Do I understand correctly that we can't pick A beacuse it is not clear whether "posting" is gerund or participle?

Anyways, thank you so much for your efforts. I learn a lot from your posts.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear alexeykaplin , I'm happy to respond. :-)

No, my friend, that's not it. Here's the prompt sentence: Because of Elnath Industries posting a second consecutive quarter of losses, its stocks tumbled 20% in the last three days. The word " posting " is a noun modifier modifying " Elnath Industries ." Participles can be noun or verb modifiers, but gerunds don't modify anything---gerunds take the role of a noun. The word " posting " absolutely could not be a gerund, so it has to be a participle. That's perfectly clear. The problem with (A) is a rhetorical problem, not a grammatical problem. Technically, (A) is grammatically correct, but it is embarrassingly wrong. You see, the structure + + is tricky. Sometimes it's perfectly fine, but other times, as here, it's irredeemably wrong. See this post: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2015/with-noun- ... orrection/ Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

alexeykaplin · Answer

Mike, yes it does, thanks a lot

One more thing. So, if it were Elnath Industries' (apostrophe) posting, would option A be correct?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear alexeykaplin , I'm happy to respond. :-)

Unfortunately, my friend, that would make it even worse. You see, if we change the " Elnath Industries " to the possessive, then we change " posting " from a participle to a gerund, and in this construction, the gerund would take the preposition "of." Because of Elnath Industries' posting of a second consecutive quarter of losses . . . Take this out back and shoot it! This is a horrible indirect awkward construction that still has the problem of trying to squeeze all the action of a full clause into a prepositional phrase. It doesn't solve the old problem, and it creates new ones! That's a lose-lose scenario! :-)

Does this make sense? Mike :-)

daagh · Answer

Gerunds

How do you make out a gerund from a present participle? Here are some tips that I give my students. May be it can help a few others too.

A Gerund is a verb taking the ‘ing’ form and, functioning essentially as a Noun. A gerund may be followed by more descriptive words such as adjectives, prepositions or objects of prepositions and in such they are called gerund phrases

Example

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." ---- An old saying 
Here the words feeling, expressing, wrapping and giving are examples of gerunds.

Gerunds and Present Participles

Present participles also take the ‘ing’ form. However a present participle functions as a non-finite form of a verb phrase, In contrast, gerunds behave like nouns.

How to differentiate a gerund from a present participle or progressive tense.

Let us take a simple verb sing; its ‘ing’ form is singing. It can be either a present participle or a gerund or can be part of a past or present progressive tense.

1. Progressive tense

When a verb+ing word is preceded by an auxiliary verb, then it becomes a verb, indicating the tense.

Am singing
Is singing 
Was singing
Were singing 
Have been singing
Has been singing
Had been singing 
Will be singing

2. Present participle

When the verb+ing form or its phrase acts an adjective, modifying a noun, then it is a present participle.

Singing a song, Tom walked along the river.
Shouting abuses, Dick tried to browbeat Harry
By sending a bouquet, the students expressed their love for their teacher.

Here, the ‘ing’ forms modify a noun that is placed next to the comma. These are all participles.

3. Gerund

On the contrary, when the ‘ing’ form is followed by a verb or verb phrase then it will be a gerund.

Going by his words will lead to wrong conclusions 
Shopping on week- ends is cumbersome because of heavy crowds.

4. A gerund is essentially a noun trying to do an action. We can apply some of the attributes of a noun and see whether the ing form fits within the parameters of the noun.

4A. The first such test is whether the ing form acts as a subject or object.

Singing is a pleasant entertainment

Here singing is the subject of a simple sentence; only a noun or a noun phrase can act as the subject of a clause. Hence in the given context, ‘singing’ is a gerund

4B. See whether the ing form is an object

Tom likes singing 
Singing is the object of the clause; it is a gerund 
4C. See whether it has any adjective preceding it, especially in the form of a possessive pronoun

Tom feels that his singing is better than many others’s

Here the verb+ing form singing is modified by the possessive pronoun ‘his’. Hence, singing is a gerund.

4D.Sometimes an article is a gerund - marker. See whether the ing verb is preceded by an article such as ‘the’ 
‘The shopping’ at the Spencer’s is a delight.

4E. See whether the ing word can be replaced by the word it and the sentence still completes the meaning. The pronoun ‘it’ can complete the meaning while a participle can not.

Singing is a good past time

Here we can replace singing with the pronoun it – It is a good past time.

4F... see whether the ing word or the entire ing phrase can be replaced by the word ‘something’

Singing along the river bank, Tom jogged for nearly four miles in one hour
(Singing) Something along the river bank, Tom jogged for nearly four miles in one hour

(Singing along the river bank) Something, Tom jogged for nearly four miles in one hour

When you replace the ‘ing’ word or phrase with something, nothing meaningful turns out. So the phrase starting with singing can not be a gerund.

Now try this.

Signing along the river bank is a refreshing pastime

After replacing the ‘ing’ word with something, the sentence reads as (Signing along the river bank) something is a refreshing pastime

Now you can see there is some meaning in the clause. So the ‘ing’ phrase is a gerund in the context.

Best wishes

alexeykaplin · Answer

Mike, thank you for respond.

Yes, recently learned from some of magoosh materials that we sholud avoid much action in prepositional phrases.

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Because of Elnath Industries posting a second consecutive

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Because of Elnath Industries posting a second consecutive

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