Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school

Question

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing  more women in leadership position in politics and business.

(A) Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
(B) The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
(C) The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
(D) It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
(E) It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place

daagh · Accepted Answer

A nice practice question that puts you into quite a few splits to wade through. 
1. What should be the subject ? Women or ‘the majority” Considering that the modifier trend has to fall back on some evolving action, women are is too passive and hence is no equivalent to the more dynamic factor of something trending. So we will drop A. 
2. to choose between ‘a trend ‘ and ‘which’. 'This ‘is blatantly incorrect in modifying women and the fall, both inappropriate. Therefore, we will dump C and E.
3. To choose between ‘placing’ and ‘that will place’ obviously, since the effect of the trend is going to be in the future, that will place is more appropriate than the tenseless participle ‘placing’. Therefore, we will drop A, and D. 
Ultimately, what survives the drop list? Only B.

bibha · Answer

oopsss i got it. It can be plural :-)

According to manh SC guide, if one mean the many individual parts of the totality then use a plural verb....for example :" the majority of the students ARE..." If one means the totality itself then use singular verb . eg " the student majority IS....

funkyleaf · Answer

A. Women are expected to be the majority of  student  entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing - should be students, eliminate.

B. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place - Correct.

C. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women,  which  will ultimately place - the statement which is referring to the women not the effect of the situation, eliminate.

D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately  placing  - tenses are wrong placing refers to present tense but the rest of the sentence is referring to future tense of what will happen in the fall, eliminate.

E. It is expected for  the women  to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place - incorrect use of plural, eliminate.

If any of my ideas about why any of the answers are incorrect please share your thoughts.

King407 · Answer

A. Women are expected to be the majority of  student  entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing -- student is wrongly singular

B. The majority of  students  entering law school this fall are expected to be women,  a trend that will  ultimately place -- Correct

C. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women,  which  will ultimately place -- wrong use of which

D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately  placing  -- wordy, wrong use of cont. tense

E. It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall,  which  will ultimately place

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Check out Ron's explanation again. (https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t1862.html) He says that D suffers the same problem as A: by using "placing," it implies that this placement is already happening. This is inherent to the modifier, and doesn't require us to pick out any subtleties from the preceding clause. B fixes this by using the future tense: "will (ultimately) place."

thangvietname · Answer

"__ing" constructions adopt the same timeframe as the sentence to which they're attached. How do we find this timeframe. By seeing the main verb of the sentence or by seeing the time it is referring to.

Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing  more women in leadership position in politics and business.
A. Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
B. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
C. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
E. It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place

nothing wrong with D.
something wrong with B.
in B, "entering" take the time of "are" so, it is in present but "this fall" show future. this is not fit. no logic. wrong.
in D
"placing" take time of "will be" so, it is in future time . this is logic. no thing wrong.

mistake in official question?

sayantanc2k · Answer

The problem with D (use of the present participle "placing") has already been explained in the post above: women-are-expected-to-be-the-majority-of-students-entering-82261-40.html#p1769667 As for B, it is true that a present participle in general gets its tense from the main verb of the sentence. However this example shows that GMAT allows exception of this rule, and therefore we may conclude that this rule should not be used to eliminate a choice.

daagh · Answer

Is the majority of something singular or plural? Let's look at this official question from GMAT Prep

The majority of scientists believe that to reduce and stabilize atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, emissions must be cut at the source by fossil fuels that are burned more efficiently and, in some cases, by alternatives such as hydrogen fuel cells that can replace fossil fuels altogether.

The sentence starts with a non - underlined part -- The majority of scientists believe -- This is the correct version. This is the solid grammar point of GMAT.

"The majority of" is usually used to modify a following noun. The main verb of the sentence agrees with that noun. This means that the majority now takes the characteristics of the noun that follows, and if the following noun is singular then the verb is singular and if the noun is plural, then the verb is plural.

The following sentences articulate this point.

The majority of his income goes to pay his rent. (
The majority of the emigrants to the Middle East from India are from Kerala

Hope this helps.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing  more women in leadership position in politics and business.
A. Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing- incorrect, the participle 'placing' wrongly indicates that this trend is already placing more women in leadership positions.
B. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
C. The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place- incorrect usage of which; 'which' here refers to women; (a) 'which' can't refer to people, and (b) according to the sentence, women don't place themselves in leadership positions; the trend does.
D. It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing- same as A
E. It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place - incorrect usage of which

Answer B
I understand that "-ING modifiers don't have a tense. they automatically adopt the tense of the clause to which they're attached."

In option D, will the participle 'placing' take the tense of "It is expected" OR " the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women" ?

