One forecaster of the gemstone industry estimated that this

Question

One forecaster of the gemstone industry estimated that this year palladium has experienced  increasing sales of up to 10 percent but predicted that the industry as a whole will realize a volume of sales fairly close to last year.
 
(A) increasing sales of up to 10 percent but predicted that the industry as a whole will realize a volume of sales close to last year.
 (B) increases in sales of up to 10 percent but predicted that the industry as a whole would have realized a volume of sales fairly close to last year.
(C) up to 10 percent in increasing sales but predicted that the industry as a whole would realize a volume of sales fairly close to last year.
(D) sales increases of up to 10 percent but predicted that the industry as a whole would realize a volume of sales fairly close to last year's.
(E) increases up to 10 percent of sales but predicted that the industry as a whole will have realized its volume of sales fairly close to last year's.

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intcan · Answer

Between B and D, D is better because 'would have' does not make sense.

zuberahmed · Answer

(D)  sales increases  of up to 10 percent but predicted that the industry as a whole would realize a volume of sales fairly close to last year's.

This option cannot be right. 'Sales increases' makes no sense.

metallicafan · Answer

+1 D

is reliable the source?

In GMAT, usually "predict" is atttached to "will", not "would".

daagh · Answer

1. The issue here is comparison. The text is comparing the sales this year with the sales last year and not the year itself. Only D and E compare the sales with sales. So first kick out A, B, and C.

2.’Sales increases’ in D is a plural noun phrase, in fact, the object of the verb ‘has experienced’; though a bit backward, the expression is acceptable.

3. In addition the main clause is set in past tense  (estimated and predicted)  and hence we are bound to use ' would ' rather than ' will '. In E, use of future perfect tense  ‘will have reached ’ along with ‘ predicted ’ is faulty. Hence D.

naveenhv · Answer

+1 D. There is a comparison error. A,B and C compare the sales this year with last year, instead of last year's sales.

One forecaster of the gemstone industry estimated that this

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