Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime

Question

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Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade,  its economy has in more recent years depended  on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries.
 
A) its economy has in more recent years depended

B) their economy has in more recent years depended

C) its economy had depended in more recent years

D) its economy having in more recent years depended

E) their economy has been dependent in more recent years

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION • Split #1: Pronoun Agreement Any city, including Bristol, is singular. (A city is a collective noun.) The possessive pronoun should be singular its economy, not plural their economy . Options B and E incorrectly use their ELIMINATE B AND E • Split #2: verb tense Option D does not contain a working verb (a verb that could be in a main sentence). → The verbal having creates a fragment. Wrong : He having a dog in his backyard. Correct : He has a dog in his backyard. The verb has can be very tricky for non-native speakers, though not in this question. Just remember that (1) HAS/HAVE can mean owns, possesses , or experiences , AND (2) HAS/HAVE can also be helping verbs. Option C incorrectly uses had depended → had depended is in past perfect tense, which should be used for the earlier of two prior events → but the verb in question is referring to an action that occurred second in time (economic dependence on technology came after dependence on maritime trade) Timeline: ... maritime trade grounds the economy → → → creative media and other technology grounds the economy → The words in more recent years signal that Bristol's economic dependence on media and technology is recent —not, as past perfect conveys, "the past of the past." ELIMINATE C AND D By process of elimination, the correct answer is A. → Correct pronoun: Bristol's economy = its economy → Correct verb: has depended correctly refers to a recent occurrence and uses present perfect , which describes something that began in the past and continues into the present or whose effects continue into the present -- present perfect is often described as a bridge that connects past and present present perfect is constructed this way: HAS/HAVE + past participle (verbED) -- an overview of the verb tense is here COMMENTS matired , MrSengupta , and varun325 , welcome to SC Butler.

I see other posters whom I have not seen for a while. I am glad to see you all. These answers range from good to excellent. Kudos to all.

matired · Answer

First split:

“Its” vs “their” economy

No need for plural (no reference). B and E out.

A) nice comparison and parallelism: “was once” with “has in more recent years depended”

C) had depended with recent years is wrong meaning (also no need for past perfect). So C out

D) no need for participle. The structure “Although X, Y” is not parallel . So D out

A is the correct answer.

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KumarSri · Answer

IMO A,

Split between A,C & D and B & E

Easily eliminate split B & E

A) its economy has in more recent years depended
 Correct answer

B) their economy has in more recent years depended
 their- SV agreement error. Hence eliminated

C) its economy had depended in more recent years
 had is incorrect, there is no sequence of events over here. Hence eliminated

D) its economy having in more recent years depended
 Having is incorrect as plural form is used. SV agreement error

E) their economy has been dependent in more recent years
 their- SV agreement error. Hence eliminated

Kinshook · Answer

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade,  its economy has in more recent years depended  on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries.
 
A) its economy has in more recent years depended
Correct
B)  their  economy has in more recent years depended
S-V error
C) its economy  had depended  in more recent years
Their is no sequence of events
D) its economy  having  in more recent years depended
having is incorrect
E)  their  economy has been dependent in more recent years
S-V error

IMO A

Abhishekrao12 · Answer

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade,  its economy has in more recent years depended  on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries.
 
A) its economy has in more recent years depended
its is a pronoun referring to the city. the present perfect tense of ' has ' is also acceptable as this happened in more recent years.We will keep this answer and look at the other options.

B) their economy has in more recent years depended
their must refer to the city but city is singular. So eliminate.

C) its economy had depended in more recent years
had depended indicates that the event occured even before the first event i.e the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade. 
In more recent years indicates that underlined part is the recent event. Because of this ambiguous nature of the answer , we can eliminate this option.

D) its economy having in more recent years depended
having depended is not a verb but is a participle This leaves the word ' its economy' without a verb. So we can eliminate this option.

E) their economy has been dependent in more recent years 
their must refer to the city but city is singular. So eliminate.

A is the correct answer

MrSengupta · Answer

The correct answer is  A  . This is the POE that I followed:

its/their : Here the pronoun should refer to "the port city" . Therefore its should be used .  (B) and (E) gets ticked off

had depended : Past Perfect is only used when we need to say something that happened in a certain timeframe in the past . But the meaning of the sentence with the phrase "more recent years" state that the effect is still continuing .  (C) gets ticked off

Having does not make sense in the sentence . Moreover "having" in GMAT is a strict no and those answers should be ticked off at first.

Therefore   A   is the correct answer.

warrior1991 · Answer

We are talking about the port city of Bristol which means one specific city. Therefore what comes after comma will be a singular pronoun.

Rejected on the basis of S-V agreement.

Had depended  says that this event happened prior which is really not the case.

Economy having in more recent years?? This is really not the meaning . Eliminate

We are talking about present day scenario. CORRECT

IMO A

ksht · Answer

Although  the port city  of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade, its economy has in more recent years depended on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries. -   the port city is singular and needs singular pronoun, so B and E are eliminated  
 A) its economy has in more recent years depended

B)  their  economy has in more recent years depended

C) its economy  had  depended  in more recent years - 'in more recent years' - time marker - doesn't go well with past perfect

D) its economy  having in more recent years  depended - 'having in more recent years' incorrectly modifying economy

E)  their  economy has been dependent in more recent years

monk123 · Answer

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade,  its economy has in more recent years depended  on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries.
 
POE:
2/3 SPLIT. its vs their. For referring to a place, we use 'its'.
Eliminate (B) &(E).
They are talking about 'in more recent years'. 'HAS' should be used.
Eliminate (C) & (D)
 
A) its economy has in more recent years depended -   CORRECT

B)  their  economy has in more recent years depended

C) its economy  had  depended in more recent years

D) its economy  having  in more recent years depended

E)  their  economy has been dependent in more recent years

varun325 · Answer

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime trade, its economy has in more recent years depended on the creative media, electronics, and aerospace industries.

A) its economy has in more recent years depended ( correct)
it correctly refer to city & has depended is correctly used here as the action is in recent.
Present perfect is used for action completed in recent past.

B) their economy has in more recent years depended
"their" is incorrect pronoun to refer to city

C) its economy had depended in more recent years
had is incorrect usage of tense as there no sequencing of events.

D) its economy having in more recent years depended
having is incorrectly used to modify economy , making the depended as the main verb
and moreover the action is in recent past so past tense is not required.

E) their economy has been dependent in more recent years
"their" is incorrect pronoun to refer to city

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here.

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the port city of Bristol was once home to a thriving maritime

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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