In the film industry, the first two months of the year are

Question

In the film industry, the first two months of the year are usually a time of tight production budgets, because the advertising demands of the holiday season exact a large  toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains  corporate coffers.

A. toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains
B.toll, and their marketing push is equally extravagant leading up to the Oscars, straining
C.toll, with an even more extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars straining
D.toll, while the marketing push leading up to the Oscars is more extravagant to strain
E. toll, while their marketing push leading up to the Oscars is equally extravagant and strains

vwjetty · Answer

I got C. Kind of dumbfounded on this one. Care to explain? Didn't know what "coffers" were either maybe that made it a little difficult.

aiming4mba · Answer

I chose C too! stumped on this one

vwjetty · Answer

ain't that sumthing...well at least that makes the two of us :D

vwjetty · Answer

Ok kids here's my reasoning so I may be able to shed some light on this subject matter. Keep in mind I got a 430 a few months ago, so I'm still in the learning process so I am by far not a expert or anything related. But I sure am trying :-D

A. toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains B.toll, and their marketing push is equally extravagant leading up to the Oscars, straining C.toll, with an even more extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars straining D.toll, while the marketing push leading up to the Oscars is more extravagant to strain E. toll, while their marketing push leading up to the Oscars is equally extravagant and strains B & E uses "their" when the subject of the sentence is singular "the film industry" - so they're out. D is awkwardly worded. Not sure if it's passive tense or something but it's not right. So it's A and C. The only reason why I can see that it MIGHT be A is that the "and" is a proper conjunction between the two phrases and is better suited for it than "with" since they are two separate and independent clauses and have no relation between each other. But that's a real real REAL rough guess. And I have no idea about the differences between the "strains" and the "straining" part.

nusmavrik · Answer

All out. A and E left.

"because the advertising demands of the holiday season exact a large toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains corporate coffers."

You can cut the fluff and reduce it to ----->

because demands exact x and marketing push strains y ---> This concurs SV agreeement.

So why E is wrong? pronoun misuse is a evil. 
 For example - The dog that I am petting and walking it belongs to my brother. 
"it" is awkward. isn't it?
Pronoun reference needs to resolved. If a SC uses 3 "that", 2 "it", 2 "who" -- the possibility is it will be wrong. Plus it increases the complexity.

E. toll, while their marketing push leading up to the Oscars is equally extravagant and strains >>>> their can refer to "officers". It can change the meaning. It means that corporate officers were NOT strained by the marketing push BUT their  OWN   marketing push strained themselves.

Another SC which follows same pattern:
 A South American bird that forages for winged termites and other small insects while swinging upside down form the foliage of tall trees,  the graveteiro belongs to the ovenbird family, a group of New World tropical birds that includes more than 230 species and that are  represented in virtually every kind of habitat.

B. graveteiro belongs to the ovenbird family, a group of New World tropical birds that includes more than 230 species and is
E. graveteiro, which belongs to the ovenbird family, a group of New World tropical birds that includes more than 230 species and is

OA : B
E is wrong because of extra "which".

seekmba · Answer

advertising demands.....exact a large toll, and the marketing push....strains corporate officers --> parallel

Only A has that.

In the film industry, the first two months of the year are usually a time of tight production budgets, because the advertising demands of the holiday season exact a large  toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains  corporate coffers.

A. toll, and the equally extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars strains
B.toll, and their marketing push is equally extravagant leading up to the Oscars, straining
C.toll, with an even more extravagant marketing push leading up to the Oscars straining
D.toll, while the marketing push leading up to the Oscars is more extravagant to strain
E. toll, while their marketing push leading up to the Oscars is equally extravagant and strains

rohitgoel15 · Answer

B and E were out for me as their has no clear precedent
I fell for A as I was inclined that and is to be used here to join the clauses

dolan2015 · Answer

It is not C because C changes the scope by saying that the amount that the film industry spends is MORE extravagant, not extravagant at a equal level.

anshsaurabh447 · Answer

In the option C, 'straining' is not parallel with 'exact'. There is a parallelism issue in this option.

So, the correct option is A.

In the film industry, the first two months of the year are

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In the film industry, the first two months of the year are

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