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyTargetTestPrep  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  VeritasKarishma  ,  generis  ,  EducationAisle  ,  VeritasPrepErika  ,
 GMATRockstar  , other experts - please enlighten

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice uses the "verb+ing" modifier, "placing" to refer to an event taking place in the future; as this type of modifier always denotes the present tense, this usage is inappropriate. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B:  This answer choice maintains proper idiom and tense use and conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice C:  This answer choice suffers from a modifier error; the pronoun "which" refers to "women" rather than the fact that "the majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D:  This answer choice repeats the error found in Option A. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice repeats the error found in Option C. This answer choice also utilizes the incorrect idiom "expected for the women" rather than the correct construction "expected that women"; "the women" is only used when referring to a specific group of women. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Use of Which, Who, Whose, Where on GMAT" you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0M_MYzDfMk

To understand the concept of "Which v/s That on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F61rK86ND44

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GMATNinja · Answer

I think your question kinda answers itself!

Is the trend placing more women in leadership roles right now? Or is that something that will happen in the future? The correct answer choice (B) avoids this confusion entirely and makes the meaning much clearer.

Remember, you don't have to look at choice (D) in a bubble and decide whether it is "wrong" or "right". You have to compare it to the other 4 choices and decide which is best. If we're comparing (B) and (D), (B) is the winner.

zidanmeng · Answer

Isn' t B a run-on sentence??? I' m so confused

GMATNinja · Answer

A run-on sentence involves two independent clauses with no conjunction or semicolon to connect them. (B) doesn't have two independent clauses. To see why, consider a similar example: "Tim likes to wash down his Pop Rocks with several cans of Coke and Red Bull, a habit that has sent him to the ER more times than he cares to admit." Notice that the portion after the comma (beginning with "a habit") can't stand on its own as a complete sentence. "A habit" modifies the action in the previous clause, and "that" describes the habit. Because we don't need a conjunction to connect a modifier to a clause, this is perfectly fine. (It's worth noting that relative pronouns, such as "that," "which," or "who," function as modifiers. For example, "Tim is a lunatic," is an independent clause, but "Tim, who is a lunatic," is not, since "who is a lunatic" merely describes Tim. Related: Tim is special.

) The same is true in (B). The portion of the sentence beginning with "a trend" can't stand on its own. Rather, "a trend," is describing the previous clause, and "that" is modifying the trend. Because we don't have two independent clauses, we don't have a run-on. I hope that helps!

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

B is correct ; however, I am not convinced.

A trend that ... that referes to trend.... Logically can a trend place women in X and Y ?

Please point my flaw in reasoning....

VeritasKarishma   daagh

KarishmaB · Answer

Yes, it just means the trend will lead to ...

Language has a lot of such constructs that we use on a daily basis e.g. the book says ...
One needn't take the literal meaning here.

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

Would it not be more clear , if used " a trend indicating " turning it into an absolute phrase ?

svasan05 · Answer

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing  more women in leadership position in politics and business.

(A) Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing  Since we are talking about something that will happen in the future, usage of present tense "placing" is incorrect. Eliminate.

(B) The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place  Correct answer. Tense error is rectified and no new errors are introduced.

(C) The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place  "which" refers to "women" - it is not the women themselves who will place more women in leadership positions but the fact that more women will enter law school ie; a trend. Eliminate.

(D) It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing  Same error as in (A). Eliminate.

(E) It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place  "which" refers to "fall" - it is not the fall that will place more women in leadership positions but the fact that more women will enter law school ie; a trend. Also, "it is expected  for " is idiomatically incorrect. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

Anshul1223333 · Answer

in choice b] how do we decide 'the majority' is plural. It does not even fall under SANAM rule that I look for word after preposition 'of'

Because I have a better option in D] which does not have this ambiguity. There is an ing verbal 'a trend placing' But ing verbal does not have a tense of its own and can very well function as absolute modifier in this.

please guide

RonTargetTestPrep · Answer

This is a common-sense decision. "The majority of students entering law school this fall" is clearly not just 1 student, so it's plural.

(More generally, percentages/fractions of a plural group of NOUNs—such as this one—are still going to be plural, and percentages/fractions of a singular NOUN—such as  one-third of a chocolate bar —will also be singular.
 PLEASE  don't just memorize these ideas, though! Make sure they 'click' with your common-sense real-world intuition.)

_ING modifiers adopt the timeframe of the clause they modify.

In choice D, "a trend ...  placing ..." modifies "the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women".
That doesn't work, because these two things are NOT simultaneous observations: The trend won't "ultimately place more women in leadership position in politics and business" until those women graduate from law school and work their way to the top of various political and business hierarchies.

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school

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Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school

